A Wilson Family Tree

Notes for Elizabeth Faus


Last name of Faus is originally from Garry Heagy. Various sources spell the last name Faus, Fauss, and Fause. Death certificates for children John, Phoebe, Josiah, and Aaron list mother as Elizabeth Fauss. Oddly, the death certificate for daughter Lydia lists mother as Elizabeth Snyder.


Roy Oehler had the following entry on Ancestry World Tree:
Notes from: Geoff Trowbridge:
The History of Columbia and Montour Counties (Battle, 1887) states that Elizabeth married Abraham Kraus. This claim is repeated in the Faus Family Lineage of Sister Mary Euphrasia Faus. "Kraus" is almost certainly a mistranscription of "Knauss." After migrating to the midwest, the family adopted the spelling "Kanouse."


Her gravestone is shown on Find A Grave (listing for Elizabeth Kanouse). It is hard to read, but it looks like it says ELIZABETH, Wife of ABRAHAM KANOUSE, DIED Jan 7, 1871.


Birth date of 4 May 1808 is from "Church Record of Zion Reformed Church, Allentown, Lehigh County: Volume I, 1765-1820", copied by William J. Hinke (1938, p. 61; obtained from FamilySearch.org, microfilm 20345, image group 7596967, item 5). Listed as Elizabeth Faas, parents Henry and Elizabeth Faas. Baptism was on 22 May 1808. Birth date but not baptism date is also given in "Pennsylvania Genealogical Findings in the Allemangel Area of Berks and Lehigh (Northampton) Counties and Adjoining Areas: Transcript of Records of Zion Reformed Church, Allentown, Pa.", compiled by Warren J. Ziegler (1988, p. 7; obtained from FamilySearch.org, microfilm 1750734, image group 7540180, item 53); thanks to Marilyn Riehl for telling me about this. In this book she is listed as Elisabeth Faas, parents Henry and Elisabeth Faas. Many family trees give her birth date as 2 May 1808; I don’t know where that date comes from. Her death record (on Ancestry.com, “Michigan Death Records 1867-1950”) shows death on 7 Jan 1871 at age 62 y, 8 m, and born in PA. This would imply a birth date of 7 May 1808, but maybe someone just forgot to enter the number of days. Some family trees show her birthplace as Whitehall Township, like older brother Thomas, but the fact that Elizabeth’s birth and baptism are recorded at a different church than Thomas makes me think they might have moved, whether within Whitehall or to a different township I don’t know. Note that Zion Reformed Church is in Allentown, which is south of Whitehall Township. Lastly, some sources give Elizabeth's death as 7 Jan 1870, but "Michigan Death Records 1867-1950" says 1871. Her cause of death is listed as dropsy.


There is some interesting background on Zion Reformed Church. The Liberty Bell was hidden in that church during the Revolutionary War when the British took over Philadelphia. Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allentown,_Pennsylvania) says this:

Allentown holds historical significance as the location where the Liberty Bell, then known as the State House Bell, was successfully hidden by American patriots to avoid its capture by the British Army during the Revolutionary War. After Washington's defeat at the Battle of Brandywine in Chadds Ford Township, Pennsylvania on September 11, 1777, the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia was left defenseless and American patriots began preparing for what they saw as an imminent British attack on the city. Pennsylvania's Supreme Executive Council ordered that eleven bells, including the State House Bell and bells from Philadelphia's Christ Church and St. Peter's Church, be taken down and moved out of Philadelphia to protect them from the British, who would melt the bells down to cast into munitions. The bells were transported north to Northampton Towne (present day Allentown) by two farmers and wagon masters, John Snyder and Henry Bartholomew, and hidden under floorboards in the basement of Zion Reformed Church in what is now Center City Allentown, just prior to the September 1777 fall of Philadelphia's [sic] to the British.

Today, a shrine and museum in the church's basement at 622 West Hamilton Street in Allentown, known as the Liberty Bell Museum, marks and celebrates the precise Allentown location where the Liberty Bell was successfully hidden for nine months from September 1777 until its June 18, 1778, return to Philadelphia following the British departure from Philadelphia.

Note: Some of the information in these pages is uncertain. Please let me know of errors or omissions using the email link above.    ...Mike Wilson
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