H. D. Foust, of Foust & Jones, carriage manufacturers at Alexandria, was born in Wilson County in 1845, a son of William E. and Betsey (Luster) Foust. The father, born in Wilson County about 1818, was the son of William Foust, a native of Germany. William E. was married in 1844, and was all his life a blacksmith and carriage manufacturer in his native county. He was sheriff of the county four terms. The mother was born in the same county about 1829, and both were members of the Missionary Baptist Church.
Educated at Lebanon, our subject at fifteen entered Company A, in the Forty-fifth Tennessee Infantry, and operated in the extreme South for about eighteen months, when, under the conscription act, he was rejected on account of age. He then returned home, and soon after joined Gen Forrest’s command, and afterward Gen. Morgan’s on his Indiana and Ohio raid, but was captured on reaching the Ohio River. He was soon recaptured, and went home and south to join Gen. Wheeler at Dalton, Ga., with who he remained until his surrender at Raleigh, N. C., and then returned home. In December 1865, he married Catherine, daughter of W. A. Robinson of Lebanon, where she was born in 1844. Their six children are living: William E., Jr., Bettie, Henry D., Malinda, John L. and Etta. Mrs. Foust, died in 1880, and in 1881 he married Mary J. Lannon. They have one child, Lillian. Mr. Foust was a blacksmith and carriage-maker at Lebanon for several years, when after some time in Shop-Springs he removed to Alexandria and entered the present firm, which is the only large enterprise of the kind in the county. For seven years M. Foust was marshal of Lebanon.
He is a firm Democrat, first voting for Seymour. He and his wife are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. His first wife and two children were members of the Missionary Baptist Church.