Leonard FOUTS

Abt 1775 - 1850  (~ 75 years)

• Name	Leonard FOUTS  [1]
  Born	Abt 1775	Swearing Creek Waters, Rowan County, North Carolina, USA   [1]
  Gender	Male
  Cause of Death	Consumption--see Mortality Schedule
  Died	Mar 1850	, Murray County, Georgia, USA
  	Source: Mortality Schedules, 1850-1885. Ancestry.com scan of original document.
  Notes	PFAUTZ-FOUTS-FOUTZ NEWSLETTERNo, 7 July, 1982 No, 7 Published by The Jacob Foutz Family Assn., Inc., 214 West Main St., Farmington, New Mexico 87401   ANOTHER FOUTS CONFUSION:  JOHN LEONARD PFOUTZ STARTED AS "LEONARD," ENDED AS "JOHN, JR,,"  WHILE JOHN LEONARD FOUTS STARTED AS "JOHN," ENDED AS "LEONARD, SR."  Kinfolk and Friends, we have another of those cases of mistaken PFAUTZ roots --- and this one may have some of our Southern cousins high and dry, particularly if they are descendants of Joseph Ray and Mary Fouts and have obtained membership in the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution based on the military service of Leonard Fouts of Pennsylvania. Naturally, we cannot have more confusion without Pfoutz Valley being involved. But let's layout the two men in question;   (1) JOHN LEONARD PFOUTZ, oldest son of "Baron" John Pfoutz and his first wife Anna Klein, born 1742 in Strasburg Twp., Lancaster Co., Pa.; moved in late 1760s with father to Pfoutz Valley in the forks of the Susquehanna and Juniata rivers; married 1773 Mary Ann Crane; died 1813 in Jersey Shores, Lycoming Co., Pa. His children, order uncertain, were Leonard, John T. , Jacob W., Benjamin, Elizabeth, Leah, Margaret, Sarah, and Rachel.   (2) JOHN LEONARD FOUTS, fifth son of David Fouts, Sr. (otherwise Theobald Pfautz, Sr. immigrant of 1738) and Catherine Spengel, born cl755 on Pipe Creek waters, Frederick (now Carroll) Co., Md.; moved with family to Main Fork of Uwharrie, Rowan (now Randolph) Co., N.C., in 1762-63; married cl777 Catherine Shearer; died c18O5 in either Ashe Co., N,C., or on Green River waters, Kentucky. His children, order approximate, were Leonard, Mary, Joseph, George, John Martin (or John and Martin) Jacob, and three additional daughters yet unidentified.   Relative to the Revolutionary War, PFOUTZ was an active patriot, was Captain of the Pfoutz Valley Militia Company and did active duty with the Continental Establishment. He is certified as Pvt. John (P)Foutz by the DAR. As to FOUTS, he was a pacifist, most likely of the Dunker persuasion; was listed in Randolph Co., N.C., in 1778 as a nonjuror (refused to take the oath of allegiance to the new State of North Carolina) and subject to four-fold taxation (refused to bear arms, refused to cooperate in levying taxes for the conduct of the War), FOUTS was among those who were deprived of all Civil Rights, 1778-1787, because of their sectarian pacifism. He is not a candidate for DAR certification.   Considering the differences and distances, how you may well ask did the two get confused? How did FOUTS descendants get themselves SAR memberships on PFOUTZ' service record? The answer is that they did not--- for there was a Leonard Fouts in the Pfoutz Valley Militia Company. The tax lists for Greenwood Twp., Cumberland Co., Pa., including Pfoutz Valley, included a Leonard Pfoutz as well as a John Pfoutz, Jr., 1778-1780. Captain John Pfoutz was John Pfoutz, Jr.   None of John Pfoutz, Sr.'s sons was old enough to have had a son of Militia age by 1778 --- and John, Sr.' sons have been repetitiously proven to have been John Leonard (John, Jr.), Michael, George, and David. Period. In this instance, John and Leonard were not two different sons.   The matter is further confused by the fact. that a Leonard Fouts was listed on the rolls of the 2nd Company, 7th Battalion, Cumberland Co., Pa., Militia in 1780 and served a tour of active duty --- which would qualify his descendants for membership in either the NSDAR or NSSAR. This Leonard was also a resident of Greenwood Twp. (Pfoutz Valley), Were the John Fouts, who served in the 2nd Company, 4th Battalion, in 1777 and the Leonard Fouts who served in 1780 one and the same person. Other evidence suggests that they were.   Deed evidence is clear that John Leonard Pfoutz used the name Leonard through 1771---and thereafter used the name "John, Jr.," except for the 1778-80 period when he either used both names, and was assessed and paid taxes under both, and answered the Militia draft under the name that did not have prior service, or there was a misidentified Leonard Foust or Fought in Pfoutz Valley. However, all attempts to make two Pfoutz out of the John and Leonard tax listings of 1778-80 and the two service certificates, 1777 and 1780, have resulted in failure. Only one PFOUTZ, John, Jr., who was John Leonard, emerges.   Those who recall the history of "Baron" John Pfoutz will remember that he engaged in a large number of land speculations prior to the Revolution and was involved in a large number of litigations relative to land titles, illegal and fraudulent land warrants, etc., after 1775 --- and lost all of his lands, before and after his death, to Sheriff 's Sales in execution of judgments taken or rendered against him. John, Jr., was closely associated with his father in these activities after 1771 and owned no land himself when he died in 1813. The use of the two names, 1778-1780, may have been a ploy to distract creditors---the "Baron" had used the trick before --- and the tax rolls of 1785 seemingly included the taxables that Leonard was charged with in 1780 as assessment to John, Jr., while John, Sr., was charged with what John, Jr., had listed five years earlier. There was some sort of hanky-panky going on --- which the Courts apparently saw through.   As to FOUTS, he was "John Fouts, son of David" in Randolph Co. , N.C. , records in 1778, and John Fouts in Rowan Co., N.C., records, 1782-85, and also John Fouts in the mountain fastnesses of Wilkes (now Ashe) Co., N.C., in the late 1780s. There, he and his brother Peter both used the name "John" at various times. (Their eldest brother, John Daniel Fouts, of Randolph Co., went by John, Sr., his entire life.)   In late 1793 or early 1794, FOUTS moved to Kentucky. On 24 Mar 1794 at Harrodsburg, Mercer Co., Ky., he gave his approval to the marriage of his 15-year-old daughter Mary to Joseph Ray. The witnesses were Jurdan Gibson and John Anderson. North Carolina connections are circumstantial but plentiful. The Fouts and Rays were closely associated on the Forks of New River in Wilkes (later Ashe) Co., N.C., for the next Fifty years. A Jurdan Gibson was enumerated in the same militia company with John Fouts in Wilkes Co., N,C. A John Anderson was married to a niece of Leonard's and owned land on the Forks of New River in Carolina. In 1821, John Martin Fouts and John Anderson, from Carolina, settled on the Upper Red River in Louisiana.   Leonard Fouts had a land warrant in Muhlenberg Co., Ky., which he deeded to his son-in-law Joseph Ray and returned to North Carolina. In 1799, he made several land entries in newly erected Ashe County, but completed none of the surveys. No evidence of his existence has been found after 12 Feb 1800 when he made Entry No. 17 in Ashe Co., N.C. In 1809, Leonard, Jr., came into the picture:   July 7, 1809 - Heirs of Peter Eller, Decd., to Leonard Fouts, all of Ashe Co., N.C., in fulfillment of covenant made, 77 acres, being part of a tract of 200 acres belonging to Peter Eller, Decd., and where Andrew Baker gave to John Fouts the tract where Luke White now lives ... /s/ Peter Eller, Jacob Eller, George Koons, William Pennington, Wit; Thomas Calloway. (Ashe Co., N.C., Deeds, B:255)   Leonard Fouts, Jr., was an illiterate and married Sarah Younce, daughter of John Younce. He died in Murray Co., Georgia, in 1850. His brother Joseph, in Ashe County records in 1805, witnessing a deed of John Younce's to Frederick Black (the Dunker minister) died in Ashe County in the late 1850s. Jacob Fouts, another brother, married Mary M. Baker, daughter of the Andrew Baker, a Baptist minister, who had given John Leonard Fouts the land in the late 1780s. [The Editor has a complete, tedious, highly documented proof that John Fouts and Leonard Fouts, Sr., were one and the same man available to those interested. It covers seven pages --- send 35 cents and a SASE with 37 cents, postage thereon please.]   The bottom line is that there is no evidence that Leonard Fouts of Pennsylvania ever existed; that John Pfoutz, Jr., christened John Leonard, ever had a daughter named Mary; that John, Jr., was ever in Kentucky. To the contrary, Leonard Fouts of North Carolina was a documentable reality, had a daughter named Mary (who left a record of her brother George---and a George Fouts is in the Wilkes-Ashe Cos., N.C., records), and was in Kentucky --- holding land in the same Dunker settlement with a number of other North Carolinians.   But FOUTS was a nonjuring pacifist during the American Revolution.
  Person ID	I7997	Ronald Allen Snowden Family Tree
  Last Modified	17 Aug 2010

  
  

  Father	John Leonard FOUTS,   b. Abt 1755, Pipe Creek Waters, Carrol County,Maryland, USA ,   d. Abt 1805, , Ashe County, North Carolina, USA  (Age ~ 50 years)
  Mother	Catherine SHEARER,   b. Abt 1750, , Guilord County, North Carolina, USA ,   d. 1834, , Macon County, North Carolina, USA  (Age ~ 84 years)
  Married	1776	, Guilord County, North Carolina, USA   [1, 2]
  	Source: Family Data Collection for john Leonard Fouts.
  _UID	F2C0B899C140416B90C42770FA8EA260257A
  Family ID	F3454	Group Sheet

  
  

  Family	Sarah YOUNCE,   b. 23 Jul 1783, , Ashe County, North Carolina, USA ,   d. 1814  (Age 30 years)
  Married	? Murray County, Georgia   [1]
  _UID	8B792F3977C94DA1969823B387CCB48B30BC
  Children	1. John Peter FOUTS,   b. 15 Aug 1808, , Ashe County, North Carolina, USA ,   d. 29 May 1878, Ellijay, Gilmer County, Georgia, USA  (Age 69 years)
  Family ID	F5609	Group Sheet

  
  

• Sources

  [S275] Merle C. Rummel--Brethren Church historian. [S649] Pfautz-Fouts-Foutz Newsletter No. 7,, the Jacob Foutz Family Association, 214 W. Main Street, Farmington, New Mexico, 87401.