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Lykens Valley Roots of Jared Bohn Faust, Monument Engraver
Posted By Norman Gasbarro on February 29, 2016
93rd Pennsylvania Infantry
151st Pennsylvania Infantry
The chief engraver of several battlefield monuments at Gettysburg was Jared Bohn Faust, who was born in Berks County, Pennsylvania, on 27 August 1846, the son of Reuben Eirich Faust (1818-1890), a carpenter, and Mary Ann [Bohn] Faust (1812-1874). Jared spent some of his early years in Lykens Township and Gratz Borough, of Dauphin County, and Valley View and Hubley Township of Schuylkill County.
The drawing of the monument for the 93rd Pennsylvania Infantry (shown above) was previously featured in a post here on 21 January 2015. This was one of the Gettysburg Battlefield monuments that were engraved by Jared Bohn Faust; another monument he engraved was the 151st Pennsylvania Infantry (shown above) from a post here on 24 April 2015. Assisting Jared in creating the monuments was his brother David Faust. These two monuments were contracted from the Penrose F. Eisenbrown Company of Reading and were completed in time for the 1888 dedication.
Two documents place the Faust family in Lykens Township in and around 1860.
(1) The Census of 1860 shows Reuben and Mary Ann, with four of their children: Amelia Faust, age 16; Charlotte Faust, age 14; David Faust, age 13; and Mary Faust, age 6.
(2) An application for membership in the Gratz I. O. O. F. was made by Reuben Faust on 21 July 1860, wherein he gave his residence as Lykens Township, his occupation as cabinet maker, and his age as 40 years. That application is shown below.
For the purpose of researching him for this blog post, Jared B. Faust has not yet been located in either the 1850 or 1860 Census, nor has the father Reuben been located in the 1850 Census. This could mean that the young Jared in 1860 was apprenticed somewhere learning a trade. However, a church record of communicants for Zion (Klinger’s) Lutheran Church, Erdman, Lykens Township, Dauphin County, notes that a Jared B. Faust received the sacrament there on 23 April 1865.
In the 1870 Census, for Hubley Township, Schuylkill County, Jared is living with his parents and working as a painter. His brother David Faust, age 21, and sister Mary Faust, age 16, are in the household and David is also working as a painter.
Sometime shortly after the 1870 Census, Jared met Hannah Schwalm of Hubley Township and their first child, Oscar Faust, was born in early 1871. The couple then appears in directories and census returns for Berks County.
Hannah [Schwalm] Faust (1846-1926)
No Civil War service has been located for Jared Bohn Faust and what he was doing during the Civil War is unknown at this time.
When Jared died, the Reading Eagle published his obituary on 20 November 1911:
Jared Bohn Faust
Jared Bohn Faust, superintendent of the lettering department of the Eagle Marble and Granite Works, died Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at his residence, 927 North Third Street [Reading], of heart failure, aged 65 years. Mr. Faust was ill only a day and his sudden death was a shock to his many friends.
He was born in this city on 22 August 1846 and lived here ever since. He was a well-known member of the First Reformed Church, and also Chandler Lodge, 227, F. and A. M.; Excelsior Chapter, No. 247, Royal Arch Masons; Reading Commandery, No. 42, Knights Templar; Rajah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S, and the Temple Flower Fund; Reading Castle, No. 49, Knights of the Golden Eagle; Mystic Star Commandery, No. 47, Knights of Malta, and the Knights of Friendship.
He is survived by his widow, Hannah (nee Schwalm), also a daughter, Anna F. Eisenbrown, wife of Wilson H. Eisenbrown; and a son William H. Faust; and a brother David Faust, of this city; and two sisters, Mrs. Amelia Wenrich, of Northumberland County, and Mrs. Mary Harner, of Schuylkill County; and five grandchildren.
In the Complete Hand-Book of the Monuments and Indications and Guide to the Positions on the Gettysburg Battlefield, by J. Howard Wert, published in 1886, the first monument to the 93rd Pennsylvania Infantry is described. This first monument is on the battlefield about 300 yards from the position of the second monument.
The drawing of the first monument, is shown above from the Wert book, and its description, on pages 74-75, is given below:
The monument is perched on a massive rock as its natural base, part of the inscription being chiseled on this base. The monument itself consists of a second base and a massive die with paneled sides, the faces sloping from either side above the panels so as to form in the top surface of the monument an enormous corps badge. It is of red stone, while the blue Roman cross of the noble Sixth stands out in relief from one of the faces. On another of the polished paneled sides is deeply carved the number “93.” From an inscription beneath the cross we learn that the monument was erected by surviving members of the regiment, 3 October 1884. It presents an imposing appearance at a distance; but the texture of the stone will bear no comparison, on a close inspection, with the Westerly, Concord, Chester, or Quincy granites, or with the granite of the battlefield. The execution of the monument however is perfect and the enormous corps badge formed on the top surface, one of the finest conceptions on the field.
Since the second monument to the 93rd Pennsylvania Infantry is now in a distinctly different location and is not credited to either of the Faust brothers, then a mystery surrounding the moving of the first monument may have nothing to do with the Faust role in the second, but it is worth noting here in the event that there is a connection.
In The Complete Gettysburg Guide, page 248, David Petruzzi notes the following:
The carved initials “L. H. M.” appear just below the date on the front of the boulder used as a base for the 93rd Pennsylvania Infantry monument…. Here you will also find discarded stone originally used as the base for an earlier version of the monument…. Research into the unit’s roster has not turned up a member with those initials…. If you look closely, you will see similar carvings, which were professionally done, in other broken rocks lying about. These designations initially appeared in this boulder when it was used as a base for the original smaller monument for the regiment that was placed here in 1884…. when the newer and larger present monument of the 93rd Pennsylvania Infantry was installed on this boulder in 1888, the top of it… had to be sheared off so the boulder would accept and support the new monument. Apparently, no effort was ever made to clean up the sheared pieces, and so they lie here now, scattered about on this hallowed ground for well over a century.
The above reference indicates that the second monument, which we know was carved by Jared B. Faust, was placed atop the stone on which the first monument rested – and that the first monument had to be professionally “sheared off” before being moved to a new location. The engraved initials “L. H. M.”, still a mystery today, could have been those of one of the workers of the Eisenbrown Company who would have had the proper carving tools at the site – or they could have been a secret message left by Jared or his brother David.
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