Dan's Daughters: Lois

For fifteen years, Warrington was an only child, but she wanted a sister. Apparently not being able to have more children, her parents, Carrie and Dan Troutman finally went looking. They found eighteen-month-old Lois Marie Bethel in an orphanage somewhere in southwest Virginia, perhaps Dickenson County, her family’s last known residence.

Lois, on right, with her foster father, Dan Troutman, and foster sister, Warrington.

 Lois’ mother Elsie Anne Salyers Bethel had succumbed to tuberculosis on 7 July 1922.[1] She was 22 years of age. Six days earlier, Lois had turned one year old. Born December 1899, Elsie Anne was the third daughter of eight children born to John Salyer and Mary Holbrook, probably in Dickenson County, Virginia, where the family were living in 1900.[2] The Holbrook and Salyer families were long time residents of the area.

Lois’ father, Walter O. Bethel died of a stroke a few months after his wife, but his exact death date is unknown.[3] In fact, little is known about his early life, at this time, including the names of his parents. He was born 19 May 1885 in Tennessee.[4] He was first married 22 October 1904 in Jefferson County, Tennessee to a woman named Mattie Howard.[5] They had at least one child, a boy named Dewey.[6] In 1912-13, Walter and Mattie Bethel were living in Middlesboro, Kentucky, and Walter was a fireman at the Middlesboro Electric Company.[7] The marriage apparently dissolved not long after that, for when Walter registered for the draft in 1918, he was living in Helier, Pike County, Kentucky, his occupation was recorded as “Elect. Engineer” for “Mfgs. C&C Co,” and his wife’s name was Elsie.[8]

In 1920 Mattie and Dewey lived with her parents in Jefferson City, Tennessee,[9] and Walter and Elsie were lived in Ervinton, Dickenson County, Virginia near Elsie’s family. They had two children, Ruth and Herbert, ages two and eleven months, respectively, and Walter was working in the coal mining industry.[10] Walter seems to have been on the move frequently.

When the parents of the Bethel children died, Rutha, Herbert, and Lois were placed in an orphanage and eventually raised separately in foster homes. Lois’ life with Dan and Carrie Troutman was good. She felt loved and cherished.[11] And she loved Dan and Carrie in return.

As valedictorian of her high school class, Lois received a scholarship to Montreat College, North Carolina from the Presbyterian Church of which she was a member.[12] She graduated from Montreat with a liberal arts degree in 1941 and married Gale L. Faris a few months later on 27 September. After her marriage, Lois worked for a few months as a secretary to the purchasing agent at Matheson Chemical Company in Saltville. When she was expecting her first child, she quit. She and Gale had three sons.[13] In 1942, Lois reunited with Ruth and Herbert and her biological, maternal aunts and uncles.[14]

Lois’ experiences with her foster father Dan Troutman and his mental illness influenced her, in later years, to become a psychiatric social worker at the very hospital where Dan had been a patient.[15] A loyal and loving daughter, indeed.

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[1] Virginia, Death Records, 1912-2013, Elsie Bethel, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 October 2015).

[2] 1900 U. S. census, Ervinton, Dickinson County, Virginia, population schedule, p. 142 (stamped), enumeration district [ED] 15, sheet 5-B, dwelling 83, family 85, John Salyers family; digital image Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 October 2015); NARA microfilm publication T623, roll 1706.

[3] A search of Virginia death records, Tennessee death records, Find A Grave records and others, have turned up nothing, thus far, on Walter O. Bethel’s death. Cause of death and approximate time of death were supplied in a letter from Lois Faris to Zola Noble dated 3 August 2009. Also included in the letter was a statement that Lois had visited her parents’ graves in a “family cemetery” in Dickinson County, Virginia.

[4] “U. S. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918,” images Ancestry.com (http://www. Ancestry.com, accessed 23 October 2015), card for Walter Orphaus Bethel, serial number 3947, Local Draft Board, Pike County, Kentucky. For birth place, both the 1910 and 1920 censuses (footnotes 5 and 7), cited below, record Tennessee as his birth place. A search for Walter Bethel in the 1900 census, with possible parents, resulted in no one with that name born in Tennessee at or about 1885.

[5] Tennessee State Marriages, 1780-2002, database Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 October 2015), entry for Walter Bethel and Mattie Howard, 22 Oct. 1904.

[6] 1910 U. S. census, Knox County, Tennessee, population schedule, enumeration district [ED] 103, p. 3-B, dwelling 57, family 58, Walter Bethel family; digital image Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 October 2015); NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 1508.

[7] U. S. City Directories, 1882-1989, Middlesboro, Kentucky, 1912-13, digital image Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 November 2015), entry for Walter Bethel (Mattie).

[8] “U. S. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918,” card for Walter Orpheus Bethel, ser. Num. 3947, Loc. Dft. Bd., Pike Co., Ky.

[9] 1920 U. S. census, Jefferson City, Jefferson County, Tennessee, population schedule, enumeration district [ED] 71, p. 12-B, dwelling 249, family 266, William N. Howard family; digital image Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 October 2015); NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 1748.

[10] 1920 U. S. census, Ervinton, Dickenson County, Virginia, population schedule, enumeration district [ED] 23, p. 7-A, dwelling 105, family 107, Walter R. Bethel family; digital image Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 October 2015); NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 1887.

[11] Lois Faris, Glade Spring, Virginia, to Zola Noble, 15 August 2008, letter, information on life as a foster daughter in the Dan C. Troutman home; Lois Faris file, Troutman family; privately held, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE] Anderson, Indiana.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Lois Faris, Glade Spring, Virginia, to Zola Noble, 3 August 2009, letter, information on her birth family; Lois Faris file, Troutman family; privately held, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE] Anderson, Indiana.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Lois Faris, Glade Spring, Virginia, to Zola Noble, 15 August 2008, letter.

© 2015, Z. T. Noble