Nicholas was born May 7, 1748 at Zweibrücken, Germany, the eldest son of Theobald and Margaret Fauss. He had three brothers, Jacob, Valentine, and Theobald, and one sister, Margaret. After their parents died, Nicholas and his brother Theobald, left home and eventually landed at Baltimore in October, 1784, after being on the Atlantic ocean fully five months. Theobald decided to remain in Baltimore, and Nicholas went on to Sharpsburgh, Maryland where he became the village blacksmith.

At Sharpsburgh Nicholas met and married Margaret Brumbaugh, born May 5, 1766, daughter of Jacob Brumbaugh. Soon after their marriage in November, 1785, they began housekeeping at or near Funkstown, Washington County, Maryland. Two daughters, Margaret and Elizabeth, were born there; then in the spring of 1789 they traveled to a beautiful spot east of the Alleghenies, later called 'Morrison Cove', where Margaret's father, Jacob, had preempted a large track of land a year earlier. The 150 mile trip over very rough, ungraded roads was made with a yoke of oxen and a covered wagon. They entered to Cove at the south end, then proceeded north about 16 miles, a short distance from where Rebecca Furnace was later erected. There they settled on land preempted by Margaret's father, where they lived nearly four years (near present day Martinsburg, Blair County).

On January 3, 1793 they bought a tract of land, 135 acres, about five miles north, where Beavertown (on Clover Creek) was later located. They built a small log house of four rooms with a crude chimney in the center, with a fireplace on either side for cooking and to keep them warm. A blacksmith shop was erected and Nicholas (with the frequent help of his wife) engaged in manufacturing, sharpening and repairing tools needed by settlers to clear and cultivate the land.

Nicholas and Margaret had 10 children, all of whom are linked below. After an illness of almost a week, Nicholas died August 9, 1825, aged 77, and was buried in the Union Cemetery, now Lutheran, on the Clover Creek Road, four miles south of Williamsburg.

Based on pages 1-17 of "Genealogy of the Descendants of Theobald Fouse", by Gaius Marcus Brumbaugh and John Garner Fouse, 1914.