He was the first master potter in the Moravian community in today's Old Salem, North Carolina.
He settled in Bethlehem, Province of Pennsylvania, working for master potter Michael Odenwald.
[2] He moved to Bethabara, Province of North Carolina, part of the Wachovia Tract, in October 1755, shortly after the Moravian Church expanded to the American South from Pennsylvania.
[2] Future Salem master mason Johann Gottlob Krause was orphaned by the age of two, and he was adopted Aust and Felicitas Grosch.
[4] Historians have described Aust as "grouchy, ill tempered, crusty, of a choleric nature, irascible, opinionated, and independent".