Augusta

Augusta is on Farm Road 227 sixteen miles northeast of Crockett in northeastern Houston County. The town was reportedly named for Augusta Smith, daughter of a pioneer settler. Daniel McLean, a member of the Gutiérrez-Magee expedition, established what is thought to be the first home there in 1821. Other early settlers included the Kyle and Aldrich families, Col. W. W. Davis, and G. W. Wilson, on whose headright the townsite was located. Before the Civil War Augusta was a trading point for plantations in the area. W. M. Waddell taught at Augusta Male and Female Academy in 1860. An Augusta post office was established in 1882, and by 1885 the town had a Union church, a district school, steam cotton gins, grist and corn mills, three general stores, and a population of 200. The post office was later discontinued, but the community continued to prosper until the 1940s. As late as 1936 Augusta reported 250 residents and three businesses. In the 1940s, however, the population fell to 120, and by 1952 it had dwindled to twenty. It was still reported as twenty in 1990, when a community center and cemetery remained. The population remained at twenty in 2000.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.