Founding year: the first Augusta post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Augusta’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Augusta is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns, #74 of 151 in Kansas. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Augusta’s overall grade.
Kansas towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Kansas town has 5.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Augusta’s 6.5 sits near the middle of its state (52% of Kansas towns have fewer) while its 6 historic buildings outnumber those of 72% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to B. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.5 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Augusta’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
The confluence of the Whitewater River and the Walnut River was originally inhabited by Osage people, who found the land ideal for hunting and fishing.
In 1868, C. N. James settled in the area and built a log cabin to serve also as a general store and trading post. Around that same time, a post office was established in the settlement, and as the first postmaster, C. N. James named the post office and the town in honor of his wife, Augusta James.
Passages that mention Augusta, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Butler County Kansas1916 · page 95Read the page →
Read the text
Daniel Stine, trustee; E. R. Powell, treasurer; H. M. Winger, clerk; William Treweeke and W. D. Mead, justices of the peace. At this election the county herd law was also voted upon. The present boundaries of Augusta township were established by the county commissioners April 4, 1870. The town of Augusta was incorporated February 8, 1871, upon the petition of C. N. James and eighty other taxpayers of the town.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
7'he Skaer family came to Butler county in 1877, and made their home in the town of Augusta about a year. The father bought a farm of 320 acres, four miles east of town, and later bought 640 acres, a mile east of Augusta. George Skaer, the father, was a pioneer in the truest sense of the word. In 1849 he joined the great host of fortune-seekers and went to California, making the trip across the plains and over the mountains. He walked the entire distance, and before reaching his destination his shoes became worn out, but he continued his journey
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Augusta, 1868 to 1970
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The Augusta post office opened in 1868, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Augusta rank for history?
Augusta is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns, #74 of 151 in Kansas. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Augusta?
5 listings: 5 buildings, among them the US Post Office-Augusta (listed 1989, the first). 6 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Augusta?
13% of Augusta’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.5 points), against a typical 10% for a Kansas town; the median home was built in 1977.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (1), the Library of Congress (2), Wikidata (3), the National Register of Historic Places (5), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1941
