Augusta, an incorporated city of Butler county, is located at the confluence of the Walnut and Whitewater rivers, 13 miles south of Eldorado, the county seat. The first attempt to establish a town here was in 1857, when a party of explorers from Lawrence laid out a town and named it Augusta. The following year a party from Topeka jumped the claim of the former founders and laid out the town of "Fontanella," and another account states that the town of "Orizonia" was also laid out at the junction of the rivers in 1858. The lands then belonged to the Indians, who raided the town and drove off the settlers in the spring of 1859. For several years the site then lay vacant, but near the close of the Civil war Hagan & Morrill opened a trading post there. After the treaty with the Osages in 1868 Shamleffer & James bought the old claim for $40 and established a trading house, and it is said that the town was named Augusta for Mrs. James. A school house was built in 1870 and the same year a postoffice was established with C. N. James as postmaster. In 1871 Augusta was incorporated as a town, with W. A. Shannon as chairman of the first board of trustees. On May 8, 1880, the first train on the St. Louis & San Francisco R. R. reached Augusta, and the next year the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe completed its line to the town, which from that time experienced a steady and substantial growth. The Missouri Pacific has since entered the city, so that the Augusta of the present day has railroad lines radiating in five different directions. This makes it an available shipping and distributing point, and being situated in a fine agricultural region, large quantities of grain, live stock, etc., are annually exported. Extensive stone quarries in the vicinity also furnish a great deal of material for shipment. The city has two banks, one daily and two weekly newspapers, some fine mercantile houses, a good public school system, telegraph, telephone and express facilities, an international money order postoffice with four rural free delivery routes emanating from it, and in 1910 had a population of 1,235.