AUGUSTA Keating, L. Clark. Audubon: The Kentucky Years. Lexington: Univ. of Kentucky Press, 1976. Kleber, John E. ed. The Kentucky Encyclopedia. Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 1992.
Jack Wessling
AUGUSTA. Augusta, the former county seat of Bracken Co., is situated at the convergence of the Ohio River and Bracken Creek at the intersection of Ky. Rt. 8 (Mary Ingles Highway) and Ky. Rt. 19, about 42 miles east of Cincinnati. The Ohio River flows along the north city limit, with no bends for nine miles and without the obstruction of a floodwall, creating a truly outstanding view, one that has been used in several Hollywood movies. The name of the town may have originated with its founder, Capt. Philip Buckner, in honor of his former home, Augusta Co., Va. At Buckner’s behest, a meeting was held and town trustees were chosen, and then Buckner deeded over to them the 600 acres on which the city is located. Parts of this land were then parceled and sold as lots in 1795. Two years later, on October 2, 1797, the Kentucky legislature issued the town its charter. Augusta was the seat of government in Bracken Co.; a courthouse was constructed in 1803 on the public square at Third and Park Sts. This site served as the county’s seat until the late 1830s, when the county government was moved to Brooksville. Between 1840 and 1904, the county’s first courthouse served as the Augusta community hall, hosting many amateur plays and providing the town with a forum site for speeches delivered by several noted orators. The first school in Augusta was a private one begun in 1795 by Robert Schoolfield. It met in a two-story log cabin at 211 Riverside Dr. that remains in excellent condition. Later, private schools
The Beehive Tavern, W. Riverside Dr., Augusta.
were operated by a Professor Bricket, a Mr. Henderson, Richard Keene, Richard Mitchell, and Z. Harmon; Harmon advertised a school for ladies and gentlemen in Buckner’s home. The town’s leaders established Bracken Academy in 1798, and the state awarded it a charter and a grant of land in 1799. The academy built several buildings, including a classroom on the southeast corner of Third and Elizabeth Sts.; the brick dormitory remains standing today and is used as a private residence. The trustees of the academy were named Armstrong, Blanchard, Boude, Brooks, Buckner, Davis, Fee, Logan, Marshall, Patterson, Patti, and Wells. Bracken Academy merged in 1822 with Augusta College, which received its charter from the Kentucky legislature that year and was fully operational by 1825. The conferences of the Methodist Church of Ohio and of Kentucky sponsored Augusta College. Governed overall by America’s Methodist Episcopal Church, Augusta College was the first Methodist college in Kentucky and only the third in the United States. The original building was 80 by 40 feet, three stories high, and had 15 rooms, including a chapel, a lecture hall, and the library. The Presbyterian congregation in Augusta began in 1803. Arthur Thome built its first church building in 1815–1818 on land at E. Main at Third that he had donated. The current Augusta Presbyterian Church on Fourth St. was built in 1879. The second church in Augusta was the Methodist Episcopal Church, initially a log structure built by James Armstrong around 1817 at Riverside and Bracken Sts.; that building was replaced in the 1830s by the current stucco-covered structure at 222 Riverside. The Augusta Christian Church was organized on March 14, 1840, and its original brick meetinghouse was at 311 Bracken; in 1888 the current church on Fourth St. was erected. The old
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church building on the corner of southeast Third and Bracken Sts. was used for the first Baptist Church established in Augusta, which was pastored at its beginning by J. F. Felix. The present Baptist church building was erected on Fourth St. in 1893. Augusta’s St. Augustine Catholic Church was formed in 1859. The St. Paul Methodist Episcopal Church, formerly known as the Methodist Episcopal Church, was moved to its new location on Frankfort and Second Sts. on September 11, 1894. Its first pastor was Rev. McDade. The Nazarene Church began in 1924, with O. E. Shelton as its pastor. In June 1925 the Nazarene Church began holding ser vices in a new building on Park St.; the current site of this church is on W. Fourth St. The family archives of Stephen Collins Foster, who composed the song “My Old Kentucky Home” and many others, indicate that Foster visited Augusta and stayed with his uncles, Dr. John Tomlinson and Dr. Joseph S. Tomlinson, president of Augusta College. A historical highway marker located in the city notes the town’s influence upon Foster’s later compositions. In particular, the “old Negro church on the hill,” in Augusta’s west side, was said to have been where Foster heard the harmonious sounds that later inspired him to incorporate similar melody lines into his famous spirituals. The publishing of newspapers in Augusta was an excellent funding supplement to the academies, the churches, and even the college in Augusta. The earliest newspapers printed in Augusta were the Augusta Whig and the Colonizationist and Literary Journal, published by J. S. Power in 1818, and the Bracken Sentinel, printed in 1820, copies of which are contained in fi les at the Bracken Co. Historical Society. The next paper to serve Augusta was the Western Watchman, edited by H. H. Kavanaugh and published by James Armstrong in 1822. In 1825 the Augusta Chronicle appeared in print; the Augusta Herald was next, in 1827, printed by John Wood. Both of these papers were supported directly by Augusta College. Later, the Bracken Chronicle, the Augusta Independent, and the Augusta Times were printed and circulated in town. Ferries have provided ser vice from Augusta across the Ohio River continuously since April 2, 1798. The land used by the first ferry was initially owned by John Jenkins. On April 3, 1798, John Blanchard and John Boude paid 50 pounds for the right to have a ferry at Augusta, under John Boude’s management. At one time Augusta College operated this ferry ser vice and received a large portion of the revenues from it. Several different ferry services have been conducted over the years, and currently two ferry boats, the Ole Augusta and the Jenny Ann, remain in daily operation under the auspices of the Augusta Ferry Authority Inc. In former times there were palatial steamboats docking at Augusta with many hogsheads of New Orleans sugar cane, molasses, and sorghum in barrels to be purchased for resale by local merchants. In its early history, Augusta was a popular port where settlers brought products such as hemp, livestock, tobacco, and wine for shipment on the river. Between 1820 and 1850, settlers from the Rhineland