Introduction
After the settlement of Jamestown in 1609, Eastern Virginia settlers overcame hardships and prospered. Land became scarce and expensive. The colonies learned about land to the west from the Native Americans. Before the first quarter of the 18th century, Augusta County, Virginia was a part of a vast land inhabited by Native Americans who had frequented the region for more than 15,000 years. The discovery of Native American artifacts in Augusta County from the Paleo Period attested to the presence of Native Americans in present day Augusta County as early as the Ice Age. These artifacts provide the researcher with only a glimpse of what may have been happening in Augusta County before the arrival of the white man in the early 1700’s. As explorers, traders, frontiersmen and settlers crossed the mountains into western Virginia, there was contact with the Native Americans and so began the recording of historical events. Conflict between the Native Americans and the white man took place. Augusta County settlers had to also face the changing elements of nature. So why was this Virginia Frontier called Augusta?
In 1609, the London Company’s Virginia charter was adjusted to include land from ‘sea to sea’. Thus, the Virginia Colony extended to the coast of the Pacific Ocean. The English had no presence at all in most of this land. The colonists rarely ventured far inland to what was then known as “The Virginia Wilderness.” Augusta County (named for Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Princess of Wales) was founded in 1738 from Orange County, Virginia. By 1740 Augusta County was under a Virginia county charter. Because of the enormous size of Augusta County geographical labeling occurred, thus creating territories within Augusta County known as;
- Augusta County – Land from Orange County that was comprised of counties in Virginia today that is west of the Blue Ridge Mountains that became defined by land grants and surveys.
- West Augusta District of Augusta County – land that is today; West Virginia, part of Ohio and part of Pennsylvania and was often referred to as the Ohio Country of Augusta County, Virginia. This region reached west, to the “Great Ocean.”
- Wilderness District of Augusta County, Virginia – land southwest of the Ohio Country from Staunton through Kentucky and west to the “Great Ocean.”
- Northwest Territory of Augusta County, Virginia – Land around the Great Lakes region.
The size of Augusta County was so large that by 1864, Augusta County had provided land for the founding of more than 20 states.
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