The town of Augusta is located on the bluffs overlooking the Missouri River Valley on scenic highway 94. The community traces it roots back to Leonard Harold, one of the settlers that followed Daniel Boone to Missouri. Leonard purchased over 300 acres of government land in 1821 and grew tobacco and other crops on his farm. Realizing that there was good access to the Missouri River from his property he decided to he laid out the first streets and lots on a portion of his farm in 1836 and called the town Mount Pleasant.
The town grew largely from the immigration of German Liberals who had supported the revolutions of 1830 and 1848. At least two-thirds of the German immigrants into St. Charles County came from an area in northwest Germany and most tended to settle near other immigrants who had been their neighbors in Germany. Of the immigrants from Oldenburg most settled along the Missouri River between Augusta and Dutzow. When the town applied for a post office in 1842 the residents found that there was already a Mount Pleasant post office in Missouri and adopted the name of Augusta. Although local tradition claims the name honors Harold’s wife, records indicate that neither of his two wives was named Augusta.
By 1855, when Augusta incorporated, the town had become a prosperous agricultural community and river port. The town had also become a trading center and supported numerous craftsmen, merchants, hotels, and wineries. Augusta’s role as a river port ended in 1872 when a flood shifted the channel of the Missouri River. The arrival of the Missouri, Kansas & Eastern Railroad in the early 1890s helped replace the loss of river traffic.
The Germans in St. Charles County began making wine soon after their arrival and the vineyards in the Augusta area had achieved notoriety by the 1850s. By the 1880s about 400 acres in St. Charles County were dedicated to vineyards and were producing 100,000 gallons of wine annually. Over half of that acreage was in the Augusta area and Augusta had 20 wine cellars. The favored grapes for wine making were the Norton’s Virginia Seedling and the Concord.