[3] In 2013, it was discovered that Samuel Bass, the Canadian abolitionist mentioned in Solomon Northup's 1853 memoir 12 Years a Slave, was from Augusta Township.

Much of the area is situated on top of large layers of limestone and grey sandstone, which formed between 500 and 75 million years ago during the Paleozoic era and the Ordovician period.

The bedrock and boulder clay in the eastern portion of the township are covered by beds of sand which are likely glacial-fluvial in origin; before the forest could take root many dunes were formed just north of the town of Prescott.

[12] The climate of Augusta Township is determined by its latitude, however it is influenced heavily by frontal systems which are the result of air masses coming out of the north and south.

[13] The township of Augusta was not fully settled until the late 1700s and into the early 1800s, when the Loyalists received their land grants throughout the area and began building homesteads.

[15] The Clovis arrowheads found near the township vary greatly in construction, reflecting centuries of progression and a rapidly changing environment.

It is presumed by archaeologists that the brutalized remains found alongside the ritualized burials are those of outside traders who may have threatened, attacked, or otherwise harmed the Laurentian Archaic people.

The township is conveniently situated along the St. Lawrence River, which was a common trade route at the time; in order to travel from present-day Montreal to Fort Frontenac (now Kingston) one would have to pass through present day Augusta.

The shipyard was located at what the French referred to as Pointe au Baril, which is present day Maitland, Ontario, and had a sheltered bay ideal for their purposes as well as a thick forest of oak and pine that could be harvested for ship building.

After this, Pointe au Baril was left abandoned for two decades; no attempt was made to colonize the area and the workmen who lived within the fort were weary of both the natives and the British.

[21] The long waiting period to be settled was due in part to the fact the government knew they would need to provide the Loyalists with some tools and supplies in order for them to sustain themselves.

[21] In June 1784, the Loyalists finally embarked from Quebec down the St. Lawrence River to their new settlements; Edward Jessup's Corps were to be the first settlers of the new Royal Township.

[23] Aside from the general apathy surrounding schools at the time, financial restrictions also hindered the establishment of a formal education system; even when a primitive schoolhouse managed to be built, there was little or no money for teachers' salaries or the appropriate texts and classroom instruments.

Located along Ontario Highway 2, the school was first known as St. Mary's Redemptorist College when it first opened in 1920;[31] the original structure took to years to build with construction beginning in 1918.

The Wrights were a wealthy loyalist family, who were prolific within the community; they ran an inn, and were noted to have paid the teachers in Augusta their salaries, as well as workers from the Algonquin cheese factory.

A grocery store, blacksmith, cooperage shop, butcher, wagon making business and a Methodist church are among those listed as being in operation at this time.

There is little information about what businesses may have existed in Bisselltown during the eighteenth and nineteenth century; due to its proximity to Algonquin it is possible residents simply travelled for services.

[55] On January 1, 1790, the townships of Augusta, Edwardsburgh, and Elizabethtown held a public meeting during which a decision was made to erect a church next to the burial ground at the proposed town of New Oswegatchie.

[65] By the mid-to-late 19th century, Domville's population was listed as 125 persons; according to census records and newspapers from the time, the hamlet boasted many businesses and successful farmers.

[67] In 1849, a French-Canadian man, Sorel Sophy (sometimes recorded as: Soffey), along with his wife and brother packed all their belongings into a canoe, and set out on the Rideau River from the Kemptville area.

At its height, the village contained a saw and grist mill, a cheese factory, a blacksmith, post office,[86] church, cemetery, general store, temperance hall, Orange Lodge, and school.

[91] The eastern part of the village, near the intersection of Merwin Lane and County Road 26 was formerly its own small community called Brundage's Corners.

Maynard boasted its own saw and grist mill, tannery, blacksmith shop, churches, cemetery, two schoolhouses, a few cheese factories, temperance hall, post office,[92] general store as well as an inn, located at Brundage's Corners.

[98] The community presently consists of a few farms and houses but at one point, was a thriving pioneer hamlet with a few businesses such as an ashery, temperance hall, schoolhouse, and church.

[109] The church was commonly referred to as Drummond's Union Sabbath School and remained open for nearly a century before closing due to financial troubles.

South Augusta was home to a schoolhouse, cheese factory, tannery, temperance hall, grocery store, post office, two churches, and a cemetery.

According to the Dominion of Canada Business directory, during this century Throoptown contained a feed mill, cheese factory, general store, post office,[124] and a shoemaker; the village also had a church, a cemetery, and two schools.

As a result of strict funding in regards to Cemetery Boards and care, most of the responsibility of preserving centuries-old burial grounds falls directly onto local volunteers.

This conclusion was made after archaeologists ruled at least 31 of the 34 skeletons recovered belonged to young men; in contrast to the former group of remains which contained a mixed demographic in regards to age and gender.

[133] The Mosher Burying Ground is a small family cemetery located north of the bottom section of Merwin Lane, where it splits of towards the west.