Augusta      post office is observing a milestone

A Hancock County post office is observing a milestone.
   Augusta residents have enjoyed a place to pick up their mail for 190 years. The post office there was established on May 13, 1834.
   It was set up by businessman William Abernethy, who founded Augusta with his brother-in-law, Joel Catlin. Both of the Connecticut natives had worked in the South before coming to Illinois, and named Augusta after the Georgia city.
   The postmaster's job wasn't as difficult back then. A contracted carrier on horseback brought the mail to town only once a week. Later, trains and then trucks hauled letters and packages.
   Two years after the post office opened, Abernethy and Catlin were joined by Yale University graduate Dr. Samuel Mead in formally plotting the town.
   The current post office moved into what was known as the American Legion building in 1958 after spending years at a site that also had been used over the years as a barber shop, restaurant, shoe store and a funeral parlor.
   Abernethy died in 1856 at age 85 and is buried in Augusta Cemetery.