Augustow main county town, it lies at the Netta river, at 53*11` latitude, 40*38` longitude, on the highway from Warsaw to  Kowno, about  240 km from Warsaw, 28 km from Suwalki, 73 km from Grodno. It has county office, courthouse of 5th district belonging  into judge convention in Suwalki, Management under  the Augustow Canal, post office, international telegraph office. There are 4 churches: catholic, evangelic and two orthodox. Population in the town:  7846; 3939 men and 3907 women,  501 houses. Suburbs consists of:  Bialobrzegi, Biernatki, Klonowica, Turowka, Wojtowskie-uwoloki and Zarnowo - with population of  2105 inhabitants : 1086 men and 1019 women, with 327 houses. A. includes  446 wlokas of land with  139  of forest, 15 of lakes and 5 of waste land . Zarnowo, Biernatki, Turow were formerly  as a forest area, added to the town by  Zygmunt August in 1564. A. was established by Zygmunt August in 1561 on the royal ground, of Knyszyn estate and named  from the name of founder.  Main activities of inhabitants; fishery, brewing, liquor retailers  and trade. Augustow was built from wood and suffered  on many fires, but was rebuilding fast as it  had a lot of wood  in neighboring forests of Grodno economic district. In  1848  - the new brick parish church was built  on the place of former  wooden churches  by dint of common funds. There is a picture of Christ in a chaptel in suburb - which was  considered as  a miraculous one, and it was an object of religious pilgrimages  during church fairs. Augustow catholic parish belongs to Augustow deanery, there was also a deanery and parish of Greek-unite church. Catholic deanery, with diocese in Sejny  includes 12 parishes  within  Augustow county: Adamowicze, Augustow, Barglow, Hoza v. Sylwanowce, Jaminy, Janowka, Krasnybor, Raczki, Studzieniczna, Szczerba, Sztabin  and Teolin. Augustow deanery  of greek-unite church , former in Chelm diocese,  was divided in 1863 on  10 parishes:  Augustow, Balla Kosc., Hodyszow, Holynka, Lipsk, Lubno, Perstun, Rygalowka, Sopockinie, Wysokie-Mazowieckie. / by  "Augustow town"  by Jan Jarnutowski, Warsaw Library 1863 vol II - 149 p, and  also  Warsaw Libr. 1857, III-IV vol and 1858 II vol/.  

Augustow county, gubernya in Suwalki ,is bordered  on the north by  Suwalki and Sejny counties, on the west and the south by  Grodno gubernya, on the south -west  by Lomza county, and on the west  by Prussia.  Total land  measures 36,3 square miles.  It is flat area with smalll heights which  reach neighbouring counties  under the nameof Augustow Hills. Large amount of forest / ca 70 000 dziesiecin*/   supply water to the net of  rivers , lakes and  swamps. Main rivers are: the Niemen as  the  east border of county,  the Czarna Hancza River  on the north border with Sejny  county,  and the  Biebrza River on the south border. These arms within  a county area  are: Netta, Stawiska  and Jastrzebanka  and their numerous tributaries. Lakes are mostly assembled on the north -west side of the county ; the biggest are : Sajno, Necko, Biale, Nizsza Rospuda, Studzieniczne, Gorczyca, Orle, Paniewo, Krzywe, Mikoszewo as so on. Sandy area creates the second class of rye soil, one of the poorest in Kingdom, Augustow county has the  5th place of  a soil classification in   Suwalki gubernya. The  amount of  wheat sowing ( in years 1870-1872) was 1.300 czetwiertni**, of rye - 16 000 czetw, and the average amount was ;  8 300 of  wheat  and 67 000  of rye. The livestock is without any worth. There are horse stables in Swiack and Wasilewicze, properties of  the  Wolowicze counts. Factory industry  on  low level. Except alcohol distilleries and breweries – there is  the only one  foundry of  agriculture  equipment in Sztabin. Handicraft production is limited to local and the simplest needs. The main rustics` occupations are: weaving and wood-distillation, trade concentrates in Augustow town and has no good results.   Means of communication; first of all navigable rivers: the Niemen,  Biebrza  and the Augustow canal crossing the county on the length of 98 wiorst***, farther  it crosses counties: a road to Kowno  on the west side , and  a road to Krolewiec on  the east;  they are linked by mail-road running to Lipsk and to Sopockinie.. Total population : 65 690 (1781 people per one mile): 33 402 men and 32 253 women. Augustow province was established  after the  Congress Kingdom  in 1816,  and  remained till 1837, then  it was changed to gubernya. Augustow gubernya, one of the fifth of former Kingdom  territorial administration,  was created  from Augustow province in  1837, and was canceled by new territorial system  in  1866, and on  its place  two new gubernyias were established:  of Suwalki and Lomza.  Augustow forestry is divided on 3 ranges: Szczerba, Sajenki and Swiderek.


*, old  unit of measure - must check it in library
**. - old  unit of measure - must check it in library
*** - verst about 0.663 mile

Netta - village and  grange,  Augustow county, Kolnica commune, parish in Janowka,  distance to Augustow 10 wiorst*. It has  69 houses, 742 inhabitants. In 1827 - it was a goverment village , with parish in Barglow, it had 66 houses, 402 inhabitants. Probably there was a small branch church of Barglow parish in XVI c.  The grange a major property belonged to Czetyrkinow – a state councilor. *wiorst -  unit of length measurement.

Orzechowka, a village at a lake, in Pruska commune, parish in Barglow. 1827: it had 8 houses and 47 inhabitants.

Rajgrod, an urban settlement on Lake Rajgrodzkie, before 1867 it had miasteczko ["small town"] status; it is in Szczuczyn powiat, Przestrzele gmina, Rajgrod parish. It lies along the highway from Warsaw to Kowno [now Kaunas, Lithuania], between Grajewo and Augustow, 239 km. from Warsaw, 33 km. from Szczuczyn, 18.7 km. from Grajewo, 3.2 km. from the Prussian border. The settlement occupies a peninsula jutting into the lake, and on the edge of the peninsula an embankment rises (an ancient citadel ruin), called Gora zamkowa [Castle Hill], quadrangular at the top, measuring 390 paces in circumference. Rajgrod has a wooden parish church, a Reformed Protestant church, a synagogue, an elementary school, gmina office, post office, and drugstore; it has 217 houses, 3,916 inhabitants (1,932 men, 1,984 women). The settlement has 2,696 morgs of land. There are six fairs held here yearly. The populace, mainly Jewish, supports itself with retail trade, of which the main article is smoked fish (whitefish and eels).

Around 1280 Prince Narymunt of Lithuania invaded Podlasie and, having seized the entire region, gave it to his brother Trojden for his participation. He, in order to secure the borders from the Prussians and Mazurians, erected a fortified citadel on the lake. In a document dividing Podlasie (Wizna district and Goniadz district) with Lithuania in 1358 (Kodeks Maz., p. 73), it is mentioned as a border point, along with the river Netta. Whether castle Rongart, erected according to Wigand in 1360 by Kazimierz the Great and destroyed soon after by the Teutonic Knights, can be identified with Rajgrod is doubtful. It seems that Rajgrod belonged to Lithuania and was a property of the Duchy, later given to the princes Glinski. When prince Michal, renowned in history, was punished for treason by confiscation of his property, the Rajgrod estates were given by Zygmunt I, in 1509, to Mikolaj Radziwill, Wilno palatine. During the 16th century the Rajgrod starostostwo appears in the tax rolls, sometimes separately, sometimes as a tenuta ["tenure"] connected with the Augustow starostwo. In 1580 income from both was evaluated at 2,967 zlotys, 25 groszy, and the kwarta was designated as 593 florins, 17 gr. In 1593 the Rajgrod starostwo was designated as security for the oprawa of Anna, wife of Zygmunt III (see Podlasie, vol. VIII, p. 417). In 1616 the starostwo was held by Piotr Dulski, and in 1632 Krzysztof Dulski, starosta of Rajgrod and Augustow, voted in the election of King Wladyslaw IV (Volumina legum, III, pp. 145 and 365). The 1664 inspection tour of the estate mentions that the dowry of Queen Maria Ludwika [aka Ludwika Maria] was secured on the Rajgrod starostwo, which at that time included the town of Rajgrod, its manorial farmstead, and the villages of Drestwo, Krocowka, Indziki, Czarnylas, Kosowka, Miecze, Kosily, Cmiele, Barszcze, and two forests, called Rybczyna and Belz. In 1674 the Rajgrod starosta was Jan Kazimierz Tedwin, chamberlain of Dorpat in Livonia [now Tartu, Estonia] (Volumina legum, V, p. 131). In a charter dated 1679 King Jan III confirmed the granting of Magdeburg law granted by Anna nee Radziwill Kizczyna and various other freedoms granted that town. In 1771 Dominik Medeksza, Kowno chamberlain, owned it along with his wife, Anna nee Wilczewska, and on it they paid a kwarta of 1,298 z1p, 18 gr., and a hyberny [tax for the winter upkeep of the army] of 1,096 zlp., 29 gr. But by the Warsaw Sejm of 1775 the States of the Commonwealth bestowed this estate in emphyteutic ownership to Rydzewski, the Wizna Lord High Steward, along with the wojt's office (Volumina legum, VIII, p. 141).

On 22 May 1831 the Russian general Sacken, who regarded Rajgrod's position as the key to Augustow province and Lithuania, occupied the city with a corps of 7,000 soldiers, and fortified the castle heights' battery with 14 guns and a stockade. On the 18th Dembinski drew near in the vanguard of Gielgud's corps, and took the position after an intense struggle. Sacken retreated to Augustow (Puzyrewski, Wojna 1831 r., p. 264; Dembinski's Pam. [Memoirs], I, p. 270). As a border point Rajgrod was a trade market for Lithuania products, mainly furs, which were conveyed to Rajgrod and from there transported all over Mazovia.

The wooden Catholic church, under the patronage of the Birth of Our Lady, was supposedly established along with the parish in 1519 by Mikolaj Radziwill. The current church was built in 1764 by pastor Jan Olszewski, but was not consecrated until 1820 by August Marciejewski, the Augustow suffragan bishop. Rajgrod parish, of Szczuczyn (formerly Wasosz) deanery, has 6,073 souls (as of 1885).

A description and drawing of the Rajgrod citadel ruins was given by M. Osipowicz in Tygodnik Ilustrowany [The Illustrated Weekly] in 1867 (issue 384). As of 1859 the government-owned estates of Rajgrod covered a total area of 20,330 morgs. Of these in 1841 privy councilor Czetyrkin had been given in entail the estate of Netta, consisting of the manorial farmstead of Netta (1,083 morgs), Borsuki (223), Barglowka (830), and 1,426 morgs of forest; the pastorate of Netta (177 morgs); the settlements of Choszczowskie (39), Choszczowo trzciane (58), Stare Nowiny (35); and the villages of Netta (2,593), Borsuki (351), Czarnybrod (55), Naddawki (45), Borki (54), Sosnowo (42), Karpa (102), Lipowo (158), Pienki (124), Piekutowo (292), Stare Nowiny (150), Pruchnowo (117), Barglowka (648). In all 8,621 morgs were set apart as the entailed estate of Netta. In 1844 the entailed estates of Pruska and Tajno of Major General Zabolocki were supplemented with two lakes, Tajno (306 morgs), Drectwo [sic] (424), for a total of 730.

The rest of the estates covered 10,797 mrgs. It consisted of. the town of Augustow; the manorial farmsteads of Barglow (239 morgs) and Augustow (279); the settlements of Barglow Koscielny (275), Zalaskowy Kat (71), Kanala Sosnowo (8), the pastorate (105), and the leftover Karpa (741). The highway, river, and canal were 62 morgs. The villages were: Barglow Koscielny (1,179 morgs), Barglow Dworny (1,626), Brzozowka (1,421), Rudka Nowa (1,495), Rudka Stara (1,114), Jeziorki (1,652), Uscianki (461), Cerkasowizny (142), Chojnow (area not listed), and the area set aside for recruits, Rudka (108). The government-owned forest region of Rajgrod currently covers 27,214 morgs. M. R. Wit. [Michal Witanowski]

Source: Slownik Geograficzny Krolestwa Polskiego - Warsaw [1888, vol. 9, p. 495-496]

Translated by William F. Hoffman, PGSA Winter 1998 Bulletin.


Tajenko - village  and grange, it lies on  the west coast of  Tajno lake, Szczuczyn county, Pruska commune, parish in Barglow. In 1827 it had  30 houses, 179 inhabitants. In  1866 had grange. Tajenko had 1150 morgi: farmlands enclosure and no enclosure - 180, meadows- 150,  forest - 240, brushwood - 300, waste land - 280.

Tajno -  village, in  Szczuczyn county, Pruska commune, parish Barglow. It lies 2 miles on the east-south from Rajgrod, on the north  coast of a lake, in a woody and  swampy  surrounding, it has primary school,  communal office, 95 households,  948 inhabitants, 2293 morgi of land. In 1827 : 72 houses, 434 inhabitants.   The office of property in Tajno, province in Podlaskie, Bielsk district, by  "podskarbinskie"  registry  in 1771 belonged to Anna Rostkowska, who paid  "a fourth" taxes  2289 zloty 14 groszy each and "hyberny" taxes  per 611 zl  24 gr. By  the Seym of  1773-75  the States of Commonwealth  bestowed  this estate  ain emphyteutic* ownership  to Krzysztof Frankowski, a deputy of Zakroczym ground. Then, this property contained Tajno with villages: Barglowka, Lipowo, Nowiny, Wozna, Orzechowka, Polkowo, Piekuty  and Uscianka.
**emphyteutic -  referring to a long-term lease.

From the Slownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów slowianskich (Geographic Dictionary of the Former Kingdom of Poland and other Slavic Lands) published between 1880 and 1902. 

Translated by Iwona Dakiniewicz.

For more information on Slownik Geograficzny, go to : PGSA site or Polish Roots site.