Augustus Wattles was an abolitionist who came to Kansas Territory from Ohio in 1855. For a time, he helped George Washington Brown publish the "Herald of Freedom" in Lawrence, Kansas Territory. In 1857, he was one of the founders of Moneka in Linn County, Kansas Territory. He was a supporter of abolitionist John Brown, and Brown stayed at his home several times after the Marais des Cygnes massacre. Wattles served in the Kansas Territory legislature in 1855.