Augustus George Hazard (April 28, 1802-May 7, 1868), known as Colonel Augustus Hazard, was an American manufacturer of gunpowder and the namesake of Hazardville, Connecticut.
Hazard was born in Kingston, Rhode Island on April 28, 1802, a son of Thomas and Silence Knowles Hazard.[1] His family moved to Connecticut when he was a child. As a young man, he worked as a merchant in Savannah, Georgia. In 1827 he relocated to New York City, where he was a commission agent engaged in the sale of gunpowder and other products. In 1837 he bought into a gunpowder production company that had been established two years earlier on the Scantic River in the town of Enfield, Connecticut. He assumed sole ownership of the company in 1843. The business was known thereafter as the Hazard Powder Company and the village that supported it became known as Hazardville.[2][3]
Hazard lived on Enfield Street in Enfield, several miles from the powder mill, and ran the business until his death on May 7, 1868, at the Ascot House in New York City.[2]