Wayne County, Nebraska

Wayne County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Wayne
Year Organized: 1867
Square Miles: 444

Court House:

510 Pearl Street, P.O. Box 248
County Courthouse
Wayne, NE 68787-0248

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Namedafter Revolutionary War Gen. Anthony Wayne.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

An interesting part of Wayne County's history centers around the events which led up to the construction of its present courthouse, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Wayne County was organized by proclamation of Gov. David Butler in the fall of 1870, and named after Revolutionary War Gen. Anthony Wayne. At that time the settlement of LaPorte was selected as the county seat. LaPorte built a brick courthouse and anticipated it would become a prosperous settlement, especially since a railroad grade was laid between it and Emerson. But the railroad never materialized and neither did LaPorte.

In 1881 a movement was initiated to relocate the county seat to Wayne. One of the stipulations was that the Wayne Town Hall Association would be required to provide rent-free for five years a building that was suitable to house county offices, courts and records. The association readily obliged and constructed a $4,000 brick veneer building.

Then came "An Eventful Day," as the Logan Valley Herald referred to July 4, 1884. That was the day a large celebration was held to honor the veterans of the Civil War. Around midnight the celebration came to an abrupt end when a fire alarm brought celebrants to the building that served as the county's courthouse. Apparently two men who had over-indulged in the celebration had been taken to the jail earlier in the evening. It was believed that somehow the two started a fire which destroyed the county's offices and records. Honoring its original obligation, the Wayne Town Hall Association quickly replaced the destroyed building with a frame courthouse on the same site.

Two years before the fire, Wayne County had received a donation of land within the townsite of Wayne. The stipulation attached to this donation was that a courthouse must be built on the site and be used for at least 20 years. In 1899 a red brick Norman Chateau style building was completed at a cost of $32,000. Ninety-five years later the courthouse still serves as the home of Wayne County government.

Neighboring Counties:

Insert Counties Here

Cities and Towns:

- Carroll	village	Incorporated Area
- Hoskins	village	Incorporated Area
- Sholes	village	Incorporated Area
- Wayne (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Winside	village	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."