Wayne County MOGENWEB
Wayne County Missouri
"The State of Wayne"
Wayne County was created in Dec 1818 by the last Missouri Territorial
Legislature out of parts of Cape Girardeau and Lawrence Counties and thus
predates the state of Missouri. In March 1819 Congress established the territory
of Arkansas and most of Lawrence County, Missouri Territory became Lawrence
County, Arkansas Territory. The small strip of "Old Lawrence County" that
had been orphaned in Missouri was added to Wayne County by the State Constitution
of 1820. The Osage Strip along the Kansas border was added in 1825. From
1825 to 1831 Wayne County was an enormous area larger than Massachusetts,
Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware combined. All or part of 32 Missouri
counties were at one time part of Wayne County.
When the county was formed, five commissioners were appointed to govern
the county. They chose a small settlement known locally as Cedar Cabin located
on the St Francis River to be the county seat and named it Greenville. In
1900 Greenville had a population of about 1,000. By 1940 the population
had declined to 572. The town was relocated by the the construction of Wappapello
Lake in 1941 and the new town only had a population of 270 in 1950. Today
around 500 people live in Greenville.
The Wayne County courthouse burned in 1854. The records in the new courthouse
were stolen in 1866 and in 1892 the courthouse burned again. As a result
few official county records prior to 1893 survive. In the Census of 1820,
the large area of Wayne County had a population of only 1,239 whites and 204
slaves, but unfortunately the list of Head of Households has been lost as
were early local census records.
Wayne County Missouri Links
Share your information
Civil War Sites
Web Sites with Wayne County Connections
To add your Web Site with Wayne County Connections send the URL to
Larry Taylor
Mailing List for Wayne County
To subscribe to to the Wayne Co. list, send the message: subscribe , with
signature files removed to:
[email protected] for the List mode or
[email protected] for the Digest mode.
To post to the list you must be a subscriber. Send your messages to: [email protected]
Wayne County Research Materials
Maps
Census and County
Maps
Census Records on Line:
Wayne Co
Census Records
From the Wayne County Historical Society:
Cemetery books: Volumes I and II: $50 plus $5 shipping Volume III: Covers
years 1989-1992 $12 plus $2 shipping
History of Wayne County by Rose Fulton Cramer. This is a spiral- bound
paperback reprint. $50 plus $5 shipping
Wayne County Marriages: 1892-1896 $12 plus $2 shipping
Wayne County Marriages: 1896-1900 $12 plus $2 shipping
Wayne County Taxpayers 1894: $12 plus $2 shipping
Order from:
Wayne County Historical Society
Mrs. Opal Lee Payton
Rt. #2, Box 2609
Piedmont, Mo. 63957
Some Wayne County records on microfilm are available from the
Missouri State Archives
:
Wayne County
records
Ordering information
Some Wayne County Cemetery and Marriage Records:
Wayne County Marriages by Sharon Hackworth
More Wayne County Marriages by Stacy Neese
Wayne County Cemeteries
Newspapers:
Did your ancestors purchase land from the Federal Government?
Check the BLM site
Links to Neighboring Counties
Bollinger County
Butler County
Carter County
Iron County
Madison County
Reynolds County
Stoddard County
The MOGenWeb/USGenWeb Project
In March and April, 1996, a group of genealogists organized the KentuckyGenWeb
project. This grew into the USGenWeb Project,and eventually the WorldGenWeb
project. At the same time, volunteers were found who were willing to coordinate
the collection of databases and generally oversee the contents of the web
page..
US & MOGenWeb Project Links
My name is Larry Taylor
and I am the person responsible for Wayne County. If you would like to
contribute your information to this page, please let me know. If you are interested
in adopting a county in Missouri visit the
MO Orphan County Page.
This site is generously
Hosted by RootsWeb
This page last updated Sat, 17 Sep 2005
Copyright 1997 - 2005 by Larry Taylor
