Wayne Township, Wayne County

How Wayne Township, Wayne County began

Wayne Township is a full six-mile-square congressional township in the center of Wayne County, touching Wooster on its south. It was organized on October 12, 1816 and named for the county, which honors Gen. Anthony Wayne. Fred Garver built its first sawmill in 1814 and first gristmill in 1815 on Little Apple Creek; the Wasson, Ihrig and Armstrong families led its early life, and Jacob Ihrig went on to the Ohio legislature and senate. Madisonburg was its only town, and Mechanicsburg and Devil Town (once Tannersville) are crossroads today. The township had 1,714 people in 1870 and 4,005 in 2020.

Settled about 1814 (Fred Garver's sawmill); the first clearing is not certain, according to the 1910 county history, platted Madisonburg, listed in the county's village plats as 1873, incorporated October 12, 1816 (township organized), by James Glass, the Roses, the Feazles, Thomas Armstrong and Fred Garver were among the first band of pioneers.

Where the name comes from

Wayne Township, like the county, was named for Gen. Anthony Wayne, 'Mad Anthony,' according to both Douglass (1878) and Bowen (1910). It is one of about twenty Wayne Townships in Ohio.

Before the town

No Native village, mound or treaty event specific to Wayne Township is recorded in the sources checked. Bowen (1910) places Beaver Hat's winter wigwam and several fortified hilltops in the Wooster area just to the south. Across Wayne County, the wider record is of the Delaware (Lenape), Mohican and Mingo.

Timeline

1. 1814 — Fred Garver builds the first sawmill in the township.
2. 1815 — Garver builds the first gristmill, using the water of Little Apple Creek; Jacob Ihrig, a Washington County, Pennsylvania, native and army-supply contractor, emigrates to the township.
3. 1816 — On October 12 Wayne Township is organized; George Blair and Thomas Armstrong are the first justices of the peace, and Ihrig is elected captain of a militia company.
4. 1824 — Jacob Ihrig is elected major of the regiment and justice of the peace, serving as justice until 1851.
5. 1827 — In October Ihrig is elected a county commissioner; during his term the courthouse is destroyed and the second courthouse is built.
6. 1830 — Ihrig enters the Ohio legislature on December 6 (serving to 1837) and later the state senate, 1838 to 1840.
7. 1833 — On August 22 the Wayne Presbyterian Church is organized with thirteen members by Rev. William Cox.
8. 1851 — A post office named Madisonburgh opens in the township's center; it is spelled Madisonburg from 1893 and closes in 1902.
9. 1870 — The census counts 1,714 residents; a post office named Wayne is open from 1870 to 1893.
10. 1873 — Madisonburg, the only town ever to grow in the township, appears in the county's list of village plats.
11. 1877 — Jacob Ihrig dies; about one thousand people follow his remains to the cemetery near Madisonburg.
12. 1900 — The census counts 1,711 residents.
13. 2020 — Township population recorded at 4,005 across 28.0 square miles.

Stories

Jacob Ihrig: Wayne Township's statesman

Jacob Ihrig was born February 25, 1792, in Washington County, Pennsylvania, and claimed to remember the army sent out against the Whisky Insurrection. He was a contractor supplying provisions to the western army in the War of 1812, moved to Wayne County in 1815 and in 1816 helped organize the township. He was elected captain of a militia company that year, major of the regiment in 1824, and justice of the peace in the same year, a post he held until 1851. In October 1827 he became county commissioner; during his term the first courthouse was destroyed and the second was built. He sat in the Ohio legislature from December 1830 to December 1837 and in the state senate from 1838 to 1840, and was a founder of Salem's Lutheran congregation near Madisonburg. When he died in 1877 about a thousand people followed him to his grave.

Joseph Wasson, a Wayne Township farm boy at the Little Bighorn

Joseph Wasson was born June 30, 1839, two miles east of Congress village on the farm of his father John M. Wasson, and stayed there until eighteen. He spent much of his life on the Pacific coast, where he made a name as a writer and newspaper editor and proprietor. The county histories say he attended the Vienna Exposition as special correspondent for Forney's Press, wrote a series of brilliant letters signed 'Josef,' was sent to New Orleans by the Press and the New York Times, and was an early contributor to the Overland Monthly. In 1876 he was with the army within twelve miles of General Custer when Custer was destroyed by the Indians, reporting for eastern papers and the Associated Press. He then settled in San Francisco.

A crossroads once called Tannersville, now Devil Town

Among Wayne Township's few named places is a tiny crossroads at Mechanicsburg Road and Clear Creek Valley Road that is recorded today as Devil Town. Wikipedia's township article says only that it was previously known as Tannersville. Neither county history mentions it, and nothing found explains the tanning connection or how the name Devil Town came about. It stands beside Mechanicsburg, a second crossroads where Mechanicsburg Road meets Smithville Western Road; the 1910 history says the only town the township ever grew was Madisonburg, in its center.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · archive.org · archive.org · postalhistory.com

Mostly private wells The water here

• Wooster City91% of residentsKillbuck Creek Buried Valley Aquifer (own wells)
• Smithville Village6% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Spruce Tree Village MHP2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Green Meadows Estates1% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Creston Village0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Wooster Rolling Wheels Estates MHP0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Nursing homes (1)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Financial Audit, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-06-18

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