Author: Andrew Duppstadt, DNCR
This article is scheduled to appear in Recall, the magazine of the North Carolina Military Historical Society, and is published here with permission.
North Carolina formed Wayne County in 1779 from the former Dobbs County and named it in honor of Revolutionary War general “Mad Anthony” Wayne. Anthony Wayne was born in Pennsylvania on New Year’s Day in 1745. After attending the College of Philadelphia, he worked as a surveyor and a tanner, despite his father’s wishes that he become a farmer. He was elected to the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1774 and a year later raised a militia regiment for the state. In 1776, he was appointed colonel of the Fourth Pennsylvania Regiment of the Continental Line. Wayne fought in many of the Revolutionary War’s major campaigns and was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his action at the Battle of Stony Point in 1779. By 1783, he had risen to the rank of major general and briefly retired from military life.
Wayne then moved to Georgia, where he served a term in the US House of Representatives before being recalled to the army by George Washington to serve as senior officer in the US Army during the Northwest Indian War. He was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati in Georgia as well as the American Philosophical Society. Wayne died near Erie, PA in 1796. His legacy is complicated. While he is considered one of the best fighting generals of the time, he is also criticized for being a heavy drinker and womanizer, harsh treatment of American Indians, and enslavement of African Americans. However, he is still heavily memorialized around the country with a plethora of counties, towns, and pieces of infrastructure named in his honor.
Wayne County is located in the middle of eastern North Carolina, occupies almost 558 square miles, and has an estimated population of just over 120,000. The county seat is Goldsboro, and it is bordered by Wilson, Greene, Lenoir, Duplin, Sampson, and Johnston counties. Besides Goldsboro, other towns include Mount Olive, Pikeville, and Seven Springs. Several major highways traverse the county, including future Interstate 42, Interstate 795, and US 70. The Neuse and Northeast Cape Fear rivers flow through the county. Manufacturing and agriculture are the main economic drivers in the county, which is also home to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, home to the 4th Fighter Wing and the 916th Air Refueling Wing. Along with the Goldsborough Bridge Civil War battlefield, Wayne County is home to DNCR’s Charles B. Aycock Birthplace State Historic Site and Cliffs of the Neuse State Park. The county is also home to Wayne Community College and the University of Mount Olive.
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