"Our Heritage"
Mt. Olive Tribune
September 7, 1979
By Claude Hunter Moore

Wayne County will be observing and celebrating its two hundredth birthday in 1979. The county was established by an act of the Legislature in 1779, during the American Revolution, and was named for Major General Anthony Wayne (1745- 1796), of Chester, Pennsylvania, who had just won the Battle of Stoney Point, New York, in 1779.

Wayne was created out of Dobbs County (created in 1758), which had been carved out of Johnston County. Johnston County was originally a part of Craven County, which was organized in 1712, just two years after the Baron de Graffenreid had settled the town of New Bern. This region was largely occupied by the Tuscarora Indians before the coming of the Europeans. The Tuscaroras were subdued in the Tuscaroran Indian War, 1711-1714. The first settlers arrived in what is now Wayne County in the 1740s, and most of them came from Virginia, the Albemarle region, or from the New Bern area.

Book 24, page 290, of the North Carolina Colonial and State Records, shows that because of the increase in population and great distances to the courthouse, the Legislature passed an act providing for the division of Dobbs County, in halves, the western portion to be known as Wayne County, and the eastern portion to remain Dobbs County, with the latter courthouse to be built in Kinston. The following men were appointed as a Commission to lay off Wayne County: William Caswell, Charles Markland, William McKinne, Sr., Elthelrod Ruffin, and Benjamin Cobb. The first court was to be held at the home of Josiah Sasser. A commission was appointed to build a courthouse, a prison and stocks.

During the colonial period and on down to 1868, the counties were administered by a Court of Pleas and Quarterly Sessions, which was made up of the Justices of the Peace, and met four times a year. The Court tried cases, appointed most county officers, granted licenses of various kinds, appointed the road and river overseers, regulated taverns and inns, made out jury lists, probated wills and deeds, levied and collected taxes, appointed administrators of estates and guardians, had supervision over prisoners, and other duties. The minutes of this Court carry much valuable data pertaining to counties.

Book 24, page 875 (Colonial and State Records) shows that the Legislature passed an act in 1872 appointing a Commission to fix a place to build a courthouse, prison and stocks. The Commission purchased a lot from Dr. Andrew Bass, one of the pioneer settlers who had moved here from Craven County. The courthouse was located about one-fourth mile in the west of the bypass of highway 117 at Goldsboro, near where Little River flows into Neuse River. At this time, Wayne County had a population of approximately four thousand, about one fourth of whom were slaves.

On January 6, 1787, the Legislature passed an act for establishing a town on the lands of Dr. Andrew Bass "where courthouse and public buildings now stand," and the town was to be called Waynesborough, named after General Anthony Wayne's country estate in Pennsylvania. The town was to embrace seventy-five acres. The lots were to be one half acre each, and were to sell for three pounds, five shillings each.