Wayne County /

Wayne County is a county located in the Ozark Foothills Region of Southeast Missouri in the United States. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the population was 13,259. A 2008 estimate, however, showed the population to be 12,652. The county seat is Greenville. The county was officially organized on December 11, 1818, and is named after General "Mad" Anthony Wayne who served in the American Revolutionary War. Wayne County was created in December 1818 by the last Missouri Territorial Legislature out of parts of Cape Girardeau and Lawrence counties and thus predates the state of Missouri being admitted to the Union. 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 Missouri State Constitution of 1820. The Osage Strip along the Kansas border was added in 1825. From 1825-1831, Wayne County was an enormous area larger than Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Delaware combined. All or part of 32 counties in Missouri were at one point part of Wayne County. When Wayne County