Wayne, NE

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Wayne is a city in Wayne County, Nebraska. Wayne was founded in 1881 when the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railroad was extended to that point.

It was named from Wayne County. Lured by a desire to acquire a tract of land upon which they could build homes of their own, the early settlers of northeast Nebraska crossed the wide Missouri and turned their prairie schooners toward the vast rolling hills of a new land. They continued westward undaunted by the extremes of summer heat or winter blizzards, the threat of unfriendly Indians, the lack of food and fuel, illness, and other perils.

The first settlers in the Wayne area arrived from Lee County, Illinois, in the spring of 1869 and were joined by a second group in 1870. The prairie village of Wayne saw its beginning in 1881 when the railroad extended a line through the county linking Norfolk, Nebraska, and Sioux City, Iowa. The attraction of the railroad induced many settlers to move to the new community.