Among the first known settlers in the vicinity of this area was a Mr. Maulding and Mr. Mayherry who operated a grist mill and later a saw mill on the North edge of what is now Wayne City on the Skillet Fork river and the Middleton-Fairfield road about 1827.

In 1837 Maulding Mill post office was located there. A nearby cemetery has markers showing burial as early as 1855.

Just when this settlement drifted South to higher ground and adopted the name of Wayne City is unknown, but on June 19th, 1871 the first Wayne City post office was opened wIth Joseph B. Scudamore as post master and this office was in what is now the business district of Wayne City.

The Original and first Scudamore addition lo the village was surveyed and platted by James S. Hilliard, County Surveyor, in September 1881 and was incorporated early in 1882 with J. B. Scudamore as president of the village board and  Dr. B. E. Garrison as village clerk.

Dr. Garrison the first village clerk spent his life here caring for the sick and afflicted and always found time to be active in politics and other community affairs.

For years the village and surrounding community  relied on timber, red top seed, mules, and poultry as its chief income and at different times had severat saw mills, stave mills, hub factory, meat block factory, copper shop, broom factory, flour mill, and red top cleaning mill.

Now that the timber is about gone it isaprosperous farming community producing 100 bushels of corn per acre, soy beans, wheat, and livestock.

The thousands of acres of Soy Beans being produced together with the skilled operation of the
G. E. Kissner Elevator bringing them into the village for sale has resulted in such a large volume that WAYNE CITY CITIZENS HAVE DECLARED WAYNE CITY TI-fE BEAN CAPITOL OF LITTLE EGYPT.

About 1920 the citizens contributed $15,000.00 to the Sexton Mfg. Co. of Fairfield to erect a branch garment factory here and since that time it  has been in operation most of the time since erected by various companies and employs 50 to 100 women most of the time.

The Dewitt Lumber Company started business 1900 by Wm. Dewitt and Sons and was later purchased by the Southern Illinois Lumber Compnay, Inc., a chain of yards in southern Illinois.

The village has always kept up to date with its churches and schools and now has three modern churches (First Baptist, Methodist and Christian) each having educational quarters and modern living quarters for their ministers.  The grade school is a consolidated district with  eight teachers (Edwin Borah, Principal) and a new gymnasium is now  under construction to replare the old one that was destroyed by fire last January. The High School undei’ the supervision of J. Conrad Allen serves a large communily, employs sixteen teachers and requires four buses to transport the pupils.

One of the many others who should be mentioned is Ira Holman who has operated a jewelry and repair shop since 1909 and on August .5th celebrated his 84th birthday by spending the day as all others, at his work bench.