Wayne, WV

Wayne is the seat of Wayne County, West Virginia, set along Twelvepole Creek where state routes 37 and 152 meet. The town began around Abraham Trout’s mill at a waterfall on the creek in 1828. When the county formed in 1842, Trout’s land became the courthouse site, and the settlement was first called Trout’s Hill. It later used Fairview and Wayne Courthouse before the name Wayne became official in 1911, honoring General Anthony Wayne, the Revolutionary War commander who also gave the county its name.

Wayne remains a small county town in the Huntington-Ashland region, with the courthouse square, creek valley, schools, churches, local businesses, and Route 152 shaping its everyday map. Twelvepole Creek runs through the town and continues south and north through the county’s wooded hills and hollows. Huntington supplies larger regional services, while nearby communities along the creek share the same road network and mountain geography. Wayne’s story is easy to follow on foot and by car: mill, courthouse, creek, and county roads all converge in the town that grew from Trout’s farm.