a compendium of facts about Ohio history
by Dan Chabek
Wayne and Wooster
Anthony Wayne, nicknamed "Mad Anthony" because of his reckless courage, was considered one of the best generals of the American Revolutionary War. He also fought the Indians in Ohio, defeating them at Fallen Timbers.
Ohio's Wayne County was named for the celebrated soldier, and Wooster, the county seat, took its name from General David Wooster, another Revolutionary War officer.
The town was laid out in the fall of 1808. In the following year, the county's first mill was built about a mile east of Wooster. A short time later a store was opened in a small building attached to the mill.
One morning the store was the scene of a violent explosion that occurred while the proprietor was weighing out some gun powder from an 18-pound keg. The cause: a spark from a pipe belonging to one of several Indians who were in the store quietly smoking their usual mixture of tobacco, sumach leaves and kinnickkinnick (yellow willow bark).
The store was blown to smithereens, the operator killed, a white customer badly injured and the Indians burned and bruised.
© 1997 Dan Chabek
"Mad Anthony" Wayne at Fallen Timbers By Richard Battin from The Early America Review
Wayne County History from Wayne County Convention and Visitors Bureau