In addition to operating his farm successfully. Mr. Wayne is conducting a livery and feed business in Morrow, where he is doing well. He handles eighteen head of stock and has rigs in plenty while his careful treatment of customers, always watching for their welfare, has given him a good trade. He is also feeding cattle and has nineteen head at present.
George W. Wayne was born in Audrain County, Missouri, on March 1, 1837, being the son of Temple and Elizabeth (Gregg) Wayne. The father was born in Virginia in 1796 and died in 1864. He was of Welsh and English extraction. Mad Anthony Wayne of Revolutionary fame, was a first cousin of Temple Wayne. Mr. Wayne settled in Audrain County in 1827. The mother of our subject was born in South Carolina in 1798 and died in 1865. Her mother, Jane, was born in Ireland.
Our subject was educated in his native place and worked on the farm with his father until he was twenty. Then he worked on adjacent farms and in 1855 the family went to Linn County, Kansas, and our subject was there during the John Brown raid. In 1857 he returned to Missouri and continued there until 1862, when he prepared an outfit and started across the plains. At Soda springs the Indians stole his stock and he was left with wife, one child, and only one horse. He hired cattle and came on west, but his wife died enroute.
Mr. Wayne bore up bravely under these terrible afflictions and came on to Auburn, Oregon. His daughter grew up and married Sam Patterson of this County. From Auburn, Mr. Wayne went to the Grande Ronde valley and packed for eight years. Thence he went to Marion’ County, Oregon, and farmed for eighteen years. In 1886 he ‘came to Latah County, settling near Genesee, where he farmed and raised stock for seven years, then teamed for three years and in 1896 came to the reservation country. He took his present farm and since then he farmed until recently he purchased the livery, coming to town to school the children.
Mr. Wayne was married first to Martha Threlkeld, who died in 1862, leaving one child. On June 4, 1876, in Oregon, Mr. Wayne married Miss Carrie S., daughter of James and Ann (Bowman) Miner, natives of Illinois. The mother is still living but the father is dead. Mrs. Wayne’s maternal grandmother is still living, aged eighty-one. Mrs. Wayne was born in 1860 and has two sisters and two half brothers. Mr. Wayne has brothers and sisters as follows, Alfred, Franklin, Elizabeth, and Martha. Seven children have been born to this couple, Cordelia Hegle, James T., William W., George G., Vance Hazel, Maggie, deceased, and Birdie O. Mr. Wayne is an active Democrat. His farm is well improved and he has prospered in his labors.
Back to: Nez Perce Biographies
Source: An Illustrated History of Northern Idaho, Embracing Nez Perce, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone Counties, Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903