Wayne County is a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

in the U.S. state of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 91,283. The

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US ...

Lyons Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

. The name honors General

Anthony Wayne Anthony Wayne (January 1, 1745 – December 15, 1796) was an American soldier, officer, statesman, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He adopted a military career at the outset of the American Revolutionary War, where his mil ...

, an

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

hero and American

statesman A statesman or stateswoman typically is a politician who has had a long and respected political career at the national or international level. Statesman or Statesmen may also refer to: Newspapers United States * ''The Statesman'' (Oregon), a ...

. Wayne County is less than 50 miles west of, and is in the same

Congressional District Congressional districts, also known as electoral districts and legislative districts, electorates, or wards in other nations, are divisions of a larger administrative region that represent the population of a region in the larger congressional bod ...

as,

Syracuse Syracuse may refer to: Places Italy * Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa'' * Province of Syracuse United States *Syracuse, New York **East Syracuse, New York ** North Syracuse, New York * Syracuse, Indiana *Syracuse, Kansas *Syracuse, M ...

. Wayne County has been considered to be part of the Rochester, NY

Metropolitan Statistical Area In the United States, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are neither legally incorporated as a city or tow ...

and lies on the south shore of

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border sp ...

, forming part of the northern border of the United States with Canada. Its location during the early

westward expansion The United States of America was created on July 4, 1776, with the U.S. Declaration of Independence of thirteen British colonies in North America. In the Lee Resolution two days prior, the colonies resolved that they were free and independent ...

of the United States, on an

international border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political border ...

and in a fertile farming region, has contributed to a rich cultural and economic history. Two world religions sprung from within its borders, and its inhabitants played important roles in

abolitionism Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The Britis ...

in the years leading up to the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

. Nineteenth century

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It be ...

skirmishes,

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

sailing ship A sailing ship is a sea-going vessel that uses sails mounted on masts to harness the power of wind and propel the vessel. There is a variety of sail plans that propel sailing ships, employing square-rigged or fore-and-aft sails. Some ships ...

commerce and

Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing ...

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels. ...

traffic have yielded to contemporary recognition as one of the world's most productive fruit growing regions. Wayne County ranks as New York's top apple producing county.

History

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the land Wayne County encompasses was originally part of the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian Peoples, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Indigenous confederations in North America, confederacy of First Nations in Canada, First Natio ...

Confederacy, which had existed from around August 31, 1142. When counties were established in New York State on November 1, 1683, it became part of Albany County. On April 11, 1823, Wayne County was formed by combining portions of Seneca and Ontario counties.

Westward expansion

The first settlers of European extraction came to the region located along the Ganargua River, just west of present-day

Palmyra Palmyra (; Palmyrene: () ''Tadmor''; ar, تَدْمُر ''Tadmur'') is an ancient city in present-day Homs Governorate, Syria. Archaeological finds date back to the Neolithic period, and documents first mention the city in the early secon ...

. In 1788 the area became part of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase, a tract of land sold to Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham by the

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. Sir William Pulteney, a British baronet and English land speculator, along with his partners in the Pulteney Association, purchased a of the former Phelps and Gorham Purchase in 1790. The first westward road was one coming from near Utica to

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situa ...

, and, with the building of the Cayuga Bridge in 1800, was the road chosen by nearly all of the westward travelers. This highway left the future Wayne County region somewhat isolated and settlers desiring to locate there came by way of streams and lakes lying to the north of the road. It was only a few years after that the "new road" came west, passing through the county, opening up the fertile Ganargua lands to easier settlement. The first permanent settlement was started by John Swift and Col. John Jenkins in March 1789, about two miles (3 km) from Palmyra. In May of that year a small colony made up of the Stansell and Featherly families located at the junction of Ganargwa and the Canandaigua Outlet, calling the place Lyons, from a "fancied likeness of that city's location on the Rhone". While Phelps and Gorham sold some land to settlers, they were unable to make payments on their land and much of the land in the Phelps Gorham purchase either reverted to Massachusetts and was resold or conveyed directly to Robert Morris, a major financier of the Revolutionary War and signer of the

US Declaration of Independence The United States Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen States of America, is the pronouncement and founding document adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at Pennsylvania State House ( ...

. In 1792, he in turn sold approximately to The Pulteney Association owned by Sir William Pulteney and two other minor partners. The Pulteney Purchase, or the Genesee Tract as it was also known, comprised all of the present-day counties of

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Steuben and

Yates Yates may refer to: Places United States * Fort Yates, North Dakota *Yates Spring, a spring in Georgia, United States *Yates City, Illinois * Yates Township, Illinois *Yates Center, Kansas * Yates, Michigan * Yates Township, Michigan *Yates, Misso ...

, as well as portions of Allegany,

Livingston Livingston may refer to: Businesses * Livingston Energy Flight, an Italian airline (2003–2010) * Livingston Compagnia Aerea, an Italian airline (2011–2014), also known as Livingston Airline * Livingston International, a North American customs ...

, Monroe, Schuyler and Wayne. After Pulteney's death in 1805 the land was known as the Pulteney Estate. Sir William Pulteney selected Charles Williamson as land agent to develop the purchased . In 1792, Williamson, a Scotsman, came to the unsettled wilderness in

upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York (state), New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York metropolitan area, New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upsta ...

to develop the land by building roads, selecting sites for towns, dividing land into lots, and building gristmills, taverns, stores and houses. Williamson selected Sodus Bay on

as the point for a future commercial center, with the idea that the lake and the

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...

would be the outlet for the products of the region. In 1794 he had roads built from Palmyra to Phelpstown (present-day Phelps). Sodus was surveyed by Joseph Colt in lots of a quarter acre (1,000 m²), a hotel was built, and $20,000 was expended in the first two years in improvements. Sodus quickly passed from having an uncertain future to the head of the towns of the region.

War of 1812

Two small skirmishes were fought in the county during the

: one in Sodus in June 1813, and the other in Williamson a year later. In May 1814, British troops under the command of Sir James Yeo landed in the Williamson hamlet of Pultneyville. Yeo's fleet had already successfully raided Oswego to the east and unsuccessfully attacked Rochester to the west before attempting to obtain stores from Pultneyville. An agreement with the hamlet's residents was made, permitting the invaders to seize supplies without resistance. A dispute broke out, however, and weapons fire began on both sides, including cannon bombardment from Lake Ontario. A few citizens were killed or wounded and two were taken prisoner as the British fled.

Great Lakes commerce

Until the opening of the

in 1823,

Pultneyville, New York Pultneyville is a hamlet (and census-designated place) located in the Town of Williamson, Wayne County, New York, United States. The population was 698 at the 2010 census. Pultneyville frames the mouth of Salmon Creek on the northern borde ...

, at the mouth of Salmon Creek, was Wayne County's only port. From about 1811 through the 1890s (when the customs office closed), shipping in this small hamlet extended to the Atlantic Ocean and the world via the

. During the early years of the 19th century, activity in Pultneyville focused on agricultural commerce from the surrounding region (as far south as Canandaigua) and the maritime trade on the

. In 1865, it was home to nearly 30 lake captains, and many sailors from both Pultneyville and Sodus Bay crewed on whalers around the world. In 1874 the first railroad appeared when the Lake Shore Railroad line opened and the center of trade moved three miles (5 km) south to Williamson and Pultneyville's significance as a commerce center sharply declined.

Religion: Wayne County and the Second Great Awakening

Wayne County played host to key events in the development of significant American religions during the country's

Second Great Awakening The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant religious revival during the early 19th century in the United States. The Second Great Awakening, which spread religion through revivals and emotional preaching, sparked a number of reform movements. R ...

period of the early 19th century. The Fox Sisters heard rappings from a dead

peddler A peddler, in British English pedlar, also known as a chapman, packman, cheapjack, hawker, higler, huckster, (coster)monger, colporteur or solicitor, is a door-to-door and/or travelling vendor of goods. In England, the term was mostly used f ...

in Hydesville and spawned a movement that eventually garnered a million followers at its peak.

became the birthplace of the

Latter Day Saint movement The Latter Day Saint movement (also called the LDS movement, LDS restorationist movement, or Smith–Rigdon movement) is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian Restorationist movement founded by Jo ...

in the 1820s.

Shakers in Wayne County

Sodus Bay also was the site of a community of

Shakers The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, more commonly known as the Shakers, are a millenarian restorationist Christian sect founded in England and then organized in the United States in the 1780s. They were initially ...

from 1826 to 1836. The site provided convenient access to travel by water on the Great Lakes Ontario and Erie, for visits to Shakers who lived in Ohio. This site might also have been useful for abolitionists moving former slaves to freedom in Canada via the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. ...

. The first Shaker leadership team, Elders Jeremiah Talcott and Eldress Polly Lawrence, along with their assistants John Lockwood and Lucy Brown, came to Sodus from the Shakers' parent community at

New Lebanon, New York New Lebanon is a town in Columbia County, New York, United States, southeast of Albany. In 1910, 1,378 people lived in New Lebanon. The population was 2,305 at the 2010 census. The town of New Lebanon is in the northeastern corner of Columbia ...

. With 72 converts during their first year, they soon had 200 acres under cultivation. By 1835, the community had grown to almost 150. However, they learned in 1835 that a canal had been proposed to be dug through their land, and by New York state law, the canal company had the right to seize the property it chose. The Shakers responded by selling their land and 23 buildings to the canal company and moving inland to the 1,700 acres they purchased at Groveland, in

Livingston County, New York Livingston County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 61,834. Its county seat is Geneseo. The county is named after Robert R. Livingston, who helped draft the Declaration of Independence and ...

. However, the canal was never built; two years later, the Shakers were asked to take their property back, but, having reestablished their village elsewhere, and knowing that the land could later be taken for the same purpose, they refused. Several diaries and journals describing the Shakers' early years at Sodus and Groveland can be found at the Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio. These manuscripts are available on microfilm at more than 20 locations throughout the U.S.

Mormonism

Wayne County is the birthplace of the

and

Mormonism Mormonism is the religious tradition and theology of the Latter Day Saint movement of Restorationist Christianity started by Joseph Smith in Western New York in the 1820s and 1830s. As a label, Mormonism has been applied to various aspects o ...

. Founder

Joseph Smith Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805June 27, 1844) was an American religious leader and founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. When he was 24, Smith published the Book of Mormon. By the time of his death, 14 years later, h ...

, whose family lived on a farm that straddled the line between

and

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

, claimed to have been visited by God the Father and Jesus Christ in 1820, an event known as the First Vision. In 1830 the

Book of Mormon The Book of Mormon is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, which, according to Latter Day Saint theology, contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from 600 BC to AD 421 and during an interlude ...

was first published in the village of Palmyra by E.B. Grandin, in the present Book of Mormon Historic Publication Site.

Spiritualism and the Fox sisters

Spiritualists often set March 31, 1848 as the beginning of their movement. On that date, Kate and Margaret Fox, of Hydesville, reported that they had made contact with the spirit of a murdered peddler. What made this an extraordinary event was that the spirit communicated through audible rapping noises, rather than simply appearing to a person in a trance. The evidence of the senses appealed to practical Americans, and the Fox sisters became a sensation. Demonstrations of

mediumship Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship or spir ...

( seances and

automatic writing Automatic writing, also called psychography, is a claimed psychic ability allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing. Practitioners engage in automatic writing by holding a writing instrument and allowing alleged spir ...

, for example) proved to be a profitable business, and soon became popular forms of entertainment and spiritual catharsis. The Foxes earned a living this way, as did many others.

Civil War and Underground Railroad

During the

Wayne County inhabitants were active in support of the

due to the area's proximity to slavery-free Canada. Wayne County also raised companies for multiple volunteer Union regiments, including the 33rd New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, the

98th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment The 98th New York Infantry Regiment was a unit of the Union Army during the American Civil War. History Regimental Organization Company A – recruited principally in Franklin County, New York, Franklin County Company B – recruited principally ...

, the 111th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and the

9th New York Heavy Artillery Regiment The 9th New York Heavy Artillery Regiment, U.S. Volunteers was a regiment in the American Civil War. It was one of the nine Heavy Artillery regiments to suffer over 200 killed. It is also mentioned as one of Fox's 300 Fighting Regiments. Histor ...

. During the Civil War, men from Wayne served in the 111th New York Infantry, under Colonel Clinton D. MacDougall. The 111th New York was present at, among others, the

Battle of Gettysburg The Battle of Gettysburg () was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. In the battle, Union Major General George Meade's Army of the ...

, the

Battle of the Wilderness The Battle of the Wilderness was fought on May 5–7, 1864, during the American Civil War. It was the first battle of Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Virginia Overland Campaign against General Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Ar ...

, the

Battle of Cold Harbor The Battle of Cold Harbor was fought during the American Civil War near Mechanicsville, Virginia, from May 31 to June 12, 1864, with the most significant fighting occurring on June 3. It was one of the final battles of Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses ...

and the Appomattox Campaign. During the Battle of Gettysburg, the 111th took the second highest casualties as a regiment of the entire battle. Throughout the war, the regiment took a total of 1803 casualties, of which 158 were Killed in action, 557 were

Wounded in action Wounded in Action (WIA) describes combatants who have been wounded while fighting in a combat zone during wartime, but have not been killed. Typically, it implies that they are temporarily or permanently incapable of bearing arms or continuing ...

(490 of whom recovered to some extent), and 1088

Missing in action Missing in action (MIA) is a casualty classification assigned to combatants, military chaplains, combat medics, and prisoners of war who are reported missing during wartime or ceasefire. They may have been killed, wounded, captured, ex ...

Erie Canal

The

transits the southern edge of the county. The villages of Clyde, Lyons, Newark, Palmyra and Macedon all became homes to canal locks when the Albany to Rochester section of the canal opened on September 10, 1823. On that day these communities became part of a direct water-link between the eastern seaboard metropolises of New York City and

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

and America's expanding western frontier.

Hoffman essays

Wayne County high school seniors are offered the opportunity to win a scholarship by The Augustus L. and Jennie D. Hoffman Foundation Scholarship Essay Program. Established in 1954 to encourage the study of local history, students research and write essays on some aspect of Wayne County history or civic affairs. Between its inception and 2007 over 600 essays have been submitted.

Nuclear power

On June 1, 1970, the Robert E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant started commercial operation on the shores of

, just over the

Monroe County Monroe County may refer to seventeen counties in the United States, all named for James Monroe: *Monroe County, Alabama * Monroe County, Arkansas * Monroe County, Florida *Monroe County, Georgia * Monroe County, Illinois * Monroe County, Indi ...

line in the Town of

. The Ginna plant was the site of a minor nuclear accident when, on January 25, 1982, a small amount of radioactive steam leaked into the air after a steam-generator tube ruptured. The leak which lasted 93 minutes led to the declaration of a site emergency. The rupture was caused by a small pie-pan-shaped object left in the steam generator during an outage. This was not the first time a tube rupture had occurred at an American reactor but following on so closely behind the

Three Mile Island accident The Three Mile Island accident was a partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island, Unit 2 (TMI-2) reactor in Pennsylvania, United States. It began at 4 a.m. on March 28, 1979. It is the most significant accident in U.S. commercial nuclea ...

caused considerable attention to be focused on the incident at the Ginna plant. In total, 485.3

curie In computing, a CURIE (or ''Compact URI'') defines a generic, abbreviated syntax for expressing Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs). It is an abbreviated URI expressed in a compact syntax, and may be found in both XML and non-XML grammars. A CURI ...

s of

noble gas The noble gases (historically also the inert gases; sometimes referred to as aerogens) make up a class of chemical elements with similar properties; under standard conditions, they are all odorless, colorless, monatomic gases with very low ch ...

and 1.15

millicurie The curie (symbol Ci) is a non- SI unit of radioactivity originally defined in 1910. According to a notice in ''Nature'' at the time, it was to be named in honour of Pierre Curie, but was considered at least by some to be in honour of Marie Cur ...

s of

iodine-131 Iodine-131 (131I, I-131) is an important radioisotope of iodine discovered by Glenn Seaborg and John Livingood in 1938 at the University of California, Berkeley. It has a radioactive decay half-life of about eight days. It is associated with n ...

were released to the environment.

Historical societies

In addition to the county

historical society A historical society (sometimes also preservation society) is an organization dedicated to preserving, collecting, researching, and interpreting historical information or items. Originally, these societies were created as a way to help future g ...

, there are a number of other historical preservation organizations. Most of these are town or village based. * Newark-Arcadia Historical Society * Butler Historical Preservation Society * Galen Historical Society * Historic Palmyra, Inc. * Lyons Heritage Society * Macedon Historical Society * Marion Historical Society * Ontario Historical & L.P. Society * Pultneyville Historical (please refer to Williamson-Pultneyville Historical Society) * Red Creek Historical Society * Rose Historical Society * Town of Sodus Historical Society * Sodus Bay Historical Society * Walworth Historical Society * Wayne County Historical Society * Williamson-Pultneyville Historical Society (www.w-phs.org) * Wolcott Historical Society

Law, government and politics

The county is governed by a

Board of Supervisors A board of supervisors is a governmental body that oversees the operation of county government in the U.S. states of Arizona, California, Iowa, Mississippi, Virginia, and Wisconsin, as well as 16 counties in New York. There are equivalent agen ...

, composed of the town supervisors from each of the county's fifteen towns. The board's chairman is selected from amongst the supervisors. The 2007 county budget was $154 million. The

is the town of

and bi-weekly board meetings are held in the Wayne County Court House in the hamlet. In August 2010, the board made history by convening outside of Lyons for the first time—at the Wayne County fairgrounds in Palmyra. The Wayne Supreme & County Court (7th Judicial District) sits in Lyons and hears felony cases as well as a few civil cases; the Wayne County Drug Treatment Court also provides an opportunity for recovering drug addicts to work with each other and improve their lifestyles. Vehicle and traffic matters, small claims, evictions, civil matters and criminal offenses in Wayne County are heard in locally-funded town and village courts (collectively known as the Justice Courts).

Politics

As of November 2013, Wayne County had a total of 56,589 voters registered (53,891 active, 2,698 inactive). Of those totals: 14,339 were registered as Democrats (13,574 active, 765 inactive); 23,144 as Republicans (22,338 active, 806 inactive); 3,035 as Independents (2,831 active, 204 inactive); 1,517 as

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

(1,454 active, 63 inactive); and the rest as Greens, Libertarians, and other minor parties. In the 2010 gubernatorial election, Wayne County cast 12,126 Democratic votes for

Andrew M. Cuomo Andrew Mark Cuomo ( ; ; born December 6, 1957) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 56th governor of New York from 2011 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected to the same position that his father, Mario Cuo ...

, 9,552 Republican votes for Carl Paladino, 1,153 Independent votes for Cuomo, 2,489 Conservative votes for Paladino, 490

Working Families Party The Working Families Party (WFP) is a minor political party in the United States, founded in New York in 1998. There are active chapters in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Ne ...

votes for Cuomo, and 401 Taxpayers Party votes for Paladino. Wayne County has only voted for the Democratic presidential candidate once in the past 132 years. In the 2014 gubernatorial election, Wayne County cast 5,874 Democratic votes for

, 12,460 Republican votes for Rob Astorino, 306 Independent votes for Cuomo, 2,709 Conservative votes for Astorino, 289

plus 141 Women's Equality Party votes for Cuomo, and 642 Stop Common Core Party votes for Astorino.

Geography

According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (56%) is water. Wayne County is in the western part of New York State, east of Rochester and northwest of

, on the south shore of

. Sodus Bay is located on the north shoreline of the county. Wayne is bounded by five other New York counties: the northern boundary is

with Canada on the opposite shore; the western boundary is

; and the eastern boundary is Cayuga County; the south boundary is shared with

and Seneca counties. The Clinton Formation, a band of red

hematite Hematite (), also spelled as haematite, is a common iron oxide compound with the formula, Fe2O3 and is widely found in rocks and soils. Hematite crystals belong to the rhombohedral lattice system which is designated the alpha polymorph of . ...

across the county, led to a thriving iron industry during the 19th century. Furnaces were located in the Towns of Ontario and Wolcott. Wayne County is included in the Eastern Great Lakes and Hudson Lowlands ecoregion, which extends along the south shores of

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also ha ...

and

and the St. Lawrence River to

Lake Champlain , native_name_lang = , image = Champlainmap.svg , caption = Lake Champlain-River Richelieu watershed , image_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = , location = New York/ Vermont in the United States; and Quebec in Canada , coords = , type ...

, and south down the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between Ne ...

. This region was glaciated during the last ice age, and contains prominent glacial features including

till image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...

and

drumlin A drumlin, from the Irish word ''droimnín'' ("littlest ridge"), first recorded in 1833, in the classical sense is an elongated hill in the shape of an inverted spoon or half-buried egg formed by glacial ice acting on underlying unconsolidated ...

s, as well as the valleys containing the Finger Lakes. Part of the area was covered by Glacial Lake Iroquois, while regions further to the east were flooded under the

Champlain Sea The Champlain Sea (french: Mer de Champlain) was a prehistoric inlet of the Atlantic Ocean into the North American continent, created by the retreating ice sheets during the closure of the last glacial period. The inlet once included lands in ...

. At one point during the melting of the glaciers, the Great Lakes drained down the Hudson River to the Atlantic Ocean.

Adjacent counties

* Cayuga County – east * Seneca County – southeast * Ontario County – south *

– west

Major highways

New York State Route 14 New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...

New York State Route 21 New York State Route 21 (NY 21) is a state highway extending for about through the western part of New York in the United States. The southern terminus of the route is at an intersection with NY 417 in the village of Andover, ...

New York State Route 31 New York State Route 31 (NY 31) is a state highway that extends for across western and central New York in the United States. The western terminus of the route is at an intersection with NY 104 in the city of Niagara Falls. Its e ...

New York State Route 31F New York State Route 31F (NY 31F) is an east–west state highway located in the vicinity of Rochester, New York, in the United States. The western terminus of the route is at an intersection with NY 96 north of the Monroe Co ...

New York State Route 88 New York State Route 88 (NY 88) is a north–south state highway in the Finger Lakes region of New York in the United States. It extends for from an intersection with NY 96 in the Ontario County village of Phelps to a junction w ...

* New York State Route 89 *

New York State Route 104 New York State Route 104 (NY 104) is a east–west state highway in Upstate New York in the United States. It spans six counties and enters the vicinity of four cities—Niagara Falls, Lockport, Rochester, and Oswego—as it follow ...

New York State Route 104A New York State Route 104A (NY 104A) is a northeast–southwest (signed as north–south) state highway in the central portion of New York in the United States. It serves as a northerly alternate route of NY 104, to which it connect ...

* New York State Route 286 *

New York State Route 350 New York State Route 350 (NY 350) is a north–south state highway in western Wayne County, New York, in the United States. It extends for from an intersection with NY 31 and NY 31F in the village of Macedon to a junction w ...

New York State Route 370 New York State Route 370 (NY 370) is an east–west state highway in Central New York in the United States. It extends for about from an intersection with NY 104 and NY 104A south of the Wayne County village of Red Creek ...

New York State Route 414 New York State Route 414 (NY 414) is a north–south state highway in the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions of New York in the United States. It extends for from an intersection with NY 352 in the Steuben County city of Co ...

* New York State Route 441

National protected area

* Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge (part)

Demographics

2020 Census

As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses inc ...

of 2010, there were 93,772 people, 36,585 households, and 25,304 families residing in the county. The population density was 155 people per square mile (60/km²). There were 36,585 households, out of which 29.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.0% were married couples living together, 11.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.8% were non-families. 24.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.53 and the average family size was 2.99. In the county, the population was spread out, with 26.2% under the age of 20, 5.1% from 20 to 24, 23.8% from 25 to 44, 30.7% from 45 to 64, and 14.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41.6 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.3 males. The median income for a household in the county was $52,601, and the median income for a family was $62,677. Males had a median income of $47,056 versus $35,684 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...

for the county was $25,327. About 7.8% of families and 11.3% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 16.4% of those under age 18 and 6.9% of those age 65 or over.

Recent racial/ethnic makeup

As of the 2013

American Community Survey The American Community Survey (ACS) is a demographics survey program conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. It regularly gathers information previously contained only in the long form of the decennial census, such as ancestry, citizenship, educati ...

, the racial makeup of the county was 93.3%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...

alone, 3.6%

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

alone, 0.3% Native American, 0.7% Asian, 0.0%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/ racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...

, and 1.4% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...

or Latino of any race were 3.8% of the population, while white alone, not Hispanic or Latino, constituted 94.6% of the population.U.S. Census website, 2013 American Community Survey Demographic and Housing Estimates
, Retrieved January 18, 2015.

Housing

There were 41,057 housing units at an average density of 68 per square mile (26/km²). 10.9% of housing units were vacant. There were 36,585 occupied housing units in the town. 28,106 were owner-occupied units (76.8%), while 8,479 were renter-occupied (23.2%). The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.5% of total units. The rental unit vacancy rate was 9.4%.

Earlier demographic statistics

Families made up 70 percent of the households in Wayne County in 2005. This figure includes both married-couple families (59 percent) and other families (12 percent). Non-family households made up 30 percent of all households. Most of these households were people living alone, but some were composed of people living in households in which no one was related to the householder. Source:

, 2005 18.0% were of German, 12.8% Italian, 12.6% English, 11.6% Dutch, 11.4% Irish and 8.9% American ancestry according to

Census 2000 The United States census of 2000, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2 percent over the 248,709,873 people enumerated during the 1990 ce ...

. 95.7% spoke English as their first language, 2.2% Spanish, 1.8% spoke French and 0.2% spoke another language.

Economy

According to the Wayne County Industrial Development Agency, there are over 150 manufacturing firms in Wayne County, including several

Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune (magazine), Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States Joint-stock company#Closely held corporations and publicly traded corporations, corporations by ...

companies located in the county based on market access, a modern transportation network, and favorable industrial conditions. These companies benefit from a skilled workforce including graduates from some of the colleges and universities located within an hour's drive of Wayne County including the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The University of ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

Colgate University Colgate University is a private liberal arts college in Hamilton, New York. The college was founded in 1819 as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York and operated under that name until 1823, when it was renamed Hamilton Theolog ...

and

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

. From its location midway between Rochester and

, Wayne County is part of the

Finger Lakes The Finger Lakes are a group of eleven long, narrow, roughly north–south lakes located south of Lake Ontario in an area called the ''Finger Lakes region'' in New York, in the United States. This region straddles the northern and transitional ...

region (which includes

Cayuga Cayuga often refers to: * Cayuga people, a native tribe to North America, part of the Iroquois Confederacy * Cayuga language, the language of the Cayuga Cayuga may also refer to: Places Canada * Cayuga, Ontario United States * Cayuga, Illinoi ...

, Genesee,

, Monroe,

, Orleans, Seneca, Wayne,

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to t ...

, and

counties) whose businesses annually export an estimated $16 billion in goods. The Finger Lakes region made $1.2 billion in agricultural sales in 2007, which represented 27.9 percent of the total farm sales in New York. In 2007, there were 6,417 farms and of farmland in the Finger Lakes. Wayne County was the State’s top producer of fruits, tree nuts, and berries. Apples are a major crop in Wayne—the county was the State’s top producer of apples and ranked third in the nation in 2007. The following quick facts apply to Wayne County businesses: * Private nonfarm establishments, 2011 1,707 * Private nonfarm employment, 2011 19,600 * Private nonfarm employment, percent change 2010–2011 -0.5% * Nonemployer establishments, 2011 4,929 * Total number of firms, 2007 6,834 * Black-owned firms, percent, 2007 1.0% * American Indian and Alaska Native owned firms, percent, 2007 Suppressed; does not meet publication standards * Asian-owned firms, percent, 2007 Suppressed * Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander owned firms, percent, 2007 Fewer than 25 * Hispanic-owned firms, percent, 2007 2.7% * Women-owned firms, percent, 2007 28.6% * Manufacturers shipments, 2007 ($1000) 1,888,986 * Merchant wholesaler sales, 2007 ($1000) 189,350 * Retail sales, 2007 ($1000) 816,657 * Retail sales per capita, 2007 $8,922 * Accommodation and foodservices sales, 2007 ($1000) 52,348 * Building permits, 2012 86 * Federal spending, 2008 $675,565

Education

Wayne County does not have a single unified school district to deliver K-12 education, but multiple central school districts. Each district is governed by a locally-elected

board of education A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional ar ...

, run by a hired superintendent, and funded largely through

property taxes A property tax or millage rate is an ad valorem tax on the value of a property.In the OECD classification scheme, tax on property includes "taxes on immovable property or net wealth, taxes on the change of ownership of property through inherit ...

, as well as state and federal aid. These districts include: * Palmyra-Macedon Central School District *

Wayne Central School District The Wayne Central School District is a public school district in New York State that serves approximately 2,200 students in portions of the towns of Macedon, Ontario, Walworth and Williamson in Wayne County and portions of the towns of Pen ...

Gananda Central School District The Gananda Central School District is a public school district in New York State that serves approximately 900 students in the master-planned development of Gananda, which is in the towns of Macedon and Walworth in Wayne County with a staff ...

Newark Central School District The Newark Central School District is a public school district in New York State that serves approximately 2300 students in the village of Newark and the town of Arcadia in Wayne County with a staff of 270. The average class size is 21 stud ...

* Marion Central School District * Williamson Central School District * Lyons Central School District * North Rose-Wolcott Central School District * Red Creek Central School District * Sodus Central School District * Clyde-Savannah Central School District As with all educational activities in New York State, Wayne County's school systems are ultimately answerable to the New York State Board of Regents and the

New York State Education Department The New York State Education Department (NYSED) is the department of the New York state government responsible for the supervision for all public schools in New York and all standardized testing, as well as the production and administration ...

, as well as their local communities. These districts also participate in the Wayne Finger Lakes Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), a state-established organization which shares common educational resources and has its own elected board and superintendent. Wayne County also has several private,

parochial Parochial is an adjective which may refer to: * Parishes, in religion ** Parish churches, also called parochial churches * Parochial schools, primary or secondary schools affiliated to a religious organisation * Parochialism Parochialism is the ...

/religiously-based schools, including: * East Palmyra Christian School * Heritage Baptist Christian School, Palmyra Wayne County is not home to any regionally-accredited institutions of higher learning, but has a satellite campus of

Finger Lakes Community College Finger Lakes Community College (FLCC) is a public community college in Canandaigua, New York. It is affiliated with the State University of New York and sponsored by Ontario County. The main campus is just east of the City of Canandaigua, with ...

in Newark to serve the

associate degree An associate degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of qualification above a high school diploma, GED, or matriculation, and below a bachelor's degree. Th ...

-level learner and has access to many excellent public and private colleges and universities in immediately adjacent counties (such as

SUNY Brockport State University of New York Brockport (also known as SUNY Brockport or Brockport State, and previously The College at Brockport) is a public university in Brockport, New York. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY). History ...

, SUNY Oswego,

, and

Hobart and William Smith Colleges Hobart and William Smith Colleges are Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts colleges in Geneva, New York. They trace their origins to Geneva Academy established in 1797. Students can choose from 45 maj ...

, Cayuga Community College to name just a few).

Culture

Wayne County is home to several festivals and parades, most from late spring through early fall due to the Upstate New York climate. Some of the more notable, listed in order of occurrence, include: * Apple Blossom Festival (Williamson, third week in May) * Peppermint Days (Lyons, second weekend in July) *

Rose Parade The Rose Parade, also known as the Tournament of Roses Parade (or simply the Tournament of Roses), is an annual parade held mostly along Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, California, United States, on New Year's Day (or on Monday, January 2 if N ...

(Newark, third weekend in July) * Hill Cumorah Pageant (Palmyra and

, Ontario County, formerly third week in July, permanently canceled after 2019) * Pultneyville Homecoming Festivities Historic Hamlet of Pultneyville in Town of Williamson, Wayne County on Seaway Trail; www.w-phs.org (3rd weekend every July) * CNY Wine & Jazz Festival (Wolcott, first Saturday in August) * Palmyra Pirate Weekend including "Pirates of the Erie Canal", (Palmyra, Second weekend in August) * Wayne County Fair (Palmyra, second week in August) * Lumberjack Festival (Macedon Center, second weekend in September) * Canaltown Days (Palmyra, third weekend in September) * Savannah's Potato Festival (Savannah, third weekend in September) * The Bog & Grog (Wallington, 1st Sunday after Mother's Day and 1st Sunday after Labor Day * The Neighborhood Acting Company (Musical performances in the fall, typically the weekend before Thanksgiving http://www.neighborhoodactingcompany.com) Also, many of Wayne County's

volunteer fire department A volunteer fire department (VFD) is a fire department of volunteers who perform fire suppression and other related emergency services for a local jurisdiction. Volunteer and retained (on-call) firefighters are expected to be on call to respon ...

s host "firemen's carnivals" throughout the summer, with parades, rides, food, fireworks, and attractions which become a centerpiece of the summer social circuit.

Communities

The county has no cities. There are 15 towns and seven villages.

Larger settlements

Towns

* Arcadia *

Butler A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantries, pantry ...

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus ( el, Κλαύδιος Γαληνός; September 129 – c. AD 216), often Anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire. Considered to be o ...

Huron Huron may refer to: People * Wyandot people (or Wendat), indigenous to North America * Wyandot language, spoken by them * Huron-Wendat Nation, a Huron-Wendat First Nation with a community in Wendake, Quebec * Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawato ...

Macedon Macedonia (; grc-gre, Μακεδονία), also called Macedon (), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled ...

* Marion *

Rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

Savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

* Sodus * Walworth * Williamson * Wolcott

Villages

Other communities

Wayne county has a number of unincorporated communities. Most are considered hamlets. *

Alloway Alloway ( gd, Allmhaigh, ) is a village in South Ayrshire, Scotland, located on the River Doon. It is best known as the birthplace of Robert Burns and the setting for his poem "Tam o' Shanter". Tobias Bachope, the mason responsible for the cons ...

* Alton * Angells Corners * Bear Creek * Bonnie Castle * Butler Center * Desbrough Park * East Bay Park * East Palmyra * East Williamson * Evans Corner * Fairville * Fairville Station * Fort Hill * Furnace Village * Furnaceville * Glenmark * Huddle *

* Hydesville * Joy * Lake Bluff * Lakeside * Lincoln * Lock Berlin * Lockpit * Lummisville * Macedon Center * Marbletown * Marengo * Minsteed * Mud Mills * Noble Corner * North Huron * North Macedon * North Wolcott * Ontario Center * Ontario-on-the-Lake * Owls Nest * Pilgrimport * Resort * Rice Mill *

* Shaker Heights * Shephards Corner * Sodus Center * South Butler * South Sodus * Sunset View * Thorntons Corner * Union Hill * Wallington * Wayne Center * Wayneport * West Butler * West Walworth * Westbury * Yellow Mills * York * Zurich

References

Citations

Sources

External links

Wayne County, New York (official site)

Wayne County, New York Tourism site
*

Wayne County Historical Aerial Photographs of New York
Cornell University Library & Cornell Institute for Resource Information Sciences
Wayne County Fair official website

Trails in Wayne County

{{Coord, 43.28, -77.05, display=title, type:adm2nd_region:US-NY_source:UScensus1990 1823 establishments in New York (state) Populated places established in 1823 Rochester metropolitan area, New York Populated places on the Underground Railroad