Indigenous Land, George Washington, World's Biggest Mall: 10 Key Moments In Wayne History

WAYNE, NJ — Wayne has plenty to celebrate, with the township turning 175 years old last Tuesday. Present-day Wayne is filled to the brim with history, as many centuries-old structures still stand.

But The Wayne Museum assembled a brief history of the township that goes back further than the April 12, 1847, establishment of the township. Plenty of events from centuries and even millennia before shaped present-day Wayne.

Here are 10 key events in Wayne history, with many highlighted on The Wayne Museum's local timeline:

1. 6,000 B.C.E.: Humans first enter the area that became Wayne Township around this time, according to archeologist Edward Lenik. Evidence found at the sites of the Dey Mansion, Mead-Van Duyne House and Demarest Farm points to indigenous hunter-gatherers, who traveled throughout the region.
2. 1,000 to 1,600 C.E.: Known by archeologists as the Late Woodland Period, this time range saw an increase in Munsee-speaking people. Munsee is a language of the indigenous Lenape people, whose territory included New Jersey. Uncovered remnants of hearths, projectile points, stone tools, pottery shards and bone fragments illustrate Native American settlement along Wayne's waterways, such as the Pompton River and Signac Brook.
3. 1695: Arent Schuyler acquires 5,500 acres of land in North Jersey from the Munsee-speaking indigenous tribes. The acreage makes up about two-thirds of today's Wayne Township. The Schuyler-Colfax House gets built a year later as a one-story, two-bay fieldstone home.
4. C. 1750: The descendants of John Mead — one of Wayne's original Dutch colonists — build the Mead-Van Duyne House.
5. 1780: George Washington occupies the Dey Mansion from July 1-29 as his military headquarters. Washington returned to the mansion from Oct. 8 to Nov. 27.
6. 1830: Saddle River Township, which includes portions that later became Wayne, reports that 14 percent of households include slaves — the highest percentage of enslaved people to property owners of any future Passaic County township.
7. 1847: Wayne Township is born. The state passes An Act to Divide the Township of Manchester, in the County of Passaic, and to Establish a New Township to be Called the Township of Wayne. The first township meeting takes place April 12 at the Casey House.
8. 1869: Schuyler Colfax, who led efforts to abolish chattel slavery as speaker of the House, becomes Vice President in the Ulysses S. Grant administration. Colfax's ancestors built the Schuyler-Colfax House in Wayne.
9. 1916: Electricity comes to Wayne from Paterson, with power lines running along the Hamburg Turnpike from Ratzer Road.
10. 1969: The Willowbrook Mall opens as the world's largest enclosed shopping center.

Check out The Wayne Museum's website for more on celebrating the township's 175th anniversary.

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