Wayne is a town in Washington County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 2,182 at the 2020 census. The unincorporated communities of Kohlsville and Wayne are located in the town. In the early 19th century when the first white settlers arrived in Southeastern Wisconsin, the Potawatomi and Menominee Native Americans inhabi…Wayne is a town in Washington County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 2,182 at the 2020 census. The unincorporated communities of Kohlsville and Wayne are located in the town. In the early 19th century when the first white settlers arrived in Southeastern Wisconsin, the Potawatomi and Menominee Native Americans inhabited the land now occupied by the Town of Wayne. In 1831, the Menominee surrendered their claims to the land to the United States Federal Government through the Treaty of Washington. The Potawatomi surrendered their land claims in 1833 through the 1833 Treaty of Chicago, which required them to leave the area by 1838. While many Native people moved west of the Mississippi River to Kansas, some chose to remain, and were referred to as "strolling Potawatomi" in contemporary documents because many of them were migrants who subsisted by squatting on their ancestral lands, which were now owned by white settlers. Eventually the Native people who evaded forced removal gathered in northern Wisconsin, where they formed the Forest County Potawatomi Community.
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