The city of Wooster, county seat of Wayne County, welcomes the Fellowship of Grace Brethren to the Vision2020 conference this July. A bustling community with a population of about 26,000 set in the bucolic countryside of east-central Ohio, Wooster is set in Wayne County (named for George Washington’s war colleague General “Mad Anthony” Wayne) and is distinguished by its rural charm, rolling hills, lush woods, and scenic farmland. It is known as the “Gateway to Amish Country,” as Wayne and several counties to the south are home to the world’s largest Amish population.
01 Jun 2011
Founded in 1808, Wooster is home to The College of Wooster, Secrest Arboretum (home of Ohio’s largest collection of old-world roses), Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC), and the Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute. It is home to Buehler Food Markets, Wooster Brush, Tricor Industrial, and Wooster Motor Ways, as well as being North American headquarters for LuK, the German maker of dual clutch transmissions. Other large employers in Wooster are FritoLay, Akron Brass, CACI, and BorgWarner. Several world-renowned companies call Wayne County home, including the J. M. Smucker Company, Wooster Brush Company, and The Cat’s Meow Village, creators of the popular two-dimensional wooden collectibles. Visitors love to shop at one-of-a-kind retail stores such as Lehman’s Hardware, P. Graham Dunn Gallery, Simply Smuckers, Everything Rubbermaid, and The Cat’s Meow MarketPlace. Wooster is located along U.S. Route 30, now designated The Lincoln Highway Historic Byway, which stretches from New York City westward to Oregon and opened the western portion of the county to development in the early 20th century.
Many of the Brethren congregations in the U.S. were established along Route 30 through the central U.S. The area is rich in religious history. Following the War of 1812, many settlers from the East began immigrating to Ohio. These included Mennonites, Amish, Dunkards (German Baptist Brethren), and Moravians, who gave a unique ?avor and diversity to Wayne and surrounding counties. Those interested in Anabaptist history may want to visit the stunning 10 ft x 265 ft mural-in-the-round cyclorama at the Behalt (“to keep” or “to remember”) in Berlin, Ohio (behalt.com). The cyclorama depicts the heritage of the Mennonite and Amish people from their Anabaptist beginnings in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1525 until the present day.
Other area attractions include the Pro Football Hall of Fame and William McKinley Presidential Library and Museum in Canton (27 miles), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland (57 miles), or the founding place of the Grace Brethren movement at Ashland University and Theological Seminary in Ashland, Ohio (30 miles).
Wooster and Wayne County look forward to hosting the Grace Brethren in July.
For more information, log onto the Wayne County Convention and Visitors Bureau at waynecountycvb.org.
