THE FIRST WAWA?
Richard Wood Opened His South Jersey Store in 1773. The Wood Stores Now Serve The Entire Region
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The Richard Wood Store Greenwich, NJ |
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This began a chain of events that resulted in the one of the
most recognizable and successful businesses in the history of the Philadelphia
area and South Jersey. More about that later.
In 1682 Richard Wood arrived in this Philadelphia along with
several boatloads of English Quakers.
William Penn had promised these immigrants 100 acres
in this new world and the Wood family ended up settling in Cumberland County, NJ, near Stow
Creek. Throughout their history the Woods have always been successful
entrepreneurs. In farming, industry, real estate, finance, they had almost always
flourished, on both sides of the Atlantic.
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Quakers Arrive at Philadelphia 1682 | |
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Richard’s grandson, also
a Richard, moved to Greenwich NJ and in 1755, his grandson, Richard III, was
born. In 1773 at the young age of 18 he
became a partner in a general store in Greenwich. He eventually became full
owner and expanded the store.
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The Wood Store, 1930's one of the longest continuously operating stores in the US |
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Richard Wood’s son, Richard D, was born in 1799 and in 1820
took his father’s lead and opened his own general store in Salem, NJ. It was an
immediate success and in 1822 he expanded to a dry goods store on Market Street
in Philadelphia. Earlier his older step-brother David, became owner of an iron
furnace in Cumberland County NJ and later built his own iron furnace in
Millville. Both Wood brothers enjoyed
decades of business success and expansion. Richard became a wealthy financier in
Philadelphia and served on the boards of the Philadelphia Bank and the North
American Insurance Co. He helped establish the Pennsylvania Railroad and the
building of canals and dams along the Schuylkill River. As an industrialist he owned
several iron foundries and iron mines, including Iron Hill in Newark Delaware.
(Yes that Iron Hill) His brother David continued at the Millville Iron
Furnace and helped to establish the town of Millville. David also acquired
thousands of acres of South Jersey woodland, as in those days before railroads
and coal, the timber on this land was needed to heat the furnaces.
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Wood's Dry Goods Store 309 Market St, Philadelphia |
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David C Wood and his Step-Brother Richard D |
Things changed in the 1840’s, when brother David ran into
financial trouble as a result of his mismanagement of the Millville Foundry. It
got so bad that he almost lost everything, but by 1850 his smarter younger
step-brother Richard stepped in and acquired all of David’s South Jersey businesses
and land holding. Richard renamed his
business empire RD Wood & Co.
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The Millville Iron Foundry, built by D.C Wood 1814 |
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The Wood House on Columbia Ave . Now the home of the Millville Historical Society |
Richard then turned most of his attention to South Jersey.
He expanded the water power facilities on the Maurice River in order to power a
new Iron Foundry and a cotton mill. He
added a cotton bleach and dye works and a glass factory, bringing thousands of
jobs to Millville. He was largely responsible for making Millville a thriving
industrial town.
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Millville Cotton Mill |
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Millville Iron Foundry | |
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The R D Wood Window Glass Factory, Millville 1877 |
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Company Script Signed By R D Wood 1849 |
The R D Wood Co was well positioned for success at that time in history. Hundreds of cities throughout the US and the world began constructing municipal water and natural gas supplies along with sewer systems. They all required iron pipe. Wood took advantage and expanded his iron businesses to Florence and Camden NJ and the Cambria Iron Works in Johnstown PA. in addition to pipe they made fire hydrants, lamp post, water pumps and turbines, and various types of valves and fitting. Railroads and industry also required iron and steel.
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Florence Iron Mill |
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Camden Iron Foundry
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Water Pipe Recently unearthed, Philadelphia PA |
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The R D Wood Building 400 Chestnut St, Philadelphia |
The RD Wood cotton mill was expanded to Mays Landing where Wood also constructed a water power plant along the Great Egg Harbor River. It operated until 1949
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R D Wood Co & Water Power Plant, Mays Landing NJ |
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Mays Landing NJ 1870's |
In 1853 he founded the West Jersey Railroad that extended from Camden to Woodbury to Glassboro and to Millville and
then to Cape May, Bridgeton & Salem.
He also sold 20,000 acres of land along the new railroad to Charles Landis for
his new city, Vineland. With the coming of coal by railroad, he no longer need timber to fuel the furnaces. Finding that the existing canal and water power
turbines were insufficient to power his many Millville industries, he built the
massive Tumbling Dam on the Maurice River which created Union Lake. The coming of the railroad and the extra power enabled him to greatly expand his Millville industries, especially the cotton mills. The dam was
finished in 1868 and stood until 1987 when it was rebuilt.
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Railroad Stock Issue to Richard D Wood, by Thomas Whitney ( Whitney Glass Works, Glassboro ) 1860 |
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West Jersey Railroad 1870's
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Millville Manufacturing - Cotton Plants 1930 | | | | |
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Millville Cotton Mill Then - Now - Closed in 1963 |
Richard Wood died in 1869, but his six sons and their
offspring continued the iron and textiles businesses well into the 20th
century. Gradually they were closed or sold off. One of his sons, George, did
keep one of the Wood family businesses, a dairy farm in Delaware County
Pennsylvania he had started in 1902 as the Wawa Dairy Farms.
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Wawa Dairy Farm |
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Wawa Milk Bottling 1910 |
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1905 Ad | | |
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Early Delivery Truck |
At first the
highly perishable dairy products were just sold locally, but soon expanded
to Philadelphia and the South Jersey shore. By 1930 a new processing plant was
built and advancement in refrigeration and pasteurization allowed the dairy to
greatly expand their home delivery of products..
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Wawa Dairy Processing Plant 1929 |
By the 1960’s supermarkets had cut the demand
for home delivery of dairy products and Wawa looked for new ways to distribute their products and according to the official Wawa
history, their first dairy store was opened in 1964 in Folsom, PA. There
are now about 750 and the business is still controlled by about 130 direct descendants
of Richard Wood, each owning a piece. Last year Wawa was named America’s
favorite Convenience Store.
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The First Wawa in Folsom Pa 1964 |
Many, myself included, take issue with that official Wawa history.
The first store owned and operated by this Wood family was not in Pennsylvania
in 1964, but in Greenwich NJ in 1773.
The store still stands and was restored in 1980 by the Wood family.
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The Wood Family Restoration of the Richard Wood Store, Greenwich NJ |
Thank the Woods for your convenience!
The 1st WAWA was in NJ
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