THE FIRST WAWA?

Richard Wood Opened His South Jersey Store in 1773. The Wood Stores Now Serve The Entire Region

The Richard Wood Store Greenwich, NJ

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.

Quakers Arrive at Philadelphia 1682

 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. 

The Wood Store, 1930's one of the longest continuously operating stores in the US

 

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.

Wood's Dry Goods Store 309 Market St, Philadelphia

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.

The Millville Iron Foundry, built by D.C Wood 1814

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. 

 

Millville Cotton Mill

Millville Iron Foundry

The R D Wood Window Glass Factory, Millville 1877

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.

Florence Iron Mill

Camden Iron Foundry

 

 

Water Pipe Recently unearthed, Philadelphia PA

 

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

R D Wood Co  & Water Power Plant, Mays Landing NJ

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. 

 Railroad Stock Issue to Richard D Wood, by Thomas Whitney ( Whitney Glass Works, Glassboro ) 1860

West Jersey Railroad 1870's

Millville Manufacturing - Cotton Plants 1930

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.

Wawa Dairy Farm

Wawa Milk Bottling 1910

1905 Ad

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..

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.

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.

The Wood Family  Restoration of the Richard Wood Store, Greenwich NJ

Thank the Woods for your convenience!