Florence Iron Works

These iron works were located in the town of Florence, Florence Twp, Burlington County, in the western portion of the village. It was established in 1857-8 by Richard Jones, and ran intermittently thereafter until about 1861. In 1867 it was purchased by R.D. Wood and Company, who by the 1880s were doing a more successful business making water and gas pipes and shipping them out by railroad, and advantage the earlier owner did not have.

I have received from another researcher the following information regarding one Richard D. Wood of the Florence Iron Works:

Richard D. Wood lived from 1799 to 1869, and operated many businesses, one of which was the Florence Iron Works. On his death in 1869 his businesses were divided between his sons. One son, George Wood, received the cotton mill in Millville, N.J., and one of the other sons, Walter Wood, received the Florence Iron Works. Another son, Stuart Wood, received the R. D. Wood & Co. pipe and hydrant manufacturing business. All these businesses are now defunct or subsumed by other companies. The cotton company survived the longest, as George Wood & Son Cotton Co., surviving until the late 1950s at which time it was liquidated at a price which, compared to book value, generated great tax losses. George Wood built a summer home in Wawa, Pa. and concieved himself to be a gentleman farmer, so he opened the Wawa Dairy as a hobby business in 1902. The Wawa Dairy continued to operate strictly as a Dairy with home delivery of milk until the 1960s. The cash from the liquidation of the cotton business and the tax losses were used by the grandson of George Wood, Grahame Wood, to fund the beginning of the Wawa Food Market chain, which started in 1964 with three stores. The chain now has 543 stores in five states. (For those of you reading this from out of state, the Wawa convenience stores are to be found almost everywhere in New Jersey)