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Wood River History |
First Settlers – Jos. Vaughn believed to arrive in area in 1790 and acquired farm land where Roxana is currently located. Through a land grant, the Vaughn family acquired land in the area which is now Vaughn Cemetery, Vaughn Road, Vaughn Woods, and Vaughn Hill subdivision. By 1814, most of the Wood River area was owned by a small group of early pioneer families – Berry, Haller, Penning, and Henry.
Standard Oil of Indiana was organized in 1889 and began building in Whiting, Indiana. In the fall of 1906, three men from Whiting, Indiana – Dr. William Burton, W. P. Cowan, and J. E. Evans were seen walking through the Mississippi bottom land and ended up on the front porch of the Christopher Penning farmhouse around the area of what is now First Street and Lorena Avenue. They decided then and there to purchase land from Penning to build a new refinery for Standard Oil Company. Construction of the Wood River Refinery (the name taken from the stream that twisted through the area) began in 1907. Laborers worked 12 hours per day for 17 cents per hour. The workers came from St. Louis by streetcar. The first telephone in Wood River was located in the Standard Oil Construction Office. It was a toll line to the Alton Telephone Exchange.
The original Wood River – Wood River Heights Subdivision – was affectionately known as “Little Italy”. It was plotted in 1906 and was inhabited mainly by immigrants from Italy and Croatia. The Italian Band formed in 1926 – they played in the summer at Central Park. The Italian Mutual Aid Society was a group of Italians/Croatians who met at the Italian Lodge which no longer exists. Bocce Ball was a popular sport. Fireworks were set off every August to celebrate the Italian Holiday. On Columbus Day, a king and queen contest was held at the Italian Lodge. The Italian House restaurant was operated by John Cafazza at the corner of Wood River Avenue and Lorena and was a popular spot to get old world Italian food.
Amos Benbow was a 60 year old former school teacher who inherited land across from the new Wood River Refinery and he started up a lawless frontier town with saloons and disorderly houses. Benbow City became one of the wickedest and wettest cities in all of Illinois. It was incorporated in December 1907. Ladies came over from St. Louis on Friday evenings and leave on Sunday mornings much richer. Benbow City was bounded on the west by railroad tracks, on the east by St. Louis Road and north to Penning.
Wood River was incorporated on August 14, 1908 In 1911, the original Wood River and East Wood River combined to become Wood River. Benbow City was annexed by Wood River in 1917 and S. A. Beach was elected the first mayor of the combined town. In 1923 Wood River was incorporated as a city and divided into wards with a mayor and aldermen. In 1953 the Council-Manager form of government was adopted.
Standard Oil bought $1 million worth of Sears Homes in 1918 for their workers at Carlinville, Standard City, and Wood River, Illinois. Of these houses, 156 went to Carlinville, 24 to Wood River, and 12 to Standard City. Standard Oil went back to Sears and bought a few more homes here and there through the years to accommodate their expanding work force. In addition to the original 24, there were about 40 to 50 added later on. Two boxcars would deliver a home kit of 30,000 pieces and a 75-page “how to” manual. The kit included 750 pounds of nails, about 380 20-foot 2 X 4s. Buyers were told that someone with basic carpentry skills could build a house in 90 days – not counting excavation work.
