Woodside Trainstation 3
Henry Cowgill and his family were instrumental in convincing the Delaware Railroad
to locate a depot and station to serve the farms in the area south of Wyoming Delaware. The original train station (named Willow Grove Station), was built by Henry Cowgill in 1864. The Cowgills also lobbied for a post office which initially took the name Fredonia. In 1869, the name of the village was changed by the Delaware General Assembly to Woodside.
The Delaware Railroad enabled daily access to large city markets making the growing of peaches, melons, and early spring vegetables profitable for farmers throughout Delaware. An offshoot of the profitability of growing fresh produce in Delaware was the advent of its cannery industry which preserved the produce for shipment throughout the United States and to the world. Founded in 1856, The Richardson & Robbins Cannery
in Dover was the first cannery in the state of Delaware.
