Wilbur Scoville was first published in 1895 and has gone through at least 8 editions. The book was used as a pharmacological reference up until the 1960s. Scoville also wrote "Extracts and Perfumes", which contained hundreds of formulations. For a time he was a professor at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. In 1912, he devised the test and scale known as the "Scoville Organoleptic Test" while working at the Parke-Davis pharmaceutical company. It measured piquancy, or "spiciness", of various chili peppers. It is now standardized as the Scoville scale. In 1922, Scoville won the Ebert prize from the American
Scoville Park white settler in the area that became Oak Park, acquired 173 acres of land from the federal government in 1833, including the area that is now Scoville Park. A plaque marking the spot of his second home is located in Scoville Park's southwest corner, near the library, although recent research indicates the house may have been farther west, just south and east of the present-day intersection of Harlem Avenue and Lake Street. In 1855, James Scoville bought the land that would become the park from Kettlestrings. He built his estate, including a large white mansion, at the site of what