Today this building houses the Superintendent Of Schools & Res. State Trooper.  On this site, in Revolutionary days, local men practiced for the Training Band.  Military drills were held monthly under the local captains. Along what is now is Route 67, in the foreground, ran the Oxford Turnpike. This route was used by farmers as far away as Litchfield to drive their cattle and hogs to market in New Haven. The Oxford turnpike was a major route in colonial Connecticut, and was the second turnpike to be chartered in state.

    Oxford’s first residents were Indians. Naugatuck River, near Pines Bridge, was the site of the largest Indian encampment in colony in early history.  There were two major tribes living in Oxford. The Paugatucks lived on the east bank of the Naugatuck River and a few on the west bank in the Chestnut Tree Hill Area. The Pootatucks were settled nearer to the Housatonic River.  

    Indian Names that still survive: 
Housatonic -- Pootatuck name for River of the great Falls.
Naugatuck -- One Tree, apparently for a single tree which stood by the falls in Seymour.
Punkups -- Indian group which lived in that area of Oxford.

    One native American's name is remembered in Toby's Mountain which is now a part of Beacon Falls. Captain Ebeneezer Johnson obtained Toby as a young Indian after a battle. Johnson later freed him and gave him land on the area mountain. After Toby died, he willed the mountain back to white men, including Timothy Johnson, Oxford veteran from American Revolution and son of his former master.  

Early Settlement: 
 
    As far as the white settlement is concerned, Oxford was originally a part of Milford, which was later split into Milford and Derby.  In 1665, Edward Wooster killed seven wolves in the Derby area, and tried to collect bounty money for them. But neither Milford nor New Haven would pay it -- claiming it was not a settled village, though Wooster was living there.

Oxford’s Incorporation from Derby:

    Oxford residents wanted a separate town, but Derby voters refused to grant the resident the right to a separate town. The question was voted at annual meeting in Derby on a regular basis, with the Oxford residents losing each time. The procedure for town meeting was that the people would all go to Derby prior to the meeting, stop at a local tavern for rest and refreshment before going to the meeting. Because they made the tavern stop, the town meetings always opened late. One year, in 1798, the Oxford residents went directly to the meeting house, and started the meeting while the Derbyites were still at the taverns. They opened the meeting and voted to allow Oxford to be set off as a separate parish.

Home      Cemeteries      Genealogy      Library      Email