History of Oakland County Michigan a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, its principal interests / compiled from the official records of the county, the newspapers and data of personal interviews, under the editorial supervision of Thaddeus D. Seeley.

CHAPTER XXIX
OXFORD TOWNSHIP
CIVILLY ORGANIZED-FIRST SETTLERS OF THE TOWNSHIP-FIRST ROADS
AND RAILROAD-THOMAS-LAKES-OXFORD VILLAGE INCORPORATED
-SCHOOLS-OXFORD CHURCHES-NEWSPAPERS AND SOCIETIES-OXFORD INDUSTRIES-MICHIGAN PRESSED BRICK COMPANY-C. L.
RANDALL & COMPANY.
Oxford is among the northern tier of townships and was cut off from
Oakland township in I837. It was named before it was born; which is
a somewhat remarkable circumstance. In the fall of I836 the citizens
of the territory who desired separate organization petitioned the legislative council to that effect, and a committee consisting of Samuel Axford, Otis C. Thompson and John Rossman, was appointed to select a
name for the proposed town. Mr. Thompson insisted that nothing could
be more appropriate than Oxford, since nearly all the settlers had oxteams and probably would hold on to them for some years to come. His
suggestion prevailed, although one of his associates, a rabid Yankee and
anti-Britisher, fought it quite savagely on the ground that the coming
generations, at least, would not understand the significance, but surmise
that the township was named after old Oxford, England.
OXFORD CIVILLY ORGANIZED
But "Oxford" the township was named, and in April, I837, a civil
organization was effected by the election of the following at the house
of Fite Rossman, on section 27, at the site of the present village: Supervisor, Peter D. Makely; clerk, Daniel Haines; assessors, Samuel Axford,
Daniel L. Ingals and Harlan Hollister; justices of the peace, Daniel F.
Ingals, Justin Bixby, Rufus K. Moore, and Levi Smith; commissioners
of highways, Addison Alcutt, Rufus K. Moore, and Hezekiah B. Killam;
school inspectors, Daniel F. Ingals, Robert McKay, and Samuel Axford;
collector, Morgan Axford; directors of the poor, John Rossman and
William Coates; constables, Adam Rossman and Horace Hovey; poundmaster, Joseph Furguson.
FIRST SETTLERS OF TOWNSHIP
At the time Oxford township thus assumed its body corporate, it was
only six years of age as a settled section of the county; for, although
418