Noteable Events In

Oxford History

1832 (October 20) – Treaty of Pontotoc signed by Chickasaw Indians, ceding all their lands East of the Mississippi River

1834 – Land donated for future site of Oxford by John Chisholm, John D. Martin, and John L. Craig

1836 (February 9) – Lafayette County created by Chickasaw Indian Cession (named for Marquis de Lafayette, the French hero of the American Revolution)

1837 – Oxford receives charter and is founded

1839 – J.E. Neilson Co, originally a trading post, is founded

1840 – Original courthouse built

1841 – Oxford becomes home of Mississippi’s first university (It was T.D. Isom who recommended naming the city after Oxford, England, in hopes of this event becoming a reality.)

1844 – Rowan Oak is built

1848 – University of Mississippi opens its doors to 80 students

1861 – Civil War begins. Many of the area’s men sign up and are shipped off to war. Ole Miss closes down.

1862 – Union General Ulysses S. Grant fights back troops commanded by Confederate General John C. Pemberton and occupies Oxford for most of December. Grant abandons his headquarters here after Confederate General Earl Van Dorn overruns the Union supply depot in Holly Springs, capturing over 1,500 of Grants troops.

1864 (August 22) – Union Major General Andrew Jackson Smith invades Oxford and orders the town to be burned.

1865 – Civil War ends. Reconstruction begins

1885 – Original Federal Building constructed

1898 – Yellow Fever outbreak in Oxford kills 70 people

1902 – William Faulkner moves to Oxford with his family

1907 – Alcohol outlawed in Mississippi

1962 – University of Mississippi is integrated

1963 – James Meredith graduates with a degree in history

1968 – Oxford’s first alcohol laws are approved. Very first bar opens in the
Holiday Inn just off The Square.

1975 – Federal Building renovated and converted into City Hall

1976 – The Hoka Theatre opens in an old cotton gin just off The Square

1979 – Square Books is founded

1992 – Fat Possum Records releases its first record; The band Blue Mountain forms in Los Angeles. Relocates to Oxford, Mississippi

1993 –The first incarnation of the band The Cooters is formed, called “The Cooter Family”; The band The Neckbones form.

1994 –The Cooter Family is renamed The Cooters

1994 – Double Decker bus is imported from England

1995 – First Double Decker Arts Festival takes place

1996 – The Hoka Theatre closes down

2002 – Gertrude C. Ford Center For the Performing Arts is completed

2003 – Oxford Film Festival is established

2006 – The Local Voice founded; Oxford Skate Park is built

 

2008 – Presidential debate
between Barack Obama
and John McCain held at The Gertrude C. Ford Center For the Performing Arts at Ole Miss