Getting fitted for Sunday shoes at Neilson’s is an Oxford experience remembered by many. Photo by Martin Dain. © The Martin J. Dain Collection.
Neilson’s has anchored The Square these many decades. It is older than any business in Oxford, and indeed the entire South. It was the late 1830s when W. S. Neilson rolled into the fledgling town with two ox-wagons loaded with goods, and in 1839, started his store. Neilson prospered during his first two decades as The Square took shape. Then came the war.
