Oxford, Massachusetts

Not unworthy of a name so suggestive is the pleasant town which lies at the southeastern corner of Bristol County. Originally a portion of the township of Dartmouth incorporated in 1664, it was included in a grant of lands from their Indian owners to the colonists dated Nov. 29, 1652. The eastern boundary of this grant was three miles eastward from the Acushnet River. The Indian name of the vicinity was Sconticut, an appellation now confined to the neck of land which stretches from the southeastern part of the town into the bay. In 1787 the town of New Bedford, including the present city of that name, together with the towns of Fairhaven and Acushnet, was incorporated. In 1812, when political feeling ran high, the Jeffersonian Democrats of Fairhaven, derisively called " Corsicans" by their opponents, the Federalists, on the opposite side of the river, on account of the attitude of the former towards Napoleonic affairs, effected a division of the township. In 1860 Fairhaven was in turn divided by the setting off of its northern portion as the town of Acushnet. As at present constituted, the town is apparently three miles square, exclusive of Sconticut Neck. From its northern limit at Acushnet it stretches along the river until it reaches its southwest corner at Fort Phomix, where the river broadens into an arm of the bay, forming the lower harbor of New Bedford and Fairhaven. This western water-line is broken by the marshes connecting the Isle of Marsh with the mainland, and by the peninsula on which is situated the village of Oxford. On the opposite bank of the river is the city of New Bedford. The southern shore-line, after extending nearly due east from Fort Phu?nix, is indented by a cove, and beyond this is broken by Sconticut Neck, which extends out into the bay. The eastern boundary is formed by the town of Mattaposett, in Plymouth County. The surface is generally level. Fort Phoenix stands on a rocky prominence overlooking the harbor and bay. This headland was called by the Indians Nolscot, and the ledge of which it forms a part extends up into the village, and crops out in Centre Street in front of the Congregational Church. A rocky bluff overlooks the river near the Acushnet boundary, and the land rises towards the northern and eastern sections of the town.

Passage source: History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883.

The village of Fairhaven is in the southwestern corner of the township, on the river, directly opposite New Bedford. Just north of the village, but with no dividing line between, is the little village of Oxford, generally known as the " Point." In the eastern part of the town are the hamlets of New Boston and Naskatucket. There is a considerable amount of wood and farming land, and along the southern boundary, at the head of the cove, an extent of salt marsh. Probably the village of Fairhaven grew up almost simultaneously with the village of Bedford, on the opposite side of the river, beginning near the middle of the last century. It remained, however, very small for a long period, for we find no record of the lay-out of a street until 1790, no church established until 1794, and the village remained confined to the wharves and a few short streets up to about the year 1832. The following-named persons, proprietors of lands granted by William Bradford, deputy governor of Plymouth Colony, in a deed dated Nov. 13, 1694, probably settled in this vicinity : Seth Pope, Thomas Taber, Jonathan Delano, Isaac Pope, Lettice Jenny, Samuel Jenny, Mark Jenny, Valentine Nuddlesene, Samuel Spooner, William Spooner, John Spooner, Joseph Tripp, Daniel Sherman, Edmund Sherman, John Davis. The first settlers probably scattered themselves over the limits of the town from Sconticut Neck to Acushnet, not uniting in villages for some years. There was a garrison on the bank of the river, just above the Isle of Marsh, in the old days of Indian warfare. The site of the ancient block-house, above theIsleofMarsh,ison landofMr. John M. Howland. Tradition relates that a man and woman by the name of Pope were murdered by the Indians in the locality of the Frog Pond while on their way to a fortified place of refuge. The Frog Pond occupied land which now borders the south side of Spring Street, between William and Walnut. Mr. Howland has gathered an interesting collection of relics from the ruins of the structure previously mentioned, consisting of household utensils, implements of Indian warfare, and among the rest an old key, supposed to be that belonging to the fortification, the name of which was Cook's Garrison. The old Cook house

Passage source: History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883.

One of the earliest purchasers of land was William Wood, who removed here in 1700 from Little Compton, R. I., and purchased of Philip Taber a tract extending from the Bread and Cheese road, at Oxford village, on the north to the land of Elnathau Pope on the south. The southern boundary of this tract was the northern limit of the twenty-acre lot afterwards laid out for the original village of Fairhaven, and must be a short distance north of the present line of Washington Street. Some of the oldest houses probably dated back to the period immediately succeeding King Philip's war, and a few possibly antedated these. We are told that the old house back of Mrs. Paul Burgess' was probably the first house in Oxford village, and was the homestead occupied by William Wood after the purchase of his farm. Mr. Wood bought the house of Philip Taber, who probably built it soon after the close of the Indian war. The remains of the old house are still to be seen at Oxford village, and are an object of interest to the antiquarian. The house was built of wood and stone combined. It contained a huge fireplace and was furnished with two outside doors, one opposite the other, in order to enable the horse to get in the logs to burn. It was the custom to cut down the logs, hitch on the horse, draw them into the house, then roll them into the fireplace, and drive out at the opposite door. The body of the house was blown down in the great gale, but the south end and chimney, built of rough stone rudely cemented together, still withstand the severity of storm and gale.

Passage source: History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Fairhaven Town - it names this place 18 more 18 times.