History of North Oxford

North Oxford was a great place to live, work and play and was made so by citizens that went before.
Long before our ancestors arrived, the native peoples may have lived in the area and most certainly travelled through what we call North Oxford. They would have hunted, fished and possibly grew maize. Over thousands of years the natives did little to change the character or landscape of North Oxford but that was soon to change with the arrival of the first settlers.
The immigrants coming to this new land were farmers and shopkeepers needed to support the farming community. We now look on forests as beautiful tranquil places but to the first settlers they represented a huge obstacle to their pursuit of farming. They needed to clear a plot of land to plant their crops in order to survive. Succeeding generations changed trails into roads and fords into bridges. Land was cleared and      communities were formed. In less then 200 years North Oxford has changed from a forest to some of the most productive farm land in the world and we can be proud of the stewardship of today’s farming community and those generations before.
Some limestone has been mined along the Thames River for 150 years and is still a viable industry. It is well that we should remember our history and record and preserve it for all those that come after us. This book is an attempt to accomplish that.
We all would like to go back in time and ask our forefathers some questions whose answers are lost in time. Perhaps future generations will look upon this work and be glad that we did what we could to save our past and maybe answer

History of North Oxford Township 1867-1967