Town residents have always had pride in Oxford's rural image. The Oxford of 1883 was the epitome of rural, with few buildings and a small population heavy on farmers that used what they could to get by, according to Dorothy DeBisschop of the Oxford Historical Society. The town is still the same size — 33.4 square miles — as it was since the incorporation of Beacon Falls in 1871, DeBisschop said. Some of Beacon Falls was part of Oxford before that town to the north became its own.

The 1880 Census had Oxford with just 1,125 people and just 257 homes. As a community of farmers, Oxford residents lived a slower life. The town was once bustling with several small mills, which operated with waterpower provided by the town's many rapidly moving streams. But things slowed in the 1850s as railroads became more prominent and provided coal for industry in cities where cheap immigrant labor was available. With that, local industries began to decline, DeBisschop said, and the town became more dependent than ever on local agriculture for income.

"It was a boomtown before," she said. "Everyone thought they could come to Oxford to make their fortune.

Various town officials housed official town records, DeBisschop said, as there was no Town Hall. Oxford government rented some buildings for public functions, such as town meetings, since the schools were all one or two-room buildings. The old Masonic Building and the upstairs room of the Oxford Hotel — now the Oxford

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House — were most often used, DeBisschop said.

Townspeople did their shopping at the Village Store on Route 67. Samuel P. Sanford, one of the town's most successful businessmen, operated the store. Sanford was described as a man who was "energetic and industrious, persevering when many other men would have been discouraged, and has been rewarded by a large measure of business success."