Oxford Historical Society

Peach Festival – Saturday August 22, 4-7 pm.

Mark your calendar now for the 19th Annual Peach Festival hosted by the Oxford Historical Society at the Great Hill United Methodist Church, 225 Great Hill Road in Seymour.

Homemade peach shortcake will be featured with fresh peaches and whipped cream plus Rich Farm’s peach ice cream. Admission will include one serving of dessert. Bottled water, tea and coffee will also be avail- able. Take out is also available and some sugar free fruit is prepared each year but runs out quickly.

This year the Peach Festival display will highlight Oxford’s patriots who served either in military or civilian roles during the Revolutionary War. There will be at least 102 men included whose service records and connec- tion with Oxford has been verified, mainly from church and government records. Research will continue to cover the full term of the conflict from 1775 through 1783.

The patriots listed were at one time, either before, during or after the war associated with Oxford or were buried here. The borders of the Parish of Oxford and the Town of Oxford were changed over time. We seek to include all who had a connection with Oxford, whether another community claims their service as well. People from historic Oxford buried in other towns, especially in those cemeteries which were once part of Oxford such as Pines Bridge, Beacon Falls and Great Hill, Seymour, are part of the collection.

In addition to gravestone photographs, newspaper clippings and historic art works of the American Revolution will be featured. The Peach Festival display will become part of the Historical Society’s America 250 collection which will preserve all the records uncovered during our research. Results will be available in print and digital formats when work is completed.

The festival will also offer displays on the Hale-Coleman Peach Farm, formerly located on Great Hill and Peach Farm Roads. Raising peaches was once a major enterprise in Seymour and Oxford.

Those seeking additional information may call 203-888-0230.

The Oxford Historical Society Celebrates its 50th Anniversary

The Oxford Historical Society is celebrating its 50 th birthday this year. An informal group of history buffs met prior to 1975 with Bishop von Wettberg as their president, but it wasn’t until 1975 that the present group was legally incorporated. Jane Fertig was the first president.

Inspired by the National Bicentennial of 1976, the OHS formed a committee of volunteers to research and write Early Houses of Oxford. It was published in hardcover in time for the Bicentennial and has since been reprinted in paperback format. In 2016 under the direction of Marilyn Stebar, that book was updated and expanded with the publication Historic Buildings of Oxford, Past and Present.

The Society continued to meet, sponsoring programs on local history and on crafts such as quilts and stenciling. There were social events as well including wildly popular progressive dinners during the holidays and trips to historic sites such as Wethersfield and Sleepy Hollow. Members also continued to preserve Oxford’s past, maintaining a file in the Town Clerk’s vault and taping interviews with long-time Oxford residents.

In 2004 all that changed. The 1752 Twitchell-Rowland Homestead on Christian Street was about to be demolished to make way for a new housing development. First under the direction of President Sue Kopec and later Town Historian Dorothy DeBisschop, the Historical Society raised funds to move the house in 2006 to its present location at 60 Towner Lane on property donated by Fred and Myrtle Rowland. Four years of work by over 300 volunteers culminated in 2010 when the building opened at last as the Oxford’s first museum. In 2016, the Munn Schoolhouse was also moved to the site and restored, first directed by Mrs. De Bisschop and later by Bo Duncan. That structure too became available to the public for tours in 2025.

The Oxford Historical Society continues to work to save and to generate interest in our town’s history. The museum and schoolhouse are open on the first and third Sundays of each month for tours and a collection of historic artifacts and documents is maintained. The summer of 2025 launched craft programs in the schoolhouse: “Fun at the Munn,” taught by Bo Duncan. The very popular Fiber Festival, Peach Festival and Tractor Show at the Homestead plus the annual meeting in November featuring a speaker on state or local history all serve to educate and entertain the public about our past.

We’ve come a long way!