Oxford Historical Society, Oxford CT

This 2008 photo by Cathy Helm, shows Mrs. Ruth Willard, then-owner of the schoolhouse. The building is in need of repairs and has been offered to the Oxford Historical Society for removal to the Twitchell- Rowland Homestead Museum property on Towner Lane. The Society is seeking grants and donations to cover some of the costs of preservation.

News! News ! News!

We are thrilled to announce the Community Support Committee has recommended that the Selectmen approve funding for the project proposed by the Oxford Historical Society at their Dec. 10, 2018 meeting at Oxford Town Hall. The proposal awaits final approval by the Board of Selectmen. Under the plan, the town will use up to $18,500 for a structural mover to transport the Munn Schoolhouse from its current site on Route 67 to the OHS campus at 60 Towner Lane. The owner of the schoolhouse, Dan Sears, offered the schoolhouse to the Society but they had to take it away.

This will be a multi-stage and more than year-long project as the building has to be carried down Route 67 and under more than 25 overhead wires.

September 28, 2006: The Twitchell-Rowland Homestead was saved from demolition when the Historical Society moved it to land donated by Mr. and Mrs. Fred Rowland on Towner Lane.

We Did It Once Already;
With Your Help, We Can Do it Again!

For the Oxford Historical Society this is an encore performance as the museum at 60 Towner Lane was moved from Christian Street back in 2006 in order to save the 200 year old house from demo- lition. After years of work, the Twitchell Rowland Homestead opened to the public in 2012. It is open to the public for various events and for regularly scheduled Open House Sundays each month

WWII Revisited, Oxford Historical Society's newest book.

Like many Americans, Oxford families sacrificed much during World War II. One such family was that of J. Edward Miles on Chestnut Tree Hill Road. During the war years, the family bid farewell to five of their sons and a son-in-law as they left to serve their country. One son, the eldest of the five sons to serve, Sgt. David Sheldon Miles, died aboard the SS Dorchester on February 3, 1943 as the result of enemy action when a German submarine torpedoed the transport ship in the North Atlantic while carrying some 903 men to Greenland.

In a letter dated June 1, 1943, to a niece after confirmation of her son’s death, Susannah Williams Miles lamented, “We all feel terrible but there isn’t anything we can do about it. It is the first break in my family so it is pretty hard to bear. We must think it is all for the best and we are not alone in our troubles.”

Two other sons served abroad, Sgt. Robert Newsome Miles on the Aleutian Islands in the Bering Sea, and Sgt. H. Wilson Miles in Germany. Both Sgt. Edward Upson Miles and Sgt. Franklyn Russell Miles served at Armed Forces bases in this country. Franklyn went on to serve his country in the US Air Force for a total of twenty years.

Son-in-law Benjamin V. Samoker married Frances Miles, a sister of the five servicemen, in 1941, and had a new baby girl when he answered his country’s call to duty by joining the US Navy and serving in Panama for almost two years.

On the cover of a new book is a photo of the five service men at the Miles family homestead on Chestnut Tree Hill Road. Standing proudly in uniform, left to right are: Benjamin Samoker, Robert, Franklyn, Edward, and H. Wilson Miles in 1945.

The book, World War II Revisited, by Oxford native, Audrey Cable Linke, will be on sale for the first on Sunday at the Oxford Historical Society's Twitchell-Rowland Homestead, 60 Towner Lane, from 2 to 4 p.m.

Thanks to Jane Hulbert and Marcia Wrogg for the photo and the family background used on the cover of this new book.