Oxford is a town in Oak Grove Township, Benton County, Indiana. The population was 1,162 at the 2010 census. It is share of the Lafayette, Indiana, Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Oxford was Benton County’s first town. Commissioners appointed by the Indiana General Assembly prearranged the location in May 1843 to be the site of the county seat upon land donated by Henry W. Ellsworth and David Atkinson. It was first called Milroy in praise of Samuel Milroy, one of the commissioners, but a town in Rush County already bore that name. In October 1843 the commissioners untouched it to Hartford, after Hartford, Connecticut (the home of Ellsworth and Watkins), but they discovered this publish was then already bodily used in Indiana, so in December Judge David J. McConnell awarded the town its gift name.

Lots went up for sale at this time, with buyers allowed to pay for the lots in three installments higher than 18 months. The first building erected in Oxford was a two-story, wooden frame courthouse, designed and built by Francis Boynton, and the second was a hotel, built by Henry L. Ellsworth and operated by James L. Hatton. The first home was that of Aaron Wood, who as a consequence ran a little store that supplied groceries, beer and whiskey.

Other further on establishments in Oxford included the Earl & Carnahan sober goods amassing and Barnes & Dailey drug store. The town’s first lawyer was Jacob Benedict and its first physician Dr. Mayo. An 1883 history as well as makes hint of the community’s first teacher society, the Oxford Lyceum.