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The town of Oxford, New York was originally in the realm of the Oneida and Tuscarora people. Benjamin Hovey of Oxford, Massachusetts purchased some land in this area. The first white settlers came here in 1789. Elijah Blackman arrived from Connecticut and built a primitive log cabin on Cork Island in the Chenango River, living there as a squatter on Hovey's land and awaiting the arrival of his wife and children.
Illness dealyed the arrival of Blackman's wife and younger children, who stopped at Unadilla, New York. His older children, Elijah, Jr., Jabez and their foster sister Polly Knapp pushed on by ox-sled and arrived to join their father in 1791. Mordi Gassner's mural depicts the reunion of Elijah Blackman, Sr. with these children. Accompanying Blackman, Sr. was his friend James Phelps.
When Benjamin Hovey showed up to claim his land, he gave the Blackmans another piece of property up the river from Cork Island, in recognition of the improvements the Blackmans had made. Blackman, Sr. lived there until his death in 1825.