'Oxford City founded in 1870s by land swindlers' by Jeanne Williams.Temple Daily Telegram

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Milam Co.’s Paper Chase

Oxford City founded in 1870s by land swindlers

by Jeanne Williams

Temple Daily Telegram - September 27, 2010

MILANO — The Texas Land and Colonization Company lured inner-city laborers with offers

of $1 lots in the idyllic setting of a fledgling railroad town called Oxford City in

Milam County.

When the dust settled, Oxford City emerged as one of the most famous land swindles of

1876-77, and those who bought lots wound up with worthless property titles, empty

promises, broken dreams and a loss of money.

The Texas Land and Colonization Company bilked 7,000 to 8,000 northern residents until

newspapers dogged the perpetrators and published incriminating stories, fueling angry

victims to launch inquiries. Dealings of the land company led to investigations by the

Texas Legislature and Texas Attorney General.

The Oxford City scandal left in its wake a publicly embarrassed Milam County clerk, J.C.

Rogers, who apparently worked with the swindlers for a share of the proceeds.

Basil McGregor’s 1965 book “Milano, Texas: A History” places Oxford City in the area now

known as Seven Cedars Park, a one-acre Texas Department of Transportation roadside rest

stop east of Milano on U.S. Highway 79 built on land deeded March 24, 1955, by Texas

multimillionaire H.H. Coffield of Rockdale.

Oxford City, curiously, was given a measure of undeserved credibility by The Milano

Gazette, listing Oxford marriages and deaths in the 1920s. Oxford “at one time was laid

out in town blocks and lots” near the railroad tracks, McGregor’s history stated.

Lots were sold “to northern people who came down later trying to locate their property

and were surprised that they had nothing.”

Oxford City had one resident, and he might have been a shill planted by the company.

Iowa emigrant William Barnhouse wrote The Galveston Daily News praising the company for

founding a town site near a railroad on idyllic rural land furnished in oak, hickory and

wildflowers and watered by Pin Oak Creek, and defending the executives as honest people.

Barnhouse settled in Oxford, built a house, and was appointed postmaster on Jan. 24,

1877, but the post office was discontinued less than a month later. Barnhouse soon moved

away, McGregor’s history states.

The Milam County township was not the only phony city promoted to would-be Texans in

northern states. Lots in the fake Texas towns of Mineral City in Grayson County and

Empire City in Brown County were advertised. The swindle reached international

proportions with The Galveston Daily News reporting Nov. 11, 1877, that in England,

promoters were offering free lots in Oxford City, Texas.

“Colonists Beware” was The Philadelphia Times’ 1877 headline of a lengthy article

exposing the Texas Land and Co lonization Co. for fraud, perpetuated from offices at 156

W. Fourth St. in Cincinnati, Ohio, and branches in St. Louis, Chicago and smaller

western cities.

Swindlers lured city dwellers with the promise of 25-by-100 foot lots in Oxford City for

the “remarkably small sum of $1 each” with a tax-clear warranty deed to Jan. 1, 1878,

and a “grand free excursion” train ride to Oxford City for all deed holders.

The dollar fee was “merely for the purpose of paying the cost of drawing and

acknowledging the deed,” The Philadelphia Times reported. Land representatives kept

postponing the train trip, and buyers became suspicious and vocal.

One land promoter was Cincinnati shoemaker M.O. Keefe, who promised mechanics and

laborers crowded in a small room above a saloon at 11th and Master streets, and at

curbside meetings that lots would be sold to a man, his wife and children.

Swindlers produced a Texas map pinpointing Oxford, but “some people did not hesitate to

say that the name had been stamped upon the map after it has been printed,” newspapers

charged. One reporter stated that “the nearest semblance to the town of Oxford that has

yet to be discovered is a house in Milam County on which a board is nailed bearing the

inscription ‘Oxford.’”

A spur from the nearby International and Great Northern Railroad connecting to Oxford

City was promised but never materialized.

The St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported June 7, 1877, that a former partner interviewed by

the newspaper detailed the scam and incriminated Rogers for pocketing a 25 percent share

of the profits for each deed filed — from sales exceeding $500 a week.

Rogers, a former sheriff and judge, published an “explanation” in The Rockdale Messenger

stating he worked with the company as allowed by law not knowing dealings were

fraudulent. When Rogers learned land was not being developed as promised he severed

dealings with the group. The scandal did not tarnish Rogers’ reputation because Milam

County voters re-elected him county clerk in 1878.

Seven Cedars Park, east of Milano, marks the site of fictional Oxford City, a major land swindle of the 1870s.

Photo by Shirley Williams

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