OXFORD – When Charlotte Stafford was first asked to fill the post of Village Historian, she didn’t know what she was getting into. “I accepted, but I didn’t know what would be involved,” she said.
Now, 31 years later, there isn’t much about the Village of Oxford’s history that Stafford doesn’t know. But then, she came to the position uniquely qualified to document its history.
The 89-year-old Oxford native still lives in the stately white home in which she was born – built by her grandfather Richard Lewis Stafford in 1870.
Her father, George Lewis Stafford, installed one of the town’s first printing presses in an upstairs bedroom of that same house and began publishing the Oxford Review. In 1915, he acquired the Oxford Times and joined the two newspapers into the Oxford Review-Times. He owned the paper for more than 40 years.
Though Charlotte recalls proofing copy for the paper in her youth, her aspirations were not of a journalistic nature. She earned an undergraduate degree in history and French from Elmira College in 1941 and a master’s degree in Library Science from the University of Albany two years later. It wasn’t until she retired as the Norwich Junior High School librarian that she began delving into Oxford’s past.
Shortly after her retirement she worked with Richard Ryan, then town supervisor, on a book commemorating the 175th anniversary of the United States. After completion of the project, Ryan asked Stafford to become historian.
When she accepted the appointed position, there were no records to be passed down from her predecessor. Stafford has accumulated all of the information in the archive herself, much of it at her personal expense, including using her own pencils and paper. “I didn’t even have census records,” she said.
Stafford began by reading every issue of every newspaper published in Oxford from 1812 forward. She created a card file of each name she found associated with Oxford and cross-referenced the information with what she gathered photographing and documenting the grave stones at local cemeteries. It is these resources that she often checks first when a request is received.
According to Stafford, information is often found in unexpected places. Over the years she has accumulated countless letters, postcards, photographs and even journals from a variety of sources. Items have been discovered in attics, trunks, inside walls of houses and even on eBay.
On one occasion, the historian received a box of letters that had been discovered in an old barn. The letters belonged to one of Stafford’s own ancestors, Samuel Stafford, who fought in the 114th Regiment of the New York Volunteers during the Civil War. Charlotte will read a selection from his correspondence this evening during the Reader’s Theater event at 6:30 tonight at 6 on the Square as part of the Village of Oxford’s bicentennial celebrations.
The bicentennial has meant an increased work load for the lady historian. Summer is usually a busy time for genealogy research, but this year phone calls, letters and e-mails are coming in daily.
In preparation for the historic home walking tour this weekend, village residents have been contacting Stafford about the history of their homes. Because of her wealth of knowledge, some of these requests are handled fairly quickly. Others require months of research.
