Prior to the 1820s, what is now Oxford Township was known to be a hunting ground of the Nepessing Tribe of the Chippewa Indians, who inhabited large areas of what became Oakland, Lapeer and St. Clair counties. Between 1810 and the early 1820s, numerous settlers visited the Oxford area, primarily to hunt and trap. The first documented sale of public land in this area was recorded in 1823 to Elbridge Deming, who later built a log cabin on land in section 9 (in the area of M-24 and Metamora Road) of the township, around the spring of 1832.