In 1833, the Georgia Methodist Conference considered establishing a church-sponsored manual labor school where students would combine farm work with a college preparatory curriculum. Two years later, the Conference opened the Georgia Conference Manual Labor School, but the institution soon faced financial challenges and disbanded. After the labor school's failure, the Conference granted Methodist preacher Ignatius Few a charter to establish a new college named after John Emory, a Methodist bishop who was involved in the labor school's founding but had died in a carriage accident before it opened. In 1836, the new school, Emory College, was established on a tract of land in Newton County, one mile north of Covington, Georgia. The site was chosen because of its distance from the city, which the school's founders feared would be a source of distraction for its students. The campus and the immediate surroundings were planned and built in 1837 by Edward Lloyd Thomas, a Georgia land surveyor who also planned the city of Columbus, Georgia. On 23 December 1839, the state legislature incorporated the city of Oxford, named after the "alma mater" of the founders of the Methodist movement, Charles and John Wesley, the University of Oxford. Because the college and town were founded only three years apart, many of the town's early residents were involved in the college's founding and continued to be involved in its daily activities.