Oxford Store Donates Historic Ledgers to UM

OXFORD, Miss. (WCBI) — One local North Mississippi store is making a historical donation.

The J.E. Neilson Co. department store in Oxford is donating more than 60 volumes of ledgers to the University of Mississippi’s Archives and Special Collections.

This store has recorded many historic events, from how much William Faulkner purchased, to the day after the events of October 1, 1962.

This place is also the oldest continuously operating store in the South.

“It can attract, you know, historians, social historians, economic historians, scholars of Southern studies, students interested in Oxford’s history, genealogists, people studying their own families,” said Jennifer Ford, UM Library Archives and Special Collections.

In addition to the ledgers, the collection also includes correspondence between store founder William Smith Neilson and his suppliers.