It is unclear whether the town is named after either Oxford in England, or more particularly after its university, but it is more probable that it was named after Samuel Wilberforce, who was the Bishop of Oxford from 1845 to 1870.
Samuel Beckett | Samuel Taylor Coleridge | Samuel Johnson | Samuel Pepys | Samuel L. Jackson | William Wilberforce | Samuel R. Delany | Samuel Barber | Samuel Goldwyn | Samuel | Samuel Alito | Samuel Butler | Samuel Ramey | Samuel Morse | Samuel Gompers | Samuel de Champlain | Samuel Sewall | Samuel Richardson | Samuel Hill | Samuel Fuller | Samuel Purchas | Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood | Samuel Foote | Samuel Butler (novelist) | Samuel Sánchez | Samuel Rogers | Samuel Rivera | Samuel Pierpont Langley | Samuel J. Tilden | Samuel Gridley Howe |
Bishop Samuel Wilberforce became rector in 1830, and used to entertain his father, anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce.
Other well-known people who visited included Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond on 6 September 1807 (there is a plaque commemorating his visit), Sir Joseph Paxton (1856) (designer of The Crystal Palace), Bishop Samuel Wilberforce (1858), Lord Byron (1913) and Sir Walter Scott (1818).
Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, disliked the building and had it rebuilt in 1855-1857 by the Oxford Diocesan architect, G. E. Street.