OLDHAM.
James Oldham was one of the contractors for erecting the
buildings of the University. This work most probably
allured him to the county, and its profits induced him to settle
in it. In 1828 he purchased from the trustees of Benjamin
Hardin the land on the Staunton Road, immediately
east of Mechum's River Depot. There he kept for some
years a house of public entertainment. He seems to have
been of an irascible temper. In such a state of mind he shot
Archelaus Robertson, the son of a neighbor about Christmas
1834. As the grand jury declined to indict him, there
must have been but slight injury, and likely some provocation.
His wife was Mary, daughter of Henry Gambell. He
died in 1843.
