The principal sources drawn upon are listed with reference to specific chapters of this book. Manuscript and pamphlet materials, as well as most of the printed volumes, are in the Miami Collection of Miami University Library. Some folders of pertinent correspondence, clippings, and photographs are on file in the university's archives.

Chapter I. BEGGAR ON HORSEBACK.

  The James McBride Manuscripts Relating to Miami University, edited by John Ewing Bradford (Cincinnati, 1909), were published as part of the observance of the Miami Centennial. This volume contains the Reverend John W. Browne's account of his Eastern tour while seeking donations for the University, the entailing of a college township in the Symmes Purchase and the locating of Miami University, and sketches of the original members of the Board of Trustees. The formal report of Browne's mission, which came to light after more than a century, was printed in the Miami University Bulletin (Alumni News Letter), May 1937. Adoption of the university motto, Prodesse Quam Conspici, is recorded in the Board of Trustees records, September 26, 1826. In the Diamond Anniversary Volume (Miami University, 1899), edited by Walter L. Tobey and William Oxley Thompson, the Symmes patent and the Act of 1794 are reprinted from Laws of the United States, Vol. 1, p. 497. Jane Knox Skinner's bound typescript Background of Oxford Town and Township (1946) contains copies of the Act of 1792, the patent of John Cleves Symmes and an account of the origin of Oxford township in lieu of the College township entailed in the terms of the Symmes purchase; also copies of James McBride's manuscripts, sketches of early Oxford settlers and notes on the first roads in the township. The Journal of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio (Columbus, 1838; reprinted Cincinnati, 1872) includes James McBride's "Sketch of the Topography, Statistics and History of Oxford, and the Miami University," which described the survey of Oxford and its early settlement, the construction of the Univerisity's first buildings, the organizing of the Board of Trustees and the first faculty, and the University's income in its early years.