Oxford County donations built Mackay's Oxford College in Tamsui

George Leslie Mackay, a Canadian Presbyterian missionary born near Embro in Zorra Township, Oxford County, landed in Tamsui on 9 March 1872 ^[1][2]. For eight years he taught students in his rented home and outdoors, but as their numbers grew there was still no school building ^[1][3].

In 1880 he went home to raise money for a new school, and the Sentinel Review newspaper in Oxford County publicised his cause and led a fundraising drive ^[1][3]. On 14 October 1881, at a farewell ceremony in Woodstock attended by many dignitaries, the people of Oxford County presented him with the money to build a school in Taiwan ^[4].

Back in Tamsui in 1881, Mackay chose the site, planned the building and supervised its construction himself ^[1][3]. He modelled it on a Taiwanese courtyard house and hired local craftsmen to build it ^[5]. Completed on 26 July 1882, it was named Oxford College in English in thanks to the people of Oxford County ^[1]. When it opened on 14 September, eighteen students were admitted to study subjects from Chinese history and geology to anatomy and music ^[1]. More than a century after Mackay reached Tamsui, Aletheia University welcomed representatives of Oxford County residents there ^[6].