The University of Mississippi has long been known for its superb Town and Gown relations. In July 2001, Chancellor Robert Khayat spoke at the Inaugural of Mayor Richard Howorth.
“In 1835, Thomas Dudley Isom traveled south with his inheritance - a horse, a saddle, and a bridle - to the part of Lafayette County known as "the ridge." The second son of James and Mary Gale, natives of Virginia, Thomas was gifted with the adventurous spirit of his forebears. He journeyed first to Tullahoma, Mississippi, then was sent by his uncle, John J. Craig, a partner in the trading post of Chisolm, Martin, and Craig in Pontotoc, with a stock of goods to set up trading with the Chickasaw Indians on the present site of Oxford. To conduct business, he built a three-room log cabin carved by hand out of the virgin forest. Thus, Thomas Dudley Isom became Oxford's first white settler.”

Fred Craig
“The historical markers at Oxford indicate that one Thomas Dudley Isom, also from Maury County, Tennessee, was the first white settler in Oxford. However other evidence suggests that John J. Craig arrives at Oxford before him.
On the other hand, it is not difficult to conclude that they traveled the Natchez Trace together. The families had obviously been acquainted for many years since the records show they both left North Carolina for Tennessee at about the same time, and they both left Tennessee for Mississippi at about the same time.
T.D. Isom was a clerk in Craig's trading post before he went off to study medicine. T.D. Isom and JJ. Craig were more than business associates, they became brothers-in-law when Craig married Sara Gale Isom, T.O.'s sister. They also became stepbrothers when David Craig, Jr., a widower and John's father who also migrated to Lafayette County, married Mary Gale Isom, T. D.'s widowed mother.”

The book “Physicians and Surgeons of the United States” published in 1878 says that he studied medicine at Transylvania University and Jefferson Medical College, getting his MD in 1839 and settling in Oxford, Mississippi the next year. Also attended the Louisville Medical School in 1841. Surgeon in the 17th Mississippi Regiment at the beginning of the Civil War and opened the Mississippi Hospital at Warrington, Virginia.