The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Pioneers who came to this region in the 1830s and 1840s saw a "beautiful prairie land, interspersed with timbered belts along winding streams". Settlement of the grasslands presented more challenges than other types of terrain, and for this reason, northeastern Jasper County developed more slowly than the rest of the county. Split-log homes were built near wooded locations, and rock and sod were also used in early constructions. Although families were many miles apart, they still called each other neighbors. Some of the earliest settlers near present-day Avilla were John K. Gibson in 1831 (just across the Lawrence County line), James Blackwell in 1835, and John Fishburn on White Oak Creek in 1836. Nelson Knight was the first settler on the prairie north of Avilla, building a cabin and farm in 1837, and Jasper County itself was established in 1841. Thomas Buck came all the way from India…
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Start Avilla’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Avilla’s history is told.
0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Avilla
See all 1 →
Avilla, decade by decade
2000
1 historic place in Avilla
1 place in Avilla is on the National Register of Historic Places, the country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
Where they are
When they were listed
Then & now
When neighbors add old photos, retakes from the same spot appear here side by side.
Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (3). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.