In 1921, Jewish veterans of the
British Army during
World War I settled on desert land allocated to it by the
British Mandate government in the northeastern
Negev, near
Tel Arad. However, the settlement was abandoned after no water was found. As part of the
Settlement of the Thousand scheme, a new village was founded in the
Emek Hefer on 19 July 1932 on a stretch of sand dunes on land owned by the
Jewish National Fund. The founders were veterans of the Zion Mule Corps and the
Jewish Legion, battalions of the British Army that had fought under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel
John Henry Patterson, a vocal Zionist advocate and the "godfather of the Israeli army". Colonel Patterson visited the moshav in 1937, and in his last years expressed his desire to be buried in Israel with his men. In 1946 Avihayil merged with the neighboring moshav,
Ein HaOved. The founders were
immigrants from
Canada,
Russia and the
United States, as well as several
natives of
Eretz Israel. In 1947, Avihayil had a population of 600. In 1967 there were 605 inhabitants, and its economy was based on intensive mixed farming including citrus. It established "Beit HaGedudim", a
museum of the Jewish Legion and clubhouse for veterans. Colonel Patterson died in
California in 1947, less than a year before the establishment of the State of Israel, and was interred at
Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery in
Los Angeles. In 2014, Patterson's ashes were brought to Israel and buried at the moshav cemetery, in the presence of
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other dignitaries. File:כפר אביחיל - מראה כפר אביחיל בעמק חפר.-JNF044936.jpeg|Avihayil 1939 (top of map) File:Umm Khalid 1949.jpg|Avihayil 1939 1:20,000 File:Umm Khalid 1945.jpg|Avihayil 1945 1:250,000 (NE of Natanya) ==Notable residents==