and (Old French's) grocery store (center).
1831–1861 Founders of Avilla 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. Arriving with his family in 1853, Dr. Jaquillian M. Stemmons was the first physician to practice medicine in the Avilla area, doing so from his farm. The town of Avilla was founded in 1856 and platted and laid out for public use on July 23, 1858, by Andrew L. Love and David S. Holman. Mr. Love was the first Justice of the Peace, and Mr. Holman was the first merchant and postmaster, establishing the post office in 1860. A Dr. Young later came just before the
Civil War and established a medical office within the town limits.
1861–1865 Confederate guerrillas attack Dr. Jaquillian M. Stemmons, an early settler, town leader, and staunch Union man, organized a company of local men and neighbors in Avilla for the protection of their own homes from roaming bands of
bushwhackers. In 1861, this town
militia, also known as the "Avilla Home Guard", was one of the first in the area and consisted predominantly of the oldest citizens, as most of the younger men were leaving to join regular military forces. This action was strongly opposed by local secessionists, and it was even rumored that a price had been placed on the doctor's head. By March 1862, the town militia had been tipped off about an impending assault, and General James G. Blunt at
Fort Scott, Kansas had pledged reinforcements, but they had not yet arrived. After nightfall on March 8, 1862, a group of over a hundred pro-
Confederate guerrillas, believed to have been led by
William T. Anderson, attacked northeast of Avilla, routed perimeter sentries, and engaged defenders at Dr. Stemmon’s home. Defending were about 25 town militiamen and some men from Carthage who were there attending a meeting about the organization of a county-wide patrol. A
US Cavalry officer named Captain Tanner was also there recruiting men for the Union Army. The rebels surrounded the two-story log home and were met with heavy gunfire, but the doctor and his sons, Bud, Pole, and Jimmie were trapped inside with many of the men. After numerous attempts to penetrate the defense, amidst flying buckshot and bullets, the attackers managed to ignite the cabin, and it eventually burned to the ground. Dr. Stemmons and Lathan Duncan, an Avilla militiaman, were killed, several others shot and burned, and two were taken prisoner (the number of guerrilla casualties was not recorded). After the house was lost to flames, the heavily outnumbered militia withdrew and scattered in the darkness. They re-formed near the north edge of Avilla and braced for another onslaught, but it did not occur. The guerrilla force instead ended the attack and rode east toward
Springfield, where the two elderly prisoners were later "given stern warnings to leave the state" and released. Dr. J.M. Stemmons had been considered an "influential area figure against secession", and this was thought to be a chief motive for the attack and his murder. Nevertheless, the "defiant and heroic actions" of Dr. Stemmons, Mr. Duncan, and the town militia's "bold resistance" undoubtedly repelled further violence and probably prevented the burning of Avilla on that or ensuing dates. Names that are known of the courageous militiamen and allies defending on that night also included: Miles Overton, George Moose, Jap Moody, Ben Key, Cavalry Chapman, Robert Seymour, Orange Clark, Humphrey Robinson, Tom Driver, James S. Carter, Reuben Fishburn, William Club (seriously wounded), Nelson Knight (taken prisoner), Rabe Paul and Coleman Paul, Isaac Schooler, "Dutch" Brown (taken prisoner), Nip Walker, Peter Baker, Renard Napper and Cpt. Tanner from
Fort Scott (The Captain was a Union Army Recruiting Officer and reportedly continued to fight after taking a shotgun blast to the face).
1865–1900 Boom town during the Reconstruction Era Avilla fended off and avoided destruction during the Civil War, and was an overnight boom town during the
Reconstruction Era at war's end. Merchandise and construction materials were hauled by wagon train from
Sedalia, Missouri, the closest railroad shipping point to Avilla. Much of Jasper County lay in ruins, and local merchants and businessmen grew wealthy during the rebuilding of Carthage, Sarcoxie, and other nearby war-damaged communities. Many old-time residents later claimed that Avilla had actually been the largest operating town in Jasper County after hostilities ended, for a short time. Commerce even came from as far away as Kansas, by farmers traveling to Avilla to buy seed, building supplies, and provisions. Captain Thomas Jefferson Stemmons, a Union commander and son of the late Dr. J.M. Stemmons, returned home to Avilla and started a mercantile with partner D. B. Rives, which was the first new business established after the Civil War. The first hotel was called The Avilla House and was erected two years later, in 1868, by Justice Hall. Through the 1870s and 1880s there were two general stores (dry goods & clothing), two grocery stores, one or more doctor's offices, one "notion" (sewing) store, two boot & shoe stores, one livery & feed stable, three churches, a drug store, a
Grand Army of the Republic post (GAR) and two "secret societies": the
Freemasons Lodge and the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows Lodge (IOOF) and houses sprang up everywhere. Located at what is now named "School Street", the
first Avilla school in town was built in the 1880s and taught grades 1 through 12 (called lower, upper, and high school). Sources disagree, but some documents cite the town's population at over five hundred during these years, not including families on the farms encircling just beyond the town limits. Despite the initial spurt after the Civil War, the growth of the town was stunted because the railroad was not built through Avilla. pupils 1936–1937
Avilla Zouaves in the Spanish–American War After the battleship
USS Maine exploded at Havana, Cuba, in February 1898, a "war fever" against Spain swept through America with the cry: "Remember the
Maine!" On March 4, 1898, a highly charged war rally was held at the Avilla Methodist Church. Three attorneys gave rousing speeches to the packed house, fueled with patriotic songs from a ladies' choir. As a result, fifty-three young men immediately volunteered for military service in a new company that would be known as the
Avilla Zouaves. These units were characterized by colorful uniforms and/or precision drilling patterned after the French Zouaves, and were very stylish in the 19th century military. The Avilla youth would be designated in the
US Army as Company G, 5th Missouri Infantry Regiment. Two months later, the new Avilla unit was escorted by flag-bearing
GAR members to the Carthage Train Depot, and with music from the Light Guard Band were ceremoniously sent off for battle in the
Spanish–American War. The fighting in Cuba was over quickly, and the 5th Missouri Infantry was mustered out on November 9, 1898, before the Avilla Zouaves saw any action. Although they did not fight in the war, this event illustrates the raw patriotic spirit of Avilla, Missouri, still present in 1898. Mr. Ivy E. Russell became majority stockholder and cashier in 1919, remaining for its duration, with the stock ledger ending in 1944. Handling farm and business loans, the small bank remained profitable even through the
Great Depression of the 1930s, though records are incomplete. This in itself is quite remarkable, as almost half of the banks in America had either closed or merged in the 1930s. The productive farms surrounding the town had established Avilla as a valuable agricultural and livestock raising community. The Bank of Avilla was the target of a successful armed robbery on May 18, 1932, by members of the notorious "Irish O'Malley Gang", which also resulted in the kidnapping of the cashier. The O'Malley Gang were typical Depression-era outlaws who had merged with another group of thugs known as the "Ozark Mountain Boys". On that Wednesday in 1932, the bank cashier, Mr. Ivy E. Russell, was robbed at gunpoint inside the bank by two men. He was then kidnapped and driven toward Carthage, Mo, where he was tossed out of the car and left by the roadside. One of the culprits was a "sawed-off shotgun-wielding gangster" In 1938 Frank Layton and Jack Miller were pulled over by police in Arkansas, and were charged with violating the 1934 National Firearms Act (because of Jack's sawed-off shotgun). This in turn became part of a famous landmark
Second Amendment case known as "
The Miller Case" and
United States v. Miller. Jack Miller himself was murdered one month before the Supreme Court's decision. Jack's bullet-riddled body turned up on the bank of Spencer Creek in Rogers County, Oklahoma.
Avilla "Gets Kicks" on Route 66 The trail that went through the center of Avilla, east & west, was known as "Old Carthage Road", and it was paved and became part of
U.S. Route 66 in the late 1920s. This kept business flowing as the little town became one of the stops on "The Mother Road", the main highway through the heart of America in those years. Population growth had already apexed before the 20th century but the town continued to make modern improvements such as a volunteer fire department, a hardware store & lumber yard (owned by Raymond Ziler, burned in 1971), a barbershop, a beauty salon, (Florida Melugin's or "Old Flo's") tavern, The Avilla Cafe (Jack & Nadine "Sours" Couch), several auto service stations (in town and proximity) and repair shops for farm equipment and automobiles, a farm implement sales (Chapman-Follmers), a seed mill, a
Boy Scout meeting hall (Scoutmaster Joseph A. Norris Sr.) and in later years even an arena grounds was constructed for the Avilla
Rodeo (Avilla Saddle Club) west of town. A larger school building was also built, and the old
one-room school houses, which were still operating and spread out in that part of Jasper County, were consolidated and centralized in Avilla. The original country schoolhouse teachers were brought together to form the elementary/middle school
Avilla R-13 School District. The Avilla school became the only one in the district. Because the school spans grades kindergarten though eighth, high school level students thereafter were sent to neighboring
Carthage,
Sarcoxie,
Jasper,
Miller or
Golden City, Missouri, for continued studies. in 2009, this addition to the older school building was constructed in the 1970s.
1970 – present Living ghost town Avilla had actually started to decline in the 1940s after World War II, when greater numbers of people (especially young adults) from the already small community began moving to larger industrial cities for employment opportunities. The final turning point was in the 1960s, when
US Route 66 was bypassed with
I-44 (the
Interstate Highway System). The lost commerce due to the diverted traffic caused many of the remaining businesses to fail or to be relocated in the 1970s. In 1971, a large fire broke out at the Avilla lumberyard, which destroyed several buildings, including most of the lumber company, the Boy Scout Meeting Hall, and some private residences. The lumberyard was later rebuilt, but by the late 1970s, deteriorating town shops had been sold & resold, and finally deserted. The only trades that survived were the ones that could be sustained by the dwindling local population and area farming operations. Most of the earliest buildings are now gone, replaced by noticeable empty spaces and vacant lots. US Route 66 was redesignated
MO Route 96 in 1985, but by then Avilla was already a small, quiet rural community not unlike what is witnessed there today. Few abandoned structures remain within the present village as silent reminders of the town's heyday. Avilla is considered one of the living "ghost towns of old Route 66". It was never completely abandoned and retains its village status today. Many antique country homes and farmhouses can be seen dotted about the Avilla countryside, and long-established family traditions in livestock raising and agriculture continue in the area. The rural community with local 4-H clubs & the Harvest Community Church are currently restoring the Avilla Saddle Club Arena. A few examples of period architecture can still be viewed, such as the iconic 19th-century Avilla (United) Methodist Church, which was the first church established in Avilla, located in the northeast part of town. A Civil War-era mercantile edifice (Stemmons & Rives) also endures near the old park at the west village entrance. Although it has been threatened with closure because of government cut-backs, 21st century visitors and residents can enjoy the nostalgic and well-preserved 1915 bank building, complete with the old time teller windows, vault and vintage postal equipment as it continues to fly
Old Glory and serve as Avilla's US Post Office. ==Notable people==