Editing Avilla, Missouri (section)

===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".<ref name="Livingston, Vol 1">A history of Jasper County, Missouri, and its people, Volume 1 By Joel Thomas Livingston</ref> 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 neighbor.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> 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 [[Indiana]] in a wagon drawn by a team of horses in the 1840s and built a farm just east of the future town site. The first schoolhouse in the Avilla area was a one-room, dirt-floor log cabin also founded in the 1840s, called [[Avilla R-13 School District|White Oak School]], located about {{convert|1.5|mi|km}} southeast near White Oak Creek.<ref name="ReferenceB">1883 History of Jasper County Missouri, McDonald Township</ref> 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 {{convert|400|acre|sqkm}} farm. The town of Avilla was founded in 1856 and platted and laid out for public use 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.<ref>The biographical record of Jasper County, Missouri By Malcolm G. McGregor</ref> A ''Dr Young'' later came just before the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] and established a medical office within the town limits.<ref name="Livingston, Vol 1" />

{{quote box|width=37em|bgcolor=|align=right|quote="The Indians, during the eighteen thirties, were plentiful but were for the
most part friendly, and made war on nothing except the smoke-house
and the corn-crib."|source=Excerpt from ''A history of Jasper County, Missouri, and its people, Volume 1 By Joel Thomas Livingston.''}}

====Indigenous People====

This had been the hunting grounds of the [[Osage Indians]] who were known to have camped at nearby [[Spring River (Missouri)|Spring River]], about {{convert|3|mi|km}} to the south.  Their lands to the east had been previously purchased by the government in 1808 ([[Treaty of Fort Clark]]) and other tribes had been moved to this location as well, and then later all were moved again to the Osage Nation areas elsewhere.  Notwithstanding, a few that possibly returned or had simply refused to leave could still be seen trading in Avilla and the nearby towns throughout the [[History of the United States (1789–1849)|Antebellum]] Period.<ref name="ReferenceB" />

====Avilla at the Beginning of the Civil War====
[[File:US flag 33 stars.svg|thumb|Flying steadfast over Avilla, 33 stars graced [[Old Glory]] at the onset of the American Civil War. Town leaders were [[Southern Unionist|Unconditional Unionists]] and remained aligned with newly elected president [[Abraham Lincoln]] throughout the Civil War tragedy.]]
By 1861 there were several small river mill settlements, some mining camps and about nine or ten towns (seven platted) in Jasper County, Missouri.  Avilla was newly formed and "bustling" with over one hundred citizens (compare with the county seat of [[Carthage, Missouri|Carthage]] that had an estimated population between four and five hundred at that time).<ref name="ReferenceA" /> As in all of the border state towns, families in Avilla were split over the question of [[Missouri secession]], and some were slave owners. Dr. Jaquillian M. Stemmons actually owned eight inherited slaves himself; however, he and the other town leaders were [[Southern Unionist|Unconditional Unionists]] and remained aligned with newly elected president [[Abraham Lincoln]]. Dr. J.M. Stemmons never bought or sold slaves and was known to have retained his family inherited slaves simply for their very own safety.  He supported the abolition of [[slavery in the United States]].  Avilla's political alignment was in sharp contrast to neighboring [[Sarcoxie, Missouri|Sarcoxie]] to the south, where the first regional [[Confederate flag]] was raised. The rebel "Stars & Bars" also flew over Carthage {{convert|10|mi|km}} to the west in 1861, following an early Confederate victory at [[Battle of Carthage (1861)|the Battle of Carthage]] on July 5. At a distance of only two counties away, [[Arkansas]] had already become the ninth state to secede, and on October 28, 1861, Governor [[Claiborne Fox Jackson]] met with the [[Missouri General Assembly]] in [[Neosho, Missouri|Neosho]] and declared [[Missouri]] as the twelfth state to join [[the Confederate States of America]]. In spite of being engulfed by the Confederacy, the United States flag continued to fly over Avilla, boldly hoisted to the top of a flagpole in the town center park and guarded by the townsmen. Schoolhouses were closed and many families evacuated their women and small children to safer areas in other states.<ref name="ReferenceC">The Carthage Press, Centennial edition dated July 5, 1961 (Battle of Carthage)</ref><ref name="Missouri Vol 1901, ppg 418">Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri Vol. III, edited by Howard L. Conard, 1901,  ppg 418</ref>