The Avoca Township post office opened in 1838, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Avoca (1838) and Lodemia (1877), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 417188 years
Founding year: the first Avoca Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Avoca Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The name Avoca was given to the area by Nicholas Hefner, and means “the meeting of the waters,” the two branches of the Vermilion River uniting in this township.
The first permanent settler in the township was Isaac Jourdan, who came with his wife from Brown County, Illinois in December 1830. There were but two other families in Livingston County at that time. Four more families settled in the area the following spring – William Popejoy, John Hanneman, Uriah Blue and Abner Johnson.
Passages that mention Avoca Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The History of Livingston County, Illinois1878 · page 386Read the page →
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The first school taught in Avoca Township was by Samuel Breese, commencing in the Fall of 1835 and continuing until the next Spring. Mrs. McDowell, the widow of William McDowell, Nathan Popejoy, who first settled in Pontiac Township, and James Blake, built the first school house. It was a little log cabin, 16x18 feet, having a big wood fire-place that would take in a stick ten feet long ; and in this cabin Breese taught the first school as noted above. James McDowell held the office of School Treasurer for twenty-seven years in succession. Lyman Burgit was the first Treasurer, but died soon after
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The History of Livingston County, Illinois1878 · page 332Read the page →
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the Peace was Rev. John Darnall, who, in addition to being a preacher, was a Justice of the Peace, Postmaster, and a man of considerable importance in the neighborhood. He was the first Postmaster, and was commissioned some years after the post office had been established in Avoca Township. His appointment came about in this wise : As the country settled up, the people of the neighborhood concluded they must have a post office, and accordingly petitioned for one. The name of Robert Smith was mentioned in the petition for Postmaster, but as he was the only Whig in the settlement, and Long John Wentworth, of
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
By decade
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Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
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Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Avoca Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1935Pontiac sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Avoca Township.
Famous people
Famous people close to Avoca Township
Nobody well known was born in Avoca Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
