Avoca Township is located in Livingston County, Illinois. As of the 2010 census, its population was 405 and it contained 149 housing units. Avoca Township is situated in the southern part of Livingston County, and is bounded on the north by Owego Township, on the east by Pleasant Ridge Township, on the south by Indian Grove Township and on the west by Eppards Point. Avoca is drained by the Vermillion River. The confluence of the north and south branch of the river is near the center of the township. Avoca was once primarily prairie with about a quarter of the land in timber along the river. The land is now primarily agricultural. Geography According to the 2010 census, the township has a total area of , of which (or 99.73%) is land and (or 0.27%) is water. Demographics History 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. The earliest settlers located in the timber along the Vermilion River. The method for making a claim in these days was by blazing the trees in the timber or staking it off on the prairie. The land was not surveyed until 1833. Every family squatted wherever they wanted, providing no one else had preceded them. On May 5, 1832, William McDowell and his wife Sarah and their six children arrived from Indiana. The children included five sons (John, Woodford G., James, Hiram and Joseph B.) and one daughter. The McDowell's immediately built a cabin. Their primary tool was an ax. They had brought with them a few panes of glass for a window. They purchased the boards for the door and window casing from the Kickapoo Indians located in nearby Oliver's Grove. The McDowell's would become and remain a prominent family in the history of the area. In the latter part of May 1832, the Black Hawk War broke out in Illinois and the entire settlement in Avoca departed to their former homes. They returned in the fall