La Moille, IL

La Moille’s name reaches back to Vermont’s Lamoille River valley, but the village’s own story starts with Daniel Dimmick’s 1830 settlement in Bureau County. It was first platted as Greenfield, then renamed La Moille soon after. By the time rail service arrived in 1870, the little community had a reason to become a local center: a hotel, churches, stores, doctors, a grain elevator, and a one-room school all gathered around the farm country. The Allen School, built in 1887, is a reminder of that era.

ATTRUnknown author Unknown author / Public domain

La Moille still has the practical shape of a crossroads. Routes 92, 34, and 89 meet around the village, while Pike Creek runs south toward Big Bureau Creek. A 1916 fire changed part of the town’s business district, but the combination of road links and open Bureau County fields still gives La Moille a working crossroads feel. The Vermont name is a nice bit of borrowed geography; the day-to-day character is Illinois through and through, built around grain, highways, creek country, and the old pattern of neighbors coming in from surrounding farms.