It was Benjamin Avent 's grandson, Thomas Wesley Avent, born in 1859, who in midlife began the migration from the hill country into Oxford Town. He had been farming land in the area around Liberty Hill, a small rural church in the NE quarter of the county. Judging from his holdings, T.W. Avent was more Varner than Snopes. He owned some 2000 acres and operated a cotton gin. In 1883 Avent married Sidney Parks, the daughter of another large and successful family in Beat Two. Their union was prolific. Thomas and Sidney Avent had 15 children

One of the founders of First National Bank of Oxford.

Excerpt from Faulkner's County: The Historical Roots of Yoknapatawpha by Don Harrison Doyle, 2001, published by North Carolina Press:
“In 1883 Avent married Sidney Parks, the daughter of another large and resourceful family in Beat Two. Their union was prolific. Thomas and Sidney Avent had fifteen children, but nine died during birth or infancy.
It was the tragic loss of their daughter that compelled them to forsake the country for town. Somehow during cotton ginning time, September 1900, Etta, almost four years old, wandered into the gin and was mangled by the machinery. Thomas and Sidney were deeply distraught and decided to sell the gin and the farm and move to town. They wanted their remaining five sons to acquire better schooling in Oxford so that they would have a chance to escape rural life. Thomas, now over forty, sold the property in Liberty Hill and moved his family into Oxford to start their new life. The Avents, in fact, had swapped their land for a store in Oxford, but it was only after they arrived that they discovered they were duped. The business was heavily encumbered, and the Avents would face some difficult times getting on their feet again. While Thomas worked at the store, Sidney ran a boardinghouse at their home on Madison and North Fourteenth. Despite their shaky beginning, Thomas Avent rose in wealth and position. In 1910, in partnership with Colonel Falkner, he became one of the founders and directors of the First Nation Bank.
The Avent family rapidly became a prominent feature of Oxford business, government, church, and social affairs. All five sons established prominent positions in banking, farming, medicine, and business. The Avent children "evidenced a marked degree of ambition,” it was said, because of their father's early business reversals in Oxford. They "had to make their own way and with some assistance to each other were quite successful in achieving their goals in the quest of an education and establishing themselves as influential business and professional men in their communities.” Together they established a kind of Snopesian conglomerate of enterprise and power in the community. John Edward Avent was an officer in the bank with his father and Colonel Falkner, and he became a leading merchant and civic booster who was constantly involved in campaigns to promote Oxford's growth. John, alas, had been one of the more enthusiastic promoters of Oxford's oil boom in 1920. Willie Avent was a large farmer in the southern part of the county. James Kirl Avent became a physician and was elected president of the Mississippi Medical Association. Audley Avent had large farming interests and owned Avent Gin and a retail grocery in Oxford. He also acquired “extensive” real estate holdings, joined his brother as director of the bank, was elected city alderman, served as deacon of First Baptist Church, and became a major benefactor of the church. All the Avents were successful, prosperous, and upstanding members of the community.
ream.”