Post Office and Mercantile

LOCATION: Main Street

All Sites, Tours, Shows, and Rides at Historic Nauvoo are FREE!

At this site you’ll get two tours for the price of one. A restored post office shares space with the Merryweather Dry Goods Store. Sidney Rigdon was a well known postmaster in Nauvoo and the post office was located in the kitchen of his home. Later, Elias Smith conducted the postal business in his printing office.

Boxes like these were used by the Nauvoo Postmaster to sort mail

Mail arrived in Nauvoo about three times a week, coming up and down the river by steamboat or overland by coach or stage. Because mail was sometimes lost or stolen, folks often sent two or three copies of important correspondence. Postage was very expensive, so recipients were frequently asked to pay for the letters they received. Since cash was scarce in Nauvoo, many letters went undelivered. The post office features a mid-1850s era mail-sorting box that was found in the Nauvoo vicinity.

Frederick Merryweather opened his dry goods store in the early spring of 1844. Being a comparative latecomer to Nauvoo, he had to compete with more established businesses, so he advertised his goods at Cincinnati prices. These were apparently the best prices to be had. In this store you’ll see a variety of pottery similar to that produced in Nauvoo in the 1840s. The store houses unique household items, including a fifteen pound sad iron, cabin candelabra, and a ceramic canteen to hold “Haymaker’s Switzel.” Ask about the ingredients. Also included are many items of nineteenth century farm equipment.