History of Mt. Zion
The Historic Story of Wilson Post Office
From excerpts of The History of Mt. Zion Community edited by Virginia Gosnell
The Wilson Post Office was the first building in what is now the Village of Mt. Zion. It was built as a stopping place on the old Paris-Springfield road (Main Street, and Rt 121 south), the only road across the Illinois prairies from east to west at that time.
It was an Inn or Tavern, a place,where one could get a good meal, a night's rest and care for ones horses. People from settlements all around came to Wilson's post office for their mail or to send letters back to friends and relatives where they had lived before. It is said that Abraham Lincoln had slept there.
Some years later, as settlers increased in number a general store was opened in what is now the business part of Mt. Zion, known as the Skillman and Mays store. The Post Office was set up in that location.
The house was then used as a residence for many years. From 1886 to 1910 it was the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Scott when they retired from farming. In 1910 the house was moved to another location in the village, it has been remodeled several times and is still in use as a home on Henderson Street.
The stage coach brought mail through the town twice a week if the roads were passable. The route was from Terre Haute, Ind. to Springfield, IL. Around the year 1873 the railroad came through and shortly thereafter the mail came by this method.
The village was laid out in 1860. The name of the post office was changed to Mt. Zion Post Office on November 2, 1866. The town took the name from the church which had been organized in 1830. It is a biblical name used for hundreds of churches, a favorite with Presbyterians. Some other U.S. Post Offices named Mt. Zion are found in Georgia, Iowa, North Carolina and West Virginia.
The first federal post office in Mt. Zion was built in 1886 on the southwest corner of Main Street. It was a frame building and run by Mr. Hutchison. This building burned. In 1898 a new post office was built just south of the blacksmith shop which was directly west of the first post office. This was a frame building run by Minerva Vermillion, called "Aunt Nerva, " which she ran for the next twenty four years. Because of the fact that the post office had to be a required number of feet away from the depot before the government would hire someone to transport the mail between the two, the post office was moved to the southeast corner of Main Street. The present post office was dedicated August 18, 1962. The rural route was changed and two city delivery mounted routes were started October 27, 1973.
