POST OFFICE (NASHVILLE): 

William C. Nash and his men carried mail by pony cart in the summer and huskies in the winter on the most difficult of six federally authorized Minnesota routes in 1851. By 1863, the future East Grand Forks site was a primitive trader camp called Wolf Point. The United States Postal Service set up the first post office here and named it Tillia with Nash as its postmaster.

When Nash performed a marriage, probably because he was the only federal employee, between Miss Scott and Mr. Haney he did not know what to put for place. The second marriage was performed by Chaplain Woat after a 300-mile trip to officiate. When filling out the certificate he realized he didn’t know where he was either. He wrote in Nashville. The Postal Service officially renamed the Tillia Post Office Nashville June 26, 1874.

On April Fool’s Day, 1883 the Post Office relocated to Postmaster Howe’s Hardware Store was officially designated East Grand Forks due in part to a petition of 80 signatures. The current Post Office was built in 1938.

Ruby on the Red: East Grand Forks, Minnesota by Dr. Stephen B. Sylvester. East Grand Forks Centennial Committee East Grand Forks, Minnesota 1988. A Meeting of the Reds, Vol. 1