Lyon Drug & Variety Store

Whether they needed medicine for sick children or food for their families, Nauvoo residents could rely on the Lyon Drug Store to care for those in need.

Brothers Windsor P. and Carlos W. Lyon opened the Lyon Drug Store in April 1840. In about 1843, that store was replaced by a newer brick building a block east. A reconstruction of that building can be toured today.

The Lyon brothers’ store was one of several drug stores in Nauvoo. Advertisements in local newspapers like the Nauvoo Neighbor detail the remedies people bought that claimed to cure everything from coughs to worms. The store sold medical treatments and dry goods, ranging from wool and dishes to cured meat and produce. The Lyons mainly received their products from cities such as St. Louis, Missouri, delivered by steamboats on the Mississippi River. However, the brothers also accepted goods in exchange for items in the store.