What a difference 149 years can make.
When the First Universalist Church of Minneapolis was founded in 1859, Minneapolis was a new frontier town in
a one-year-old state. In many respects, it still was a wild, untamed place.
Picture what the city looked like: Streets were grimy dirt roads, spotted with horse manure and tobacco spit. Pigs, dogs, chickens and even cows roamed the city, despite citizens' complaints. Women who ventured out on the filthy board-walk streets could hike up their ankle-length dresses (to a modest level), but their laced-up boots and layers of petticoats were caked with muck. (No fun to hand-wash, starch and iron.)
