Oct. 24, 1859. A small group of men met in a hotel near the Mississippi River in Minneapolis to organize the First Universalist Society of Minneapolis. There were only about 1,600 people in the village, which included only the settlement on the west side of the river. Many of the men were leaders in the village. They owned sawmills to create the lumber to build houses and stores and hotels and factories. They owned mills that ground wheat into flour to make bread. Unlike people in other Christian churches, they believed that God wouldn't send some people to heaven and others to hell, but that everyone would go to heaven.