During the early 1880's when the Seth Eells family (Seventh-day Adventists) began moving by stages from West Pierrepont (Southeast of Canton, NY on County Route 24 just North of the intersection with County Route 27) to Averyville (West of Lake Placid, NY on County Route 23). The Stevens family lived next door and Minnie Stevens made friends with the Eells girls. She liked to come over mornings and listen to their family worship.

Eventually, George Stevens married Emma Eells. He was baptized July 4, 1886 and she two years later. Some years later Elders F. H. DeVinney and Harry Bristol held an evangelistic effort in Saranac Lake where the Stevens and Alice Eells Wilcox and her husband Frank had gone to live. In 1899 George Stevens' mother, his two sisters, Minnie and Floy, his sister-in-law Louise, Flossie Wilcox, and Minnie Kelley were baptized. On June 10th, 1900, eleven more were baptized. On November 10th, 1902, all nineteen took their letters of membership from the Keene, NY, Seventh-day Adventist Church, and the Saranac Lake Church was officially organized. The little group built a small church at 177 Lake Flower Avenue, next to where the La Bella Restaurant now stands (as of 2003). It was a 2-room building heated by wood, and sat on a hill with a long stairway up to it and a parking lot on the street across the road.