I've had a copy of Craik's 1922 History of the Church of the Brethren in Kansas (aka the Dunkards) for quite a while, but it didn't have an index. Now I have an index and have found a bunch of Bower and Bowers listings, some of which don't belong to my Bower line. For instance, page 29 has a JOHN BOWER who was minister of the Washington Creek congregation during the grasshopper plague of 1874. This is near Lawrence KS in Douglas County. His name appears on page 389 as one of the Representatives on the Standing Committee of Annual Conference for the church in 1862 and 1864. I think I've seen information elsewhere that ties him to the Shively and Ulrich families. (Since my Bower line also ties to Shively, I thought surely he belonged to us, but he doesn't.) He may be the same person as JOHN BOWERS mentioned on page 215 as one of a group of Elders called in by the Pleasant Grove congregation during the "Hoppingite schism," which apparently centered on the mode of foot washing used during Love Feast (communion). Elder JOHN BOWERS appears again on p 252 in connection with the organization in 1877 of the Wade Branch congregation. "Elder John Bowers had charge of the services, which took place in the born of John H. Ayres..." And on page 259 his name crops up in connection with the Washington Creek congregation and a new minister named James E Hilkey: "In 1868, he was ordained by Elder John Bowers." On page 260, he crops up again in the narrative concerning the same Washington Creek congregation: "Elders in charge have been...John Bowers, ...[and others]" More information about this John Bowers appears on page 265, in the narrative about the Wolf River congregation in Doniphan County, second congregation of the Brethren in Kansas. "It was at a Love Feast held at the home of Jacob H. Root in September 1859 that the Wolf River church was organized. Elders Abraham Rothrock, of Lawrence, and JOHN BOWERS, late of Montgomery county, Ohio, having the work of organization in charge..." (Abraham Rothrock was one of the preachers later shot by Quantrill's raiders during their infamous raid on the Lawrence community.) Elder John Bowers' name crops up again on page 314 in a biography of James Edward Hilkey, noting that Hilkey was ordained to the eldership by Elder John Bowers in 1868. (I suppose that being an elder is similar to being a bishop in other churches, except that the Brethren have more of a grassroots kind of heirarchy instead of authority coming from the top down.) I hope he belongs to somebody out there. Jan T