---------------------------------------- I am researching Jacob Z. Davis (1818-1896), a wealthy resident of San Francisco. I was under the impression that, although his ancestors were important factors in the history of the Germantown COB, he himself was not Brethren. However, there was reference in one of the newspaper articles that I've read to Jacob Z. Davis being a "Dunkard." So, now I'm a little unsure. I am sure that he belonged to the Free Masons, and was Grand Chamberlain of the San Francisco chapter. Also, I should say that there would be a problem with Davis attending the Church, not only because of his Free Masonry, but also due to the fact that there don't appear to have been churches in Sacramento and San Francisco during his lifetime. Thanks. I do not have records about Jacob Davis - but will make a comment - Since there seems to have been no San Francisco Church, Mr Davis seem not to have been attending a Brethren Church, and might have not been for a considerable time. The reference to "Dunkard" would then be more to his church background. He could have been raised Brethren, and joined the church in his youth, and held to some of it in his life (or as the family remembered him) I have several members of the Four Mile Church (Indiana) families who were '49ers or arrived there soon after. There is no record of them being "Brethren" in California, although they seem to have come back to Brethren Churches. Others attended Methodist or Baptist Churches, since they had some similarity to the Brethren. In a quick look-up in Dr Gladys Muir's Brethren on the Pacific Slope - there seems to have been two Brethren Churches in the general vicinity as early as 1862 - Church of California and the Napa Valley church. Neither were directly in San Francisco. It is possible Mr Davis had contact with one or the other of these. Merle C Rummel