In the year 1800 the U.S. Census finds them (Daniel Brewer III & wife Lydia Penfield Brewer) in the town of Rochester, Ulster County , New York, with two small children, and the Census of 1830 finds them in Neversink, Sullivan County, New York. Neversink is a small settlement high in the mountains west of Rochester. It is heavily timbered and wild life was found there in great numbers. Deer were more numerous than were sheep, and there were plenty of moose. The wolves roamed freely about, which often gave the inhabitants great trouble. As late as 1841, Richard DeWitt found a den of wolves in which were six cubs, he caught them and received a bounty of seventy-five dollars. The number of trout caught in the streams seems almost fabulous. While the mother prepared breakfast, her son often took several pounds of trout from the stream outside the kitchen door.

The William Wheaton family was living in Neversink, and Daniel Brewer and family became neighbors and good friends. William and his sons were coopers by trade. They worked with the Brewers and taught them this trade. Daniel and his sons became fine artisans in this field, and it is said that the Brewers could make anything from wood. They could fashion anything from a wagon to a wedding ring.

Not only was this friendship existing between the two families beneficial from a trade point of view, bu tit was here in Neversink, that Lewis, the son of Daniel and Lydia Brewer, found the love of Bethenia, the daughter of William and Orpha Wheaton, their marriage then uniting these two great families.

The most far reaching event, however, that came into the lives of these two families while living in Neversink, was the coming of the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, again restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith, brought here by a young convert, J.M. Grant.

Jedediah Morgan Grant, after hearing the wonderful message, came to bring it to some of his own family members, this great message. In 1844, the Prophet had called him to a Southern Mission. While on his way to the South, he stopped and preached to this band of eager listeners. The Wheaton and Brewers accepted the Message , and began immediately their preparation to join with the Saints in western New York.

In the year 1850, the U.S. Census finds Daniel and Lydia Brewer, with three unmarried children, in Elmira, Chemung County, New York. William and Orpha Wheaton, living with their daughter Rebecca Devoo, in Woodhull, Steuben County, where a Branch of the Church was established, presided over by one of the sons of William Wheaton. This proved to be a great blessing to both the Wheaton and Brewer families, for there were many members baptized into the church here in this branch."(1)

1. Our Brewer Ancestors; pp.6-7