members or not: Philip D. Armour, the meat packer; John Mohler Studebaker, the automobile manufacturer; Gene Autry "The Singing Cowboy" who owned the California Angels baseball team; and John Hume, a California state assemblyman. ECV also claims Ulysses S. Grant, Lord Sholto Douglas, J. Pierpont Morgan, Horace Greeley, and Horatio Alger as members, but claims have also been made to Adam (the first "Clampatriarch"), Solomon, Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar, Henry VIII of England, Sir Francis Drake, George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Ronald Reagan, and His Imperial Majesty Joshua A. Norton, "Emperor of these United States and Protector of Mexico". These fanciful claims show ECV's propensity for not taking much of anything particularly seriously, least of all itself. Certain circumstances support an ECV claim to having initiated Ulysses S. Grant into the Order. One of the early capitals of California was Benicia. At the close of the War with Mexico, Lt. William Tecumseh Sherman was Adjutant to Col. Richard Barnes Mason at the time of the gold discovery at Sutter's Mill. Upon Sherman's retirement in 1853, his replacement at the Benicia Arsenal was Lt. Ulysses S. Grant, who spent 30 days in the Arsenal Guardhouse for being drunk on duty and firing his cannons at the Martinez shoreline. Considering Benicia's position as the major inland Army post and transport hub to the valley, both Grant's and the Brotherhood's affinity for strong drink and the early spread of the Brotherhood through Northern California, it is entirely possible that Grant was inducted into the Organization. See also Drake's Plate of Brass Footnotes References Further reading External links Short radio episodes from G. Ezra Dane and Carl I. Wheat, who revived the ancient and honorable order, at California Legacy Project. E Clampus Vitus Archives available at the Holt-Atherton Special Collections. Fraternal orders State based fraternal and lineage societies History of California Organizations established in 1849 1849 establishments in California Secret societies in the United States