Maybe this site is accurate
https://william-branham.org/site/res...illiam_sowders
William Sowders (1879-1952) was a Pentecostal minister from Louisville, KY who founded the Gospel Assembly Church and School of the Prophets in Shepherdsville, KY, just south of William Branham's hometown of Jeffersonville, IN. Sowders pastored a small mission in Anna, IL around 1919, and a second Church in Evansville, IN from 1921 to 1919. Around 1928, Sowders returned to Louisville and started holding meetings at an empty firehouse on 16th and Market. In 1935, Sowders bought 350 acres in Shepherdsville, where he would build his Gospel Assembly and commune.
There were many names used to describe the cult following that Sowders created, the most interesting of which was "The Latter Rain".[1] Long before William Branham lit the fuse creating the Latter Rain Revival movement and named his own sect "The Message" after "The Latter Rain Message", Branham went to Sowder's "School of the Prophets" with John Ryan. At first Branham thought that Sowders preached "strange doctrines", but Branham would continue evangelism tours with John Ryan well into the Latter Rain version of his stage persona[2] and strongly emphasize the "school of the prophets" from
Samuel 19:18-24 many times.[3]
"Later from that, I met an old man that’s here in the Church maybe now, or he was here over to the church, by the name of John Ryan. And I met him at a place…The old fellow with long beard and hair, and he may be here. I thought he was from Benton Harbor up here, at the House of David. And they had a place in Louisville. I was trying to find them people, and they called it the School of the Prophets. So I thought I’d go over and see what that was. Well, I didn’t see nobody rolling on the floor, but they had some strange doctrines. And there’s where I met this old man, he invited me to come up to his place."[4]
Some researchers have noticed the unusual similarities between versions of William Branham's stage persona and Sowder's.[5] Though according to the United States Census William Branham was raised in Indiana,[6] Branham claimed to have been raised in Kentucky. Sowders was born and raised in Kentucky. Both men claimed to have initially resisted the Pentecostal call and converted to Oneness. Both claimed that a voice thundered over the Ohio River announcing their spiritual significance, Both claimed to be preparing the "bride" (their sect) for the return of Jesus Christ, and were "specially-annointed".
References
[1] Mason, Wanda. My Involvement With Destructive Abusive Churches. cult Education Institute. Accessed 2021, Nov 8 from
https://culteducation.com/group/938-...-churches.html. "From 1970 to 1991, for over twenty years, I was involved with churches that I now believe to be cults. This movement started with William Sowders in Shepherdsville, Kentucky. It was also known as the School of the Prophets, The Latter Rain Movement and the Body of Christ. Individual churches go by different names like Gospel Chapel, Gospel Assembly, Gospel Tabernacle, Gospel Temple, General Assembly, Gospel of Peace and etc."
[2] Branham, William. 1950, February. Here We Have No Continuing City (50-0200). "I went up to Dowagiac, Michigan, to a—a meeting, and the—with an old man that had white beard and white hair, by the name of John Ryan."
[3] ex: Branham, William. 1953, March 28. Israel And The Church #4 (53-0328). "One time they had a bunch of them preachers out like that, back in the Old Testament, teaching them a whole lot of things. I’ll show you what—what kind of an Education they had. They was teaching them all about the theology of that day, the School of the Prophets."
[4] Branham, William. 1955, January 17. How The Angel Came To Me, And His Commission (55-0117).
[5] William Sowders & William Branham. Accessed 2021, Nov 8 from
http://www.gospelassemblyfree.com/fa...ersbranham.htm
[6] 1920 United States Census lists the birthplace of Branham's siblings, placing the Branham family's migration to Indiana at around Branham's age 3.