William Cowper Brann was born in Humboldt Township,
Coles County, Illinois, January 4, 1855. He was
not raised in the home of his parents, though his father,
Rev. Noble Brann, survived him, and is still living. His
mother having died when he was two and a half years old,
he was within the next six months placed in the care of
Mr. William Hawkins, a Coles County farmer, with whom
he lived about ten years. As to his childhood experiences
on the Hawkins' farm nothing is now known. They were
probably such as are common to children raised in the
country. Of Mr. Hawkins he always spoke kindly, referring
to him as "Pa Hawkins." His nature was not suited
to farm life, however, and he finally made up his mind
to see more of the world, hence without ever having
disclosed his resolution to any one, he quietly walked away
one dark and cheerless night, carrying in a small box under
his arm all that he then possessed, and leaving behind him
the friends of his childhood in the only place he had ever
known as his home, thus entering upon the active struggle
of life at thirteen years of age, without friends, destitute
of means, and almost entirely uneducated.
The first position he obtained was that of bell boy in a
hotel. Later on he learned to be a painter and grainer,
then a printer, a reporter, and finally an editorial writer.
He was energetic, industrious and painstaking in whatever
he undertook to do, therefore always employed.
Early in his struggle he realized the need of an education,
in the acquirement of which he applied himself with eager
diligence. Nature had endowed him with keen perceptive
powers, a retentive memory and great mental vigor, by
means of which he soon accumulated considerable knowledge.
Every moment that could be spared from his daily
toil was spent in reading books of science, philosophy,
history, biography and general literature. In this way
he became thoroughly informed on almost every important
subject, as will be seen by the contents of his writings.
On March 3, 1877, at Rochelle, Illinois, he was married
to Miss Carrie Martin, who, with their two children, Grace
Gertrude and William Carlyle is now living in the beautiful
home, here at Waco, from which he was buried April 3, 1898.
During all the years, from the time he left the
hospitable home of Mr. Hawkins, in 1868, until after he had
successfully launched "Brann's ICONOCLAST," he suffered
the harassing annoyances of extreme poverty, in the
endurance of which he was cheerful, hopeful and diligent in
the equipment of his mind preparatory to the work he
always believed he would some day be able to accomplish.
Beginning his literary career as a reporter, he was soon
made an editorial writer, in which capacity he became
well-known throughout Illinois, Missouri and Texas. As
such he was versatile, forceful and direct. There was
no needless repetition of tiresome circumlocution in his
composition. He possessed an inexhaustible vocabulary,
from which he could always find the words best fitted to
convey his meaning at the moment they were most needed,
and every sentence was resplendent with an order of wit,
humor and satire peculiar to a style original with himself.
In July, 1891, he issued at Austin, Texas, the first
number of "Brann's ICONOCLAST." Only a few numbers
appeared, when it was suspended and he resumed his
editorial work, then on the Globe-Democrat, of St. Louis,
Missouri, and later on the Express of San Antonio, Texas.
It was in connection with his first attempt to establish
the ICONOCLAST that he delivered a few lectures that were
well received. In later years he went upon the platform
again with every prospect of a successful career in the
lecture field.
In the summer of 1894, he settled here in Waco, and, in
February of the following year, revived the ICONOCLAST,
which was successful from the first issue, having reached,
at the time of his death, a circulation of ninety thousand
copies. It was through the ICONOCLAST that his genius
found full scope for development, and that he became best
known to the public. In its columns he dared to be
himself. There was now no restraint imposed upon him by
timorous publishers. It belonged to him, and in it he
gave full wing to his own thought. It was this intellectual
freedom, sustained by the magic power and personality
of a real genius, that gave to it such widespread popularity.
Mr. Brann has been classed as a humorist. This he was,
and of a type peculiar to himself, but he was not content
with merely having amused or entertained the people, he
aspired to arouse public sentiment in the interest of
certain reforms. He was a hater of shams and defied every
form of fraud, hypocrisy and deceit. He made of his
humor a whip with which to scourge from the temple of
social purity every intruder there. He joined in no
partisan schemes for place or power, but, confident of his own
ground, he would stand alone in the defiance of popular
humbugs and frauds. This heroic independence, while
admired by many, made him a mark for the envy and
hatred of such as feared him, and in the end proved to be
the cause of his death.
But with all his uncompromising hatred of shams, there
beat in the bosom of W. C. Brann a warm and generous
heart for the world at large, and no man was ever a more
devoted friend to the poor and needy. No beggar was
ever turned away from his door empty handed, and no
worthy cause ever asked his help in vain. His religion
was to do whatever he believed to be right, and to defy the
wrong even though it should be found parading in the
garb and livery of righteousness.
Mr. Brann was fond of nature. He loved the mountains,
the lakes, the rivers and the billowy sea. He loved to
walk amid forest trees and watch the birds fly from bough
to bough and warble their songs of love, but in all the
wide, wide world, his home life was the most sacred object
of his devotion, and when prosperity gave him the means
to do so he found great delight in making it beautiful
and pleasant. He was fond of his friends, but the love he
bore his wife and children was sublimely beautiful, tender
and affectionate.
His sudden death was a shock not only to his immediate
friends, but to the hundreds of thousands who knew him
through the ICONOCLAST. Walking quietly along the
street, talking with a friend, he was shot in the back by
one T. E. Davis, a partisan on the Baylor side of the
Brann-Baylor trouble.
After receiving, without warning, his death wound, Mr.
Brann turned upon his assailant, drew a revolver and
vindicated his courage by delivering his fire with such deadly
aim as to leave Davis in the throes of death, which came
to his relief about twenty hours after the fray.
Mr. Brann received three wounds, from the first of
which he died at 1:55 a.m., April 2nd, surrounded by his
family and many sympathizing friends.
The impression has gone abroad that Mr. Brann was
without friends and admirers in Waco. The falsity of
this impression was made manifest, by the funeral
attendance, said, and generally believed, to have been the
largest ever seen here.
He was a believer in religion, therefore, it was not
improper that a religious service was held, conducted by
Rev. Frank Page, D.D., of the Episcopal church, though
the writer, acting in according with the wishes of the
family, spoke a few words at the grave.
In Oakwood Cemetery the body of Brann was laid to
rest in the embrace of our common mother earth, and
under a mound of floral offerings, which though profuse
and costly were but a feeble expression of the sincere
grief that struck dumb with awe the thousands upon
thousands who had learned to love him with an affection
accorded to few men.
. . .
My position as to Mr. Brann's style of journalism has
been freely expressed, and while he was still alive. I do
not approve of all he saw fit to write, nor of the spirit
in which he wrote, but that he was a real genius and a
benefactor of his race cannot be denied. It was with him,
as it is with all men of his type, he made strong and bitter
enemies, still his friends and admirers were numbered by
thousands, I may safely say hundreds of thousands.
The purposes, direction and character of the ICONOCLAST
were in many respects different from those of this
Pulpit, nevertheless there was between Mr. Brann and
myself a strong tie of friendship that, so far as I know,
never suffered the breach of a single moment, and I
sincerely mourn his loss as a personal friend whose kindly
greetings were to me as glimpses of the sun on a winter's
day.
Of humble birth, beset by poverty and environed by
many difficulties, he applied himself to the study of
literature with such diligence as to acquire abilities possessed
by few, and when once equipped for the field he occupied
with such consummate skill, no power of prejudice could
keep him from rising like a star of the first magnitude.
Alas! how soon that star has been obscured and by what
ignoble means! But, against great odds, its brief
existence was characterized by a brilliancy that no prejudice
or hatred can ever obliterate.
Having dealt candidly with Mr. Brann while living, I
will not now ignore the fact that he had faults, and his
inability to overcome these marred, here and there, the
splendor of his intellectual achievements. His faults,
though, were of a kind that may be permitted to pass into
the grave with his body. His virtues were many, and for
these he was loved, despite the imperfections he could not
always control. His services to mankind were numerous
and they were rendered with a devotion as ardent as that
of a lover; for these he will be remembered, nor can any
power rob him of his fame as a literary genius--a poet,
a humorist and a satirist.
Lectures and Addresses of Brann.