William Cowper Brann (January 4, 1855 – April 1, 1898) was an American journalist also known as Brann the Iconoclast. Early life The son of Presbyterian minister Noble J. Brann, he was born in Humboldt, Illinois. When his mother died in 1857, he was sent by his father to live with William and Mary Hawkins, where he stayed until 1868. That year, he ran away from home and took odd jobs in several cities, including working as a painter's helper, a bellboy at a hotel, manager of an opera company, a pitcher in semiprofessional baseball, and a fireman and brakeman on a locomotive. A job in a print shop turned Brann's interest toward journalism, and he became a cub reporter. As his career progressed, he worked in St. Louis, Galveston, Houston, and San Antonio. While in Rochelle, Illinois in 1877, he married Carrie Belle Martin, with whom he had one son and two daughters. Career During the 1880s Brann became to take his career in journalism seriously and traveled around the country working for several significant newspapers, including the St. Louis Globe Democrat, the Galveston Evening Tribune, and the Galveston News. At the same time, Brann registered three plays with the Library of Congress: Cleon, That American Woman, and Retribution. Despite his growing success, Brann's family was shaken by the suicide of his twelve-year-old daughter Inez in 1890, which greatly agonized Brann. Brann coped with this tragedy, and was inspired to continue to strive towards a successful career in writing and journalism. In 1891, only one year after his daughter's death, Brann moved to Austin, Texas to write for the Austin Statesman. After only a short time, however, he decided to attempt to write his own paper, and invested a significant chunk of his personal savings into the Iconoclast. That paper quickly failed, and Brann went back to working for other Texas newspapers, the San Antonio Express and the Houston Post. Waco Iconoclast In 1894 Brann moved to Waco, Texas, to become an editor with the Waco Daily News. By February 1895 he had decided to attempt to revive the Iconoclast, and this time the paper was successful, with a circulation nearing 100,000 people. With this new platform to communicate his views, Brann quickly became known for his stinging, often hateful attacks on various groups that drew his ire, including Baptists, Episcopalians, the British, blacks, and Baylor University. Brann attacked