Brann’s Revenge

by S. Smith

  After the hung jury verdict, the case was to be retried. However, several convenient things occurred that improved the situation, at least for Baylor University. Sadly the baby died due to its premature birth and was buried in an unmarked grave in the First Street Cemetery. Secondly, Antonia retracted her testimony that she had been raped by Steen Morris in an affidavit. This affidavit was reviewed by a judge who then promptly cleared Steen Morris of any wrong doing. And lastly, an unknown person personally paid for a one-way ticket for Antonia to quickly and quietly return to Brazil after she retracted her earlier testimony.

  This brought supposed closure to this sad scandal for Baylor University, except for one small detail again, William Cowper Brann. All of these conveniences for Baylor continued to fan the flames of conspiracy for Mr. Brann. He accelerated his attacks which made matters even worse for Baylor and the Baptists.

  Doc Burleson was justifiably outraged by the entire episode. He wanted to make things right. He wished to calm the seas as he’d been able to do countless times before during his 46-year tenure at Baylor. But it just wasn’t to be. In trying to right the ship, he instead caused more waves when he responded to Mr. Brann. In the summer of 1897, Doc Burleson came out with a four-page pamphlet that made excuses for what happened. In this pamphlet, he accused Antonia of not being of good character, of being boy crazy, of neglecting her studies, and of just being lazy. This was quite uncharacteristic of Doc Burleson. I never knew him like this. He was always one to take the high road concerning matters such as this, but in this instance he didn’t.

  Although he didn’t state Mr. Brann’s name in the pamphlet, he obviously was referencing the Iconoclast, when he called out “persecutors of Steen Morris.” He also indirectly referenced the Iconoclast when Mr. Brann got the girl’s age wrong. All of that was not in good taste but forgivable given the circumstances and the heat that Mr. Brann was putting on the university. But Doc Burleson’s one big mistake was to make a call to action for “all good students and citizens and vindicate Baylor University.”

  Before the big trouble started, I had taken Inez over to the Burleson’s house to meet them and to meet Antonia. As usual the Burleson’s, although they knew she was Mr. Brann’s daughter and didn’t like what Mr. Brann was saying in his Iconoclast, were welcoming to her and treated her like they would treat their own kin. Doc Burleson even asked Inez about her father and mother and spoke about how he’d someday like to get to know them. Afterward, Inez told me her thoughts about them and we both agreed that they were the salt of the earth, kindest people that anyone could ever know. So both Inez and I did not believe for one second that the kind Doc Burleson was calling for violence of any sort against Mr. Brann. Instead we thought that he was calling for the defense of Baylor in the arena of ideas and debates, not an arena of lions. But we did believe that others with not-so-kind hearts took this call to action by the President of Baylor University as an excuse to act out in ways that would benefit them for their own selfish motives.

  Shortly after the pamphlet was published, Doc Burleson was not re-elected as the president of the University, but was instead demoted to President Emeritus by the board of Trustees. There were others, who envied the position and with Big Brother Carroll being the president of the Board of Trustees, he had the influence and the power to take Doc Burleson down from the presidency against his will. Likely he did. This was a fine thank you to a man that had given 47 years of his life to the University. He successfully steered it to the highest moral ground possible. Then he had it pulled out from under him without the dignity of being able to step aside on his own terms. Granted, they gave him a position of President Emeritus. This meant he had a title and salary, but no power at all.

  Before this demotion, Doc Burleson was a counter balance to Big Brother Carroll in terms of power. He and Big Brother Carroll were at odds on a number of issues and seemingly became further apart daily. But they tended to balance each other. Although Big Brother Carroll was the president of the Board of Trustees, Doc Burleson was the President of the University which was an independent body. This allowed Doc to do things as he thought they needed to be done. His independence from the board was well known and respected by the board.

  But with this demotion, his only remaining power was his name and reputation. Now Big Brother Carroll and his group were in full control with no counter-balance. Inez and I talked about how all of the nastiness started between Mr. Brann and Baylor right after Doc Burleson was ousted from power. We both felt that this was not a coincidence.

  On October 1, 1897 in the Iconoclast, Mr. Brann again overstepped common sense. He called Baylor University the place that turns out only “Ministers and Magdalene’s,” an insult to the ladies of Baylor. This was the final straw for some at Baylor and take action they did.

  Chapter 5

  VIOLENCE IN

  THE MAKING

  It’s bizarre how a slight from one person can lead to the slight of another which further escalates into severe ugliness. The fireball of anger quickly accelerates downhill. Nothing can stop it from plowing into others and intensifying the anger even further. A seething ball of fire started by an innocent statement taken the wrong way by the wrong person, leads to a forest fire roaring and raging completely out of control. I hope one day there might be gaps of common sense that isolate the anger before it reaches the dry brush that becomes further fodder for the fire. As of yet, there is no such method as rage is common even in our age.

  After the October 1897 issue of the Iconoclast was published, Mr. Brann started receiving immediate feedback. People said it was over the top and degrading towards the ladies of Baylor. He went back to the office to amend the text and correct the issue. He reissued the release, making it less offensive, at least to the ladies of Baylor. He also delivered a public apology trying to calm emotions, but it was too late. The damage was done and emotions were at an all-time high.

  The Baylor boys initially went to Mr. Brann’s house on North 5th street. Mrs. Brann met them and innocently told them that he was at work. Immediately they went to look for him at the Provident Building. George Scarborough, R.H. Hamilton, Carl Lovelace and Charlie Carroll were the boys sent to retrieve Mr. Brann. A point to note here is that Charlie Carroll was the son of Big Brother Carroll, while George Scarborough was the son of John Scarborough, another Baylor Trustee.

  As the boys entered Mr. Brann’s office, R.H. Hamilton went to Mr. Brann and whispered, in his ear, “Are you W.C. Brann?” Mr. Brann replied with a “yes” and offered his hand in a friendly handshake. R.H. Hamilton responded with, “We have come after you!” The boys grabbed him and took him down stairs to a waiting buggy. They sped down South 4th street towards the Baylor campus where a crowd of about 200 Baylor boys awaited their arrival.

  Several of the boys, including George McDaniel, demanded that Mr. Brann retract the things he said in his Iconoclast newspaper and immediately leave town. A rope was put around his neck. It appeared that Mr. Brann might be hanged. He was hit upside the head with the butt of a pistol. Some of the boys ran off to where a bucket of tar and a bag of feathers were stashed. The plan was to tar and feather Mr. Brann before he was hanged if he didn’t sign the paper. The crowd demanded he retract his statements and promise to leave town. The calmer elements of Baylor removed the tar and feathers. He resisted signing the paper, but the crowd became unruly. Eventually, upon fear of death, Mr. Brann reluctantly signed the paper.

  By this time, several professors arrived and broke up the mob. Several mounted Waco Police officers were also present at the scene but they did not break up the mob. I suppose they were there to ensure the Baylor boys didn’t go too far. I always thought they should have immediately come to Mr. Brann’s rescue. The rescue was undertaken by several Baylor professors. Professors Dr. Brooks, Dr. Lattimore, and Dr. Shouse broke up the crowd. The leaders of the crowd, satisfied that Mr. Brann had signed the paper, placed him back in the buggy. The driver drove him to his house on North 5th street. Besi
des being hit upside the head by the butt of a gun and having rope burns on his neck, Mr. Brann was unharmed.

  Inez and I always thought that this whole episode would never have happened if Doc Burleson had still been in power. Doc Burleson was all about keeping the College in good moral standing. This act was violent and went against the Constitutional amendment of “Freedom of the Press.” We believed Doc Burleson would have expelled every boy involved in such a stunt, whether they were sons of Trustees or not.

  I went to the Brann’s house that evening, and I’ve never seen Mr. Brann so angry. He intended to sue the University and claimed he would end up owning Baylor in the process. Inez later told me that after he’d calmed down a bit, Judge Gerald came over. He and Mr. Brann had drinks in the backyard of his house and discussed the episode. She said that she couldn’t hear the entire conversation, but she could tell that the Judge was just as angry as Mr. Brann and wanted to take action. Mr. Brann calmed him down and said he would address it in his newspaper. He said he had no intention of leaving town. If he left now he would forever be viewed a coward. He would stay and fight with the only weapon that he had, the Iconoclast. If the Baptists didn’t like it, well that was just too bad.

  When Mr. Brann didn’t leave as he’d promised, the Baptists took further action to rid their city of this vile author. A few days later a “prayer meeting” convened at the First Baptist Church of Waco. There they met to condemn not what the Baylor boys had just done, but instead to call for the Citizens of Waco to run Mr. Brann out of town! Big and Little Brothers Carroll, John Scarborough, Cranny, and several other Baylor Trustees, were at the Prayer meeting. They publicly denounced the Iconoclast and Mr. Brann. They called for all good citizens of Waco to denounce Mr. Brann and to run him out of town.

  Mr. Brann was not about to leave town at this point. Instead he was digging in his heels. He had every right to live in Waco, Texas and to print the things that he was printing. This was a free country and his job was to call out injustices, especially if they were being directed at him.

  Within two days of the Prayer Meeting, John Scarborough and his son George showed up in front of the Provident building. As Mr. Brann got into his carriage to go home, Mr. Scarborough struck Mr. Brann with a horse whip repeatedly. R.H. Hamilton arrived a few minutes later and joined in the fun by beating Mr. Brann with his fists. All the while George held a nickel-plated six-shooter on Mr. Brann, threatening to shoot him if he moved. Finally, Mr. Brann gained control of his buggy and moved out of whipping range. As he turned the corner from Franklin to 5th street, Mr. Brann raised his fists in defiance and shouted out, “The Truth shall prevail!”

  This was not the Baptists’ proudest moment. They were intended to be God-fearing, merciful, and understanding people. They weren’t following Jesus’ example in this particular case. I would even venture to say that the Baptists were acting more like a zealous mob looking to silence a person who was stating things opposed to their religion. And rather than trying to persuade with love and truth, they were trying to persuade with guns, ropes, and whips. They were so blinded by their hatred of Mr. Brann that they had temporarily lost sight of the Kingdom.

  Mr. Brann stayed silent for almost a month, on a “Baptist imposed” vacation as he called it. He was recovering from physical wounds and emotional wounds as well. But Mr. Brann did not leave and was not about to leave! If anything, the incident strengthened his resolve to state the truth in his newspaper, even if it killed him.

  Things were about to go from bad to worse in the city. The public whipping had just riled the wrong man, Judge Gerald. The Judge was not one to sit idly by while seeing one of his closest friends beaten by a bunch of hypocrites. No, the Judge was going to take action. The first thing he did was to write a newspaper editorial about the Baylor beatings. Judge Gerald and Mr. Brann were kindred spirits. They both questioned everything, from the 10,000-year-old version of the Earth’s age to politics to people’s true motivations, etc. They both loved the classics. They debated about them, trying to find new meanings in the ancient texts. They were close friends and confidants. So when Judge Gerald saw Mr. Brann, a single man, being mobbed by 200 boys, beaten and held at gun point, the Judge was not a happy man. When the Judge wasn’t happy, people ran scared!

  The Judge wrote a letter to the local Waco News-paper. The letter chastised the primary source of the attack, Baylor University. It was not a nice letter, but it spoke the truth as seen by Judge Gerald. It called the attack a denial of freedom of speech. He accused the people involved of being cowards. They refused to fight Mr. Brann man to man, but instead came at him as a mob against a single man. If the letter had been published, it would have caused quite a stir. But the editor of the Newspaper, Mr. J. W. Harris, himself a Baptist, decided not to publish it. Instead, he just sat on it, figuratively of course. This didn’t sit well with the Judge, as you might expect. The Judge asked Mr. Harris to return the article so he could get it published elsewhere.

  To this day, I can’t understand why Mr. Harris wouldn’t simply return the article. It seemed like the right thing to do. But he didn’t. Perhaps Mr. Harris, being a Baptist, didn’t want the Judge’s venom spread throughout the town. Or perhaps he lost the article or tore it up, I don’t know. I do know that not returning the document to the Judge and not publishing it was not a good move for Mr. Harris. It ultimately cost him and his brother dearly.

  The Judge, angry that Mr. Harris had not published the article, went to his office. It was not a happy meeting as the two argued fiercely. The Judge, being about fifteen years older than Mr. Harris, invited him to take the argument outside where they would settle things man to man. Mr. Harris refused to do it. He knew the judge had a significant advantage over him, due to his fierce attitude and his experience in the war. The Judge, unfettered, started tussling with him right there in his office. Then he dragged him towards the stairs.

  As they got close to the stairs, the Judge managed to bite Mr. Harris’ thumb and didn’t let loose of it as they both tumbled down the stairs. Mr. Harris got on top of the Judge and started beating him with his free arm. Mr. Harris had the Judge’s good arm pinned and was freely beating him. Finally, the Judge managed to break his good arm free and defend himself. He beat Mr. Harris repeatedly with his good arm. Mr. Harris quickly departed, engulfed in a flood of curse words from the Judge.

  It took the Judge about a month to recover from his physical wounds. But if you knew anything about the Judge, you knew the emotional wounds were still festering after a month’s passing, just as much as they were the day they were incurred.

  During this relative month of calmness, Mr. Brann wrote a piece in the Iconoclast titled, “Of Ropes and Revolvers.” In it, he critically chastised the Baylor kidnapping, the Prayer meeting, and the subsequent beating by the Scarborough mob. However, he also understood emotions had gotten way out of hand and announced a unilateral truce. So long as Baylor and the crazy Baptists kept their mouths shut, he would cease his critical statements and accusations.

  But the Judge was not having part of any truce. He set off with his accusations directly against Mr. Harris, calling him a cur and a coward and insisting on a duel. He wanted to settle their disagreement on equal footing and in a public venue. Duels were illegal back in the day, but they still occurred on a fairly frequent basis.

  Recently, a duel had taken place with an eerie parallelism to what was to happen with Mr. Harris and the Judge. I viewed it as another sign of the upcoming event. It was the gun fight between the Lambdins and Kivetts. It happened only a block away and just a few weeks before the famous Harris-Gerald gunfight. It had to be a sign. It just had to be.

  For years there was an ongoing feud between two families, the Lambdins and the Kivetts. The Lambdin and Kivett families were like the Hatfields and McCoys of Waco. No one ever really understood what the initial feud was about. It was long forgotten and likely trivial. Ever since the initial feud, they had fought over grievances from the latest battles. Someti
mes they fought with just fists, and other times they fought with weapons. No one had ever been seriously hurt, but that changed as the feud reached the fatal boiling point.

  The brothers Kivett intended to ambush and kill William Lambdin, even if it required one or both of them to die doing it. The brothers met outside the Stock Exchange room in the Pacific Hotel, on Franklin and South 4th street. They knew that Lambdin was in the room and were setting up an ambush, with a two-to-one advantage. Someone tipped off Mr. Lambdin, so he was prepared and went in anyway. As Ben Kivett came into the room, he fired the first shot. Mr. Lambdin took cover and fired a deadly accurate shot and hit Ben Kivett in the hallway. Will Kivett then ran and attacked Mr. Lambdin from behind. Although they were both armed with pistols, they engaged in a hand-to-hand battle. Finally Mr. Lambdin broke loose enough to fire his pistol and fell Will Kivett. Both of the Kivett brothers subsequently died, while Mr. Lambdin was only hurt in the hand.

  The Kivett brothers were interred in the same plot in Oakwood Cemetery, since it was deep enough to hold the two caskets. Whatever the initial dispute was about, I’ll never know. It seemed like an eerie sign to what was about to happen to the Judge. This happened less than a block from where the Judge’s impending duel took place and less than six months beforehand.

  I was over at the Brann’s house frequently after the two mob attacks on Mr. Brann. Inez was understandably upset and didn’t know what to do, except to leave Waco. This was the last thing I wanted and the last thing that Mr. Brann wanted. He knew that to leave now would make him a coward. He decided not to go anywhere, at least not yet. Inez was frightened and afraid for her father. She wanted me to talk to him and persuade him to leave town. I told her I could do no such thing. I was just a kid and he wouldn’t listen to me. Besides, I didn’t want her to have to leave as I was falling in love with her. This was the very first time that I told her this. She looked at me oddly, but she wasn’t surprised. She said she had known it since the first day we met.