Brann-Davis Shootings
Waco, McLennan County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The city of Waco in the 1890s divided into two armed camps over the caustic criticisms of William Cowper Brann (1855-1898) in his magazine, "The Iconoclast". A gifted writer, Brann attacked many organizations, especially Baptists and Baylor University. This controversy sparked a duel in 1897 between Judge George Bruce Gerald and James W. Harris. A Baylor partisan, Tom E. Davis, met Brann here, within a half block of the earlier fight, and shot him with a Colt .45 revolver. Brann returned the fire. Both men died the following day from their wounds.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1890s Waco, the acid-tongued writer William Cowper Brann skewered institutions — Baptists and Baylor University above all — in his wildly popular magazine, The Iconoclast, splitting the city into armed factions. The feud produced a fatal 1897 duel and, in 1898, a shootout on this spot: Baylor partisan Tom E. Davis shot Brann, who returned fire, and both men died of their wounds. It was one of the deadliest episodes of American frontier journalism.
Why it matters
The story marks the volatile collision of a free press, religious controversy, and honor-culture violence in the Gilded Age South.
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Related people
- · William Cowper Brann
- · Tom E. Davis
- · George Bruce Gerald
- · James W. Harris
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Gerald-Harris Shooting
Waco, TX
In November 1897 a feud over the printed word turned deadly near this Waco intersection. Newspaper editor James W. Harris and Judge George Bruce Gerald clashed over Gerald's defense of William Cowper Brann's fiery magazine The Iconoclast, which attacked Baptists and Baylor University. After a fistfight and a handbill branding Harris a coward, a challenge led to a street pistol battle that killed the Harris brothers and wounded the judge, who was reelected three years later.
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Waco University
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In 1861 Dr. Rufus C. Burleson (1823–1901) left the presidency of Baylor University at Independence to lead the Waco Classical School, founded in 1856 by the Rev. Solomon G. O'Bryan as the Trinity River Male High School. Renamed Waco University that same year, it grew under Burleson's tireless 25-year leadership into a leading Baptist college, topping 400 students by the early 1880s. In 1886 the Waco and Independence institutions merged to form Baylor University at Waco.
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