I found lots of hits for fire brand also. Posted on a website SAMPLE SHORT BIOGRAPHIES FROM: EMMA GOLDMAN: A DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN YEARS, 1890-1901 (University of California Press, April 2003) http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/Samples/sample_bios.html is this interesting possibility: Bauer, Henry (1861-1934), German-born anarchist. Bauer immigrated to the United States in 1880, and settled in Pittsburgh, where he took part in the movement for an eight-hour workday. Bauer was drawn to anarchism in response to the Haymarket trial and executions. Alexander Berkman stayed with Bauer and Carl Nold in Pittsburgh before his attempted assassination of Henry Clay Frick. With Nold, Bauer was sentenced to five years, and served four, in prison on two charges: incitement to riot (stemming from their distribution of a handbill addressed to striking Homestead workers on 8 July); and conspiracy (with Berkman) to commit murder. Bauer was also charged $50 and sixty days in county jail for contempt of court when he refused to name the other men involved in distributing the leaflets (one of whom was Max Metzkow). Bauer corresponded with AB through the journal Prison Blossoms, created withing the walls of the Western Penitentiary in Pennsylvania. After his release, Bauer served as secretary of the Berkman Defense Committee. Settling in Pittsburgh, he became western Pennsylvania's distributor of English- and German-language anarchist books, pamphlets and newspapers, including Firebrand, Free Society and Freiheit. He contributed to Freedom (in 1892 on the consequences of the Frick shooting) and to Free Society (25 December 1898) a re-print of an interview with him first published in the Pittsburgh Leader, "Can Anarchism Be Killed?" The above bio gives sense of what anything Firebrand might have been in the late 1890s.. Kathy Devlin -----Original Message----- From: Clayton co. IAGenWeb [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Sunday, June 25, 2006 9:33 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [IACLAYTO-L] Fire Brand Society It would help to read the context of the phrase in the obit, so this is just a guess. Although there may have been an organization by that name, I'm more inclined to think that the phrase meant that the deceased was a political instigator or agitator. I also did a google search and found this definition from the E. Cobham Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1898: Fire-brand - An incendiary; one who incites to rebellion; like a blazing brand which sets on fire all it touches. I also checked about a dozen hits for 'Fire Brand Society' in the Ancestry historical newspapers and found no instances of the entire phrase, but the term 'fire-brand' was used to describe Jane Fonda in a 1970's newspaper and to one Mr. Comstock in his 1847 obituary. In all references that I found the term, it was connected to politics in some manner. Let us know what you find out. Interesting question. Sharyl Ferrall ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jerrian Barsness" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, June 25, 2006 7:47 PM Subject: [IACLAYTO-L] Fire Brand Society Hi, A member on another list said he ran into this in an obituary. "She was a devout member of the Fire Brand Society----------. " This was in Iowa. Nothing came up on Google. Does anyone know what it is? Thanks, Jerrian ==== IACLAYTO Mailing List ==== Share your records, photos & data with others or post a query!