The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1899-02-10
TRAGEDY OF THE FENCE.
Missouri FeUd i'll Which Che Bilycus
Were Shot Full of Holes.

Missouri Feud in WhicR tho Billy Gus
Were Shot Full Of Holes.
Bloody feuds from rail fences grow,
Or from some other equally insigniti-
cant cause, and there is no place on
earth where family quarrels are more
lasting Or more ~sanguinary than in the
southern and southwestern states.
When, in Christian county, in the
Ozark region of Missouri, the Mea-
dowses declared wa1 upon the Bilyeus
because the latter family resented the
announcement of the former that a
fence owned in common should be re-
moved. the hOstilities resulted in the
death CT three of the defendants and
the %Woundlng Of one of the aGgres-
sOrs.
The two families are SO united by
lnterniarriage that it is hard to pick
Il a certain member of either and
say with any degree of exactness just
what he or she is.
After it is all over. old Johnny Bill
yeu declares, Notwithstanding that he
lost d son and two grandsons, it was
a bully good scrap" and he wouldn't
have missed it for any number of sons
and g~randSons. The MeadOwses and
one OF the surviving Bilyeus are I'M
der arrest, and will be tried for muir
der, but old Johnny Bilyeu says its
a shame to hang q Teller for licking
his man in a fight, even if he is a
Medder, durn him, and has been KILN
Bilyeus.'
For old Johnny is past so years old,
and has been in many a standup fight.
He showed ammunition to his IN,
Steve. and his two grandsons, Jimmie
and Pete. and cheered them on with
cries of Give EN- hell!' But, as it
turned out, it was a game Of take as
well as take, and nobly did the Bilyeus
take it.
about the middle of November Bud
Meadows got his volunteers together
and started out to raze that fence,
which divided the two farms. He had
leveled only a little gap when Steve
Bilyeu and his son Pete came running
out from their house with guns in
their hands. There was a cessation
of the leveling just then, and the work
was postponed till the week after
Thanksgiving. Then once more Bud
got his cohorts together and sailed
forth. This time his men were armed,
and they confronted armed men. The
procession moved in the following or
der: From the Meadows house came
Bud Meadows, Bob Meadows, Jake
Bllyeu. Steve's brother. Hosea Bilyeu,
Steve's cousin, and the husband of
Stoves sister, Frank Tabor. who had
married Stoves daughter; Martin Bill
yen, Steve's brothers boy, and Mrs.
Bud Meadows, and Mrs. Bob Meadows,
daughters of Steve's brother. Not
Withstanding their contrary names
and relationships, they all were Mead
OWSes.
The enemy advanced to the scrap in
this order: Steve Bilyeu. with his sons
Jimmie and Pete; Mrs. Steve Bilyeu.
with a big pruning knife. and in the
rear,hurrying along as we'll as his aged
legs would carry him, was the redoubt-
able patriarch, old Jimmy Bilyeu, who
carried his eighty years and his gun
with equal ease.
Some n fired a shot-who no one
knows nor cares. But it was the sig
nal for the opening of the battle. 1t
was hardly an equal contest, as the
MeadoWses Outnumbered the Bilyevs.
but the latter kept up their end pretty
we'll. Frank Tabor was hit, and an
instant later Steve Bilyeu fell. Mrs.
Bilyeu skipped over the fence, and
with her knife pruned off a piece of
Bud Meadows arm. While she was
thus engaged, Jimmie and Pete, her
two sons, fell beside their father, and
the greater part of the Bilyeus being
hors de combat, the Meadowses with
drew.
Mrs. Steve leaped across the Offend
ing fence and knelt beside the warm
bodies of her husband and sons. There
was little that she said-she never
wastes words or tears on those who
fail in a glorious fight. Going home
for help, she had the bodies removed
to the house, and the funeral was at
tended by all the good people in the
ne1ghbOrhood except the Meadowses.
Arrests followed, and this feature
of the affair grieved old Johnny great
ly, for, as he said, cts a shame to
hang a Teller fer licking his man in
a good fight, even if he is a Medder,
durn him. an has been killing Ri,