The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1899-02-10
TRAGEDY OF The FENCE.
Missouri EeUd in Which Che HiIycus

Missouri Feua in Which Che Billy Gus
Were Shot Full of Holes.
Bloody feuds from rail fences grow,
Or from some other equally inslgniti-
can cause, and there is no place on
earth where family q~uarrels are more
lasting OF o ~sanguinary than in the
southern and southwestern states.
When, in Christian county, in the
Ozark region of Missouri, the Mea-
dowses declared wal upon the Bilyeus
because the latter family resented the
announcement of the former that a
fence owned in ommon should be re-
moved. tle hostilities resulted in the
death OF three of the defendants and
the w%Oundlng of one of the aXEgres-
sOrs.
The two families are SO united by
lnternarriage that ii is hard to pick
out 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
WV !" HNA GIN WV SidlNSoiS, ~ /"
a bully good scrap" and he wouldn't
have missed it for any number of sons
and ~grandsOns. 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 tits
a shame to hang a Teller for licking
his man in a fight. We 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 son,
Steve, and his two grandsons, Jimmie
and Pete. and cheered them on with
cries of Give 'em hell.' But, as it
turned out, it was a game of take as
well as take, and nobly did the Bilyeus
take it.
.H.bout the middle of November Bud
Meadows got his volunteers together
and started on to raZe that fence,
which divided the two farms. He had
leVe!ed only a little gap when Steve
Bilyeu and his son Pete came running
ou1 ~ llICll AOUSt Will guns III
their hands. There vas 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 arms
and they confronted armed men. The
procession moved in the following or
7 From the Meadows house came
Bud Meadows. Bob Meadows, Jake
Bllyeu, Steve's brother. Hosea Bilyeu
Stoves cousin. and the husband OF
Stoves sister, Frank Tabor, who had
married Steve's daughter; Martin Bill
yen, Steve's brothers boy, and Mrs
Bud Meadows, and Mrs. Bob Meadows
daughters of Steve's brother. Not.
W~lthstanding their contrary names
and relationships, they all were Mead,
OWSes.
h enemy advanced to the scrap il
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 agel
legs would carry him, was the redoubt.
able patriarch, old Jimmy Bilyeu, wht
carried his eighty years and his CUR
with equal ease.
Some one fired a shot-who no one
knows nor cares. But it was the sig.
ma for the opening of the battle. II
vas 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
Bllyeu skipped over the fence, anG
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
Tor help, she had the bodies removed
to the house, and the funeral was at
tended by all the good people in the
neighborhood except the Meadowses.
Arrests followed, and this feature
of the affair grieved old Johnny great
ly, for, as he said, its a shame ia
hang a Teller fer licking his man in
a good fight, ven if he is a Medder
durn him, an has been killing Bill,
VpuSD