The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1899-01-05
FighGing was often

secure this coveted honor. 10 de
cline a challenge to fight was tn,
worst disgrace that the early Bull
Greek settlers knew.
IT is not strange that such ante
cedsnts and surroundings should
have made the Bull Checkers of to
day fighters Mary Of these people
who fight in deadly feuds are no
really criminals in their inclinations
They get mixed up II Eeighborhood
and family quarrsls and use Win
chester5 and shotguns under circum
stances that would have lei their
fathers into the ring for "a fair
fight y The B.lyeu family. so lately
involved in a bloody combat with
the Meadows faction, have never
been criminals The records of
neither Christian nor Tauey county
show any charges against these PEG
pie. They have been Ordinary citi
zens, some Of them well esteemed
for their good character. Strangers
have always found them hospitabIe
and courteous. They are high tenn
pered and combative when provoked.
Had the family been more dispersed
over the country the recent fatal
encounter would perhaps not have
occurred. Such numerous and com
plicated family relations as the Bill
yeu kinships will almost inevitably
produce neighborhood strife With
such people the closest ties of birth
are not always bars to bitter enm.-
ties, as was shown by the fact that
Steve Bilyeu's daughter, Mre. Tabor,
had not been in her fathers house
for many months before the battle
over the line fence. The awful trag |
edy renewed the friendship between
he stricken wife and mother and |
her estranged daughter, howeye-,
and over the bodies OF their common
lead in the little Bull Creek home
Mrs BIlyeu and Frances Tabor en-
oraced each other and bawailed their
terrible loss. That scene the day
after the killing when the two wo
men met as friends in the presence
If so many kindred anl reighbors
o weep over the shocking conse-
luences Of the family feud was a
picture OF grief aud penitence such {
8 DO artist could portray.
But while the Bilyeu al e not nat !
rally bad people, and the victims
+ the lat tragedy were led into the t
nequal battle by their instructive l
to resent an insult aud to t
blow the pronptings of neighbar- Il,
God feud. The Bull Greek country y
as produced very large percent c
&c of crime within the last ten or Il
Felve years for ITS population 1t II
as up this little stream that the o
organization worked il
'rthward from fancy county in al
1857, the sway of the regulating fc
der eliminating in the Edens- CT
ceen massacre near the head of the pt
eek between Sparta and Chadwick NJ
'ar Greek, near the mouth OF Bull, ia
IS the stronghold Of the White in
er regulators, who ruled that re cl
IN so supremely, when Capt Nat W
Kinney headed the Baldknobber ca
ices. The chief of the night raid NJ
!, who Undertook to rid the Mis- to
lri borders of hog and cattle nc
ewes and other obnoxious charac an
5 to whom the local courts were re,
adequate terrors, named the tol
7ers after the creeks along which
" dwelt, and the Bears" Bulls" ed
Swans" were the most active rel
npanies OF the Baldknobber or DIR,
,ization. Near the confluence of
ar and Bull, ten miles below the w.
It where the Bilyeu Meadows bat
occurred on the 2Sth of Novem -.
!, lived Capt. Mat Day. the old 70,
oner of fancy county the Sock :.
Is, the Lewises AMI the Bearders, -,
ose names have so often appeared r.
he criminal records at Forsythe NJ
Ozark. Most of the members -
he mob that hanged Jno Bright =,
alleged wife murderer, and kill So