Meadows-Bilyeu Feud

Another chapter in my Desperadoes book is about the Meadows-Bilyeu feud that culminated in the killing of Steve Bilyeu and two of his sons by Bud Meadows and his cohorts in late November of 1898 south of Ozark near the Christian-Taney county line. One newspaper called the feud, which had been building for months, a neighborhood feud, but it was really more like a family feud, because both Bud Meadows and his brother Bob had married into the Bilyeu family. Steve Bilyeu's land and Bud Meadows's land adjoined, and the source of the dispute was a fence separating their properties. The two men had put up the fence together, but Meadows apparently felt that Bilyeu was not contributing his fair share to the upkeep of the fence. The argument came to a head on Nov. 28, 1898, when Meadows and his pals started taking down the fence, and Bilyeu and his associates showed up armed to try to stop them. The confrontation left three Bilyeus dead and Meadows and four of his sidekicks indicted for murder. Meadows was convicted of 1st degree murder but later had the conviction overturned and was granted a new trial. However, the second trial never took place, as the charges were basically dropped.