Bryers vs Hadley Feud, Baldwin, Alabama

http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/baldwin/newspapers/bryershadleyfeud.txt
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Larry E. Caver, Jr.
< lecaverjr@aol.com >
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November 2002

DREADFUL TRAGEDY IN BALDWIN COUNTY, ALABAMA

Partial reports of a terrible occurrence near the line of the Mobile and 
Montgomery Railroad reached us by telegraph from the Junction on Tuesday 
morning. Yesterday we were called upon by Mr. W.J. VAN KIRK, of Millvue, a 
surveyor, who was on duty near the scene of the tragedy, but not a witness to 
its occurrence.   He visited the battleground, however, was present at the 
funeral of the victims, and gave us an intelligent report of the dreadful 
affair.  Greenberry BRYERS and James HADLEY, two men of considerable means 
and both large owners of stock, had been at feud for some years in 
consequence of misunderstandings caused by the intermixing of their cattle 
which "used" in the same range.  On Monday, BRYERS, Sr., with his son, Larry, 
was plowing about 150 yards from the house, when HADLEY, Sr., accompanied by 
a party of five others comprising his son, "Dink", two other sons, and his 
sons-in-law, Bud PRICHER and Thomas STEWART, all armed with shotguns, rode up 
near the fence and said they had "come to settle the matter".  BRYERS and his 
son were unarmed, but the father, after some angry words had been exchanged, 
caught up a piece of pine root, a foot and a half long, and getting over the 
fence, his son following him, advanced toward the party.  As he approached 
them he was shot down and instantly killed, and his son who ran to his father 
as he fell was instantly killed.  Joseph BRYERS then came out of the house 
with a double barrel shotgun, but both barrels missed fire and he was shot 
dead.  Meanwhile Dink HADLEY rode toward the house, sprang from his horse and 
got behind a pine tree to await the coming of another son, John BRYERS, who 
advanced from the house under fire with two guns.  He dropped one of them and 
sprang to a post in the road which did not shelter more than a third of his 
person, and exchanged fires with Dink HADLEY about thirty yards off, the rest 
of the attacking party meanwhile firing on him from a distance.  At his 
second fire HADLEY fell, and attempted to reload, but seeing BRYERS run back 
and get his other gun he scrambled upon his horse and rejoined his party and 
rode away with them, John firing into them as they left and wounding old 
HADLEY in the shoulder.  Dink HADLEY's wound was in the knee.  John was 
wounded in the head, arm and foot, but not dangerously. While the fight was 
going on near the house, Wylie, the youngest son of the BRYERS family, ran to 
where his father and brother Larry had fallen and was shot down, the wound 
being in the thigh and dangerous.  The summary of the affair is a father and 
two sons murdered and two sons wounded, on one side; and on the other, a 
father and one son wounded.  We are told that Mr. BRYERS was much respected 
being a leading man in religious affairs in the neighborhood, and that HADLEY 
had always been deemed a respectable person.  The dead were buried on 
Tuesday, a large assemblage being present. Tuesday a posse of men, provided 
with warrants for the arrest of the murderers, went to the HADLEY settlement 
but found their residences deserted.  The locality of these occurrences is 
near the Florida line, four miles west of Perdido station, or about midway 
between the Junction and Tensas Bridge. 
-Pensacola Gazette

Source: Birmingham Iron Age, July 29, 1875