John S. Bilby was founder of the Bilby Ranch which claimed to be the second largest ranch

Ranch

A ranch is an area of landscape, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat or wool. The word most often applies to livestock-raising operations in the western United States and Canada, though...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The ranch headquartered in Quitman, Missouri

Quitman, Missouri

Quitman is a city in Nodaway County, Missouri, United States. The population was 46 at the 2000 census.-History:Quitman was first platted in 1856 by R. R. Russell and was initially called Russellville. It was later changed Quitman in honor of John A. Quitman, a former governor of Mississippi and...

 had holdings throughout the U.S. Southwest. Bilby settled in Nodaway County, Missouri

Nodaway County, Missouri

Nodaway County is a county located in the U.S. state of Missouri. The county was organized in 1845 and named for the Nodaway River.As of 2010, the population was 23,370...

 in 1868 and began expanding his empire using one property as collateral for the next. Soon it stretched from Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

 to Oklahoma

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

 to Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 to New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

. A dispute over the cattle operations was addressed by the United States Supreme Court in 1887 in the case of Teal v. Bilby.

However, since the ranch was totally based on borrowed funds it eventually collapsed, and Bilby was left with the only unmortgaged property—the home in Quitman. He died after being hit by a train shortly after the collapse of the ranch.

Portions of ranch became the O Bar O Ranch in Texas and joined King Ranch

King Ranch

King Ranch, located in south Texas between Corpus Christi and Brownsville, is one of the world's largest ranches. The ranch, founded in 1853 by Captain Richard King and Gideon K. Lewis, includes portions of six Texas counties, including most of Kleberg County and much of Kenedy County, with...

which was the biggest ranch.

The State of Missouri acquired 5030 acres (20.4 km²) of the land around Quitman in 1989 to form the Bilby Ranch Conservation Area.