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- Finally about 1890, I think largely through my father's influence, he went back to New Orleans. With his beard and long hair he could not be recognized. After he had thoroughly surveyed the situation and procured a good lawyer, he surrendered, made bond, and demanded a trial. Because no witnesses could be found, the court declared him innocent. Everybody knew that a lawyer had been killed, but nobody could be found who had seen the killing. The carpetbaggers who were in the saddle in 1865 had drifted on to a field where they would be more welcome.
After he was cleared, he began inquiring about his old sweetheart. He learned that she had been married and had two daughters, and was then living in Water Valley, Mississippi. Her name was then Mrs. Beebe. Mr. Smith went up to see her, and they were married right quick. He bought his new wife and the two girls back to Arkansas with him. When he came back he was all shaved up and dressed up so his best friends didn't know him. I went to school with the girls. One of them married a Mr. Young, and the other one married Hugh Boyce. Mr. and Mrs. Smith died some time during the 1890's.
JAMES K. TAAFFE
Jim Taaffe was from a family of early settlers in Arkansas Territory. I think he was the son of George Taaffe. I know that he conveyed land as an heir of George Taaffe. My impression is that the Taaffe families were probably the very first families to settle in the Rocky Comfort section.
I think his first wife was a Miss Payne, and they had two boys, George and Joe Taaffe (7). George married an Indian woman, and I think Joe married a Miss Belt. He married an orphan girl named Mary the second time. I think possibly his second wife was raised by the Layne family.
- Joe Taaffe died some fifteen years or more ago. George Taaffe was murdered
by some Negro cow thieves about 1888. His Indian neighbors trailed the
Negroes, caught them, killed and burned them.
- _______________________
- 7. James K. Taaffe's first wife was Jane (Lemons) Smith, whom he married in 1858. She died in 1878.
- Their children were George, James, Joseph, John and Fanny. (Biographical
and Historical Memoirs of Southern Arkansas. Chicago, Nashville and
St. Louis: The Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1891. p. 548.)
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