Our Arklahoma Heritage: The roots of a family that traversed the ocean and the Revolutionary War before settling in Scott County

The Tafff family line began its American chapter when Irish-born Peter Taaffe and his brother JamThe Taff family line began its American chapter when Irish-born Peter Taaffe and his brother James crossed the Atlantic around 1745 and settled in northern Virginia. Peter married Elizabeth Warden. Their son Peter Taff arrived after 1759 in Hampshire County, Virginia.

At seventeen he enlisted in the Revolutionary War with the 7th Virginia Regiment under Colonel Alexanderes crossed the Atlantic around 1745 and settled in northern Virginia. Peter married Elizabeth Warden. Their son Peter Taff arrived after 1759 in Hampshire County, Virginia.

At seventeen he enlisted in the Revolutionary War with the 7th Virginia Regiment under Colonel Alexander McClenachan. He wintered at Valley Forge with George Washington and served until 1778.

After the war he moved to Loudoun County, Virginia, married Mary Edmundson around 1786, and started a family. They relocated to Jefferson County, Tennessee, before 1790 and settled near Dumplin Creek. Mary died between 1797 and 1807.

Peter remarried Mary Jines in 1807 and raised six more children. He lived as a frontiersman, later moving with parts of the family to the Hiwassee Purchase lands in McMinn County, Tennessee, around 1821. He died in 1844 near Stony Point in Maries County, Missouri, while staying with a daughter.

One of Peter’s sons from his first marriage was John Taff, born on 3 April 1788 in Loudoun County, Virginia. John enlisted in the War of 1812 on 8 October 1813 at Dandridge, Tennessee. He served four months as a private in Colonel W. Lillard’s brigade before discharge on 8 February 1814.

He fought under Andrew Jackson at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in March 1814 and at New Orleans in January 1815. From 1836 to 1844 he served again in Captain Peak’s company during Indian removals tied to the Hiwassee Purchase. On 19 December 1816 in Jefferson County, Tennessee,

John married Cynthia Moore, the youngest child of Revolutionary War veteran James Moore and Hannah Boring. Cynthia had been born on 15 December 1801 in Greene or Jefferson County. The couple joined a larger migration down the Tennessee River and settled three miles south of Decatur on Goodfield Creek in what became Meigs County in late 1820.

Peter Taff Jr. and Cynthia’s parents traveled with them. John and Cynthia had several children before she died around 1830. John remarried Jane R. Houpt on 13 January 1831 in Rhea County. He lived out his years in Meigs County and died on 12 January 1873 in Decatur.

He rests in Goodfield Cemetery.

Calvin Rufus Taff entered the world on 13 May 1822 in Meigs County, Tennessee, one of John and Cynthia’s children. He grew up on the Goodfield Creek farm amid the extended family that had moved from Virginia through the Tennessee River valley. On 30 September 1847 he married Nancy H. Collins.

he couple began their own family in Tennessee. Their eight children arrived in sequence: Alexander, Malinda, Samuel B., John, Cynthia E., Sarah Ann, and twins Martha and Calvin Chapman. Early births occurred in Meigs County. Around 1857 Calvin and Nancy loaded their household and joined siblings who had already headed west.

They bought a substantial tract of land in Scott County, Arkansas, from a man named Harrison. Calvin farmed in Hickman Township near Waldron. The 1860 census shows him there as head of household with Nancy and the children plus his brother Francis Asbury Taff living in the home.

Later censuses in 1870 and 1880 confirm the same location and continued agricultural work. Nancy died on 5 March 1880. Calvin followed on 12 December 1880 at age fifty-eight years, six months, and twenty-nine days.His probate record supplied the exact dates and middle name for the stone ordered after his death.

He and Nancy rest in Old Salem Cemetery on private land known locally as the Earl Jones Pasture. The site holds six burials marked by one large inscribed stone and smaller individual markers.

The land connection traces to daughter Martha “Mattie” Taff, who married Earl Jones in 1889. Other children remained in the area or nearby. Malinda married a King. Sarah Ann wed a Bird. Calvin Chapman died in 1899. Martha lived until 1945.

The family stayed rooted in Hickman Township. Siblings such as Martha Evaline Taff Hughes and Francis Asbury Taff settled nearby and appear in Square Rock Cemetery records.

Their presence turned the Taff name into a permanent thread in Scott County settlement lists from the 1860s onward.

The line that started with an Irish immigrant and a Revolutionary War soldier at Valley Forge reached its Arkansas chapter through successive moves along rivers and purchase lands.

Calvin Rufus Taff lived the final stage as a farmer who secured ground that supported his children and grandchildren. The shared family plot on the Jones pasture and the continuous ownership of the original tract mark where the story settled.