Submitted by Craig Allen Thanks Craig!

Arkansas Gazette, August 31, 1897:
Capt. B. F. Taylor (Benjamin Franklin Taylor), one of the slain deputies, is well known in Little Rock. He represented Searcy County in the legislature in the early eighties. He was a merchant and farmer and one of the richest men in Searcy County. He was appointed a deputy soon after Henry M. Cooper took charge of the United States Marshal's office. Those who knew him say he was courageous and intrepid and knew no such thing as fear. The latter is born out by the fact that he fearlessly headed a posse into as dangerous a hot-bed of lawlessness as can be found anywhere.

The Mountain Wave September 24, 1897:
When the news came to Marshall that Capt. Taylor and Joe Dodson had been killed in an attempt to capture an illicit still in Pope County, little was thought or known of how and when the first scouts which led to the tragedy were enacted, and as they now are slowly being revealed one can not surmise what may be hidden in the secret vaults of history. From time to time, perhaps for years to come, threads will be woven into this fabric to make the woof and warp of it complete and yet the truth in its fullness may never be known.

An interesting chapter was added to the story the other day in Little Rock. J. Alva Church was arraigned before Commissioner O'Hair charged with illicit distilling, as was also A. W. Hatley, postmaster at Latham, and J. E. Mabel, postmaster at Diamond, in Van Buren County. At first nothing appears strange that officers of the government should be charged with complicity in unlawful business, but the connections of these two officers with this case is romantic. Latham and Diamond are but country post offices situated near each other in the wild and rugged mountains lying between the east fork of Illinois creek and Red River.

It will be remembered that a few days prior to the tragedy officers had captured Pope County moonshiners operating west of the Bruce gang and placed them in the State penitentiary for safe keeping. Both of these postmasters wrote to the prisoners that 'there will be an earthquake in England on the 28^th', but, of course, their letters were intercepted by the prison officials, and but little attention was paid to them, until after the news of the killing of Taylor and Dodson, which occurred on the 29^th, was received in Little Rock.

As the raid was intended to have been made on the 28^th the coincidence was so striking that the officials were determined to investigate the matter, and Hatley and Mabel were arrested. At the examination it was shown that all parties concerned were spiritualists and the mystical communications intercepted were but the predictions of a semi-prominent medium of Springfield, Mo., and the postmasters were released. This explanation, however, is so ghostlike as to need something more tangible to even make it have the semblance of a spirit.

Deputy marshals from Little Rock have made a number of arrests in that country, among the number being Crockett Metcalf, and Eli Calvin, Sam Church, J. H. McHaie and Ed Persons.

The most important capture, however, is that of Bruce, who, it is reported, was taken at Van Buren. Bruce was one of the gang that done the killing, and will no doubt pay the penalty for his crime.

While the citizens of Searcy County deplore the death of Capt. Taylor and Joe Dodson, they also deplore the discredit of Searcy County. While the killing was done in Pope county, the fact that Capt. Taylor lived in this county, and through the ignorance of newspaper correspondents, the crime is and will always be associated with Searcy County, though this county, nor any one in it, was responsible in any manner for the black page of history belongs to Pope, the paradise of moonshiners.

Same issue of the Mountain Wave:

Deputy U.S. Marshal McCasland, who has lately been appointed, went to Little Rock Sunday with a Pope County moonshiner by the name of Millsap. Millsap is suspected of knowing something about the Taylor-Dodson affair, but claims that he was not in the fight. He admits, however, that he owns half interest in the still that was captured, which gives color to the opinion that he will stay in Little Rock for a while, at least.

Mountain Wave, September 24, 1897:

A new office has been created in the internal revenue service and Collector H. L. Remmel has appointed Mr. W. P. Hodges, of this place, to the position, the commissioner of internal revenue has confirmed the appointment and we presume that Mr. Hodges will assume the duties of the office as soon as he returns from Missouri.

The creation of this office came about through the fatal raid on moonshiners in Pope County which resulted in the death of deputies Taylor and Dodson the latter part of August. Mr. Hodges is a son-in-law of Capt. Taylor and the government has cleared the way for him to hunt down the perpetrators of the crime with all the powerful machinery of the government to aid him.

Picture of Benjamin appears in Searcy County Scrapbook®
Benjamin Franklin Taylor appears in Searcy County Those Who Served®
Return to Searcy County Families® Index