Adobe Walls to Tularosa

by Joe B. Hewitt

Overview

This is the true story of Ben Hewitt, Texas rancher, gunfighter, lawman, and sometime fugitive. He left the post Civil War poverty of Alabama and traveled alone to Cooke County, north Texas, where he got a job as a cowboy from his comrade in arms Powell Cole. Ben progressed to ranch foreman and then as a partner with Cole in a general store and cotton gin. He impregnated and married Laveina, Cole's 14-year-old daughter in 1872. His relationship with his old comrade was never the same. Ben bought and sold ranches throughout the Texas portion of the Red River Valley, in the Texas Panhandle, and into Indian Territory. For example, he sold a 13-section ranch in Motley County and relocated far south to Pecos, Texas. Each time he bought a ranch, he would work it and improve on it for two or three years. Then he would either sell it for a profit or turn management over to a trusted employee or one of his sons while Ben moved farther west looking for more opportunities. On one occasion his quick temper got him into court. The court trial did not go well for Ben. He lost his temper again. He drew his six-shooter and shouted "Court's adjourned." Ben packed up his wife and six sons and settled in Polk County, Arkansas. There he became a deputy sheriff and then a hero when he killed two members of the Sam Bass Gang.

Ben Hewitt was present at the 1874 Battle of Adobe Walls along with Bat Masterson and Billy Dixon, the hero of the battle. Quanah Parker had led an estimated 1,000 Comanches and Kiowas against the tiny adobe fort. After Billy Dixon's famous shot that went almost a mile to knock a Comanche medicine man off his horse, the Indians withdrew.

This book is the result of many years of research by Joe B. Hewitt, grandson of Ben Hewitt. The cover picture is of Josh Hewitt, Joe's grandson.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940155995852
Publisher:	Joe B. Hewitt
Publication date:	12/14/2018
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

About the Author Joe B. Hewitt, BD MA Author Joe B. Hewitt started writing as a newspaper reporter for the Lima, Ohio, News. He covered the police beat, courthouse beat, and was an investigative reporter. He went under cover for three months and published an expose of vice and crime. He served as national and international news editor and “slot” man on the city desk. He owned and published the following Texas weekly newspapers, Throckmorton Tribune, and Springtown Review, and was a stockholder, editor and publisher of the Richardson Digest. His newspaper career ended when he was called into the ministry. . He served the Richardson church 13 years. He resigned that pastorate to go into vocational evangelism. However, during those four years he was called by Christian leaders in many communities to lead special election campaigns. Of 13 major campaigns, he won 11. He turned down an offer to manage a US Congressman’s re-election campaign. During those years in the pastorate he wrote a nonfiction book on personal experience that has sold 45,000 copies. He wrote curriculum for Bible study teachers and teachers commentaries for LifeWay, the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention as well as the youth devotional guide, and Open Windows the 1.1 million-circulation adult devotional guide. For 10 years wrote columns for the Rockwall Success, and Rowlett Lakeshore Times, local newspapers. His magazine articles were published in Mature Living, The Baptist Standard, and Leadership magazine (published by the Baptist General Convention of Texas), Faith for the Family, Reproduction Methods, and the Christian Crusader. Photographs have been published by Associated Press, United Press International, Popular Mechanics, and several detective magazines (from the days when he was police reporter.). His travel articles and pictures have been published in The Dallas Morning News, and the Houston Chronicle's Sunday Magazine. Guest editorials have been published in The Dallas Morning News and Spirit of 76, publication of Fort Worth, Texas, Mensa. Hewitt served as a temporary missionary in Mexico, Brazil, Russia, Oregon, Idaho, New York, and pastored a church in England for a month in an exchange with the pastor of the English church. He served as volunteer chaplain and coordinator of jail ministries for the Rockwall County Sheriff’s Department for 10 years. I also served two days a month as volunteer chaplain at Lake Pointe Medical Center in Rowlett for 10 years. On one of his three trips to Russia, Hewitt preached in Muravlenko, Siberia, a city of 40,000, built on 600 feet deep permafrost located 1650 miles east-northeast of Moscow. The nearest airport was 100 miles south at Nyabresk where the Aeroflot plane broke down and Hewitt and his wife were stranded two days. In addition to the mission trips, Hewitt visited Cypress, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Greece, Italy, France, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and many Caribbean islands. Hewitt has traveled extensively throughout all 50 of the United States, Mexico and Canada. After retiring from the Pastorate in 2001, Hewitt began training as a mediator and has served Dallas and area courts as a court-appointed mediator to settle lawsuits. Hewitt received a BD degree from Bible Baptist Seminary, and an MA degree in Biblical Studies from Dallas Baptist University. He is a member of Mensa, the high IQ society.