This is the story of Ben Hewitt, Confederate Civil War veteran who leaves the postwar poverty of Alabama, and goes to Texas. He works as a cowboy on a ranch owned by his comrade in arms, Powell Cole. Soon Ben is a partner with him in a general store and cotton gin in Gainesville, Cooke County, Texas. Lavena Victoria Cole, age 14, and Ben Hewitt, age 32, are married.Ben gains a reputation as a gunfighter when twice he is forced to kill men to protect his own life. While a deputy sheriff in Arkansas, he kills two members of the Sam Bass gang.In 1874 Ben is present at the second battle of Adobe Walls with Bat Masterson, Billy Dixon, and other buffalo hunters.
About the Author: About the Author 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 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.). In addition to the mission trips, Hewitt visited Cypress, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Greece, Italy, France, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, 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.