New Nonfiction Book, Adobe Walls to Tularosa

Adobe Walls to Tularosa is a true story of Ben Hewitt, Texas rancher, gunfighter, lawman, and sometime fugitive.

My grandfather, Benjamin Tarrant Hewitt, died before I was born, but I know him well because of the many stories I heard from my mother, my uncles, and aunts. I interviewed his oldest son, Ebenezer Cole Hewitt, "Uncle Eb," in 1962 when he was 91. I spent 5 hours interviewing two 85-year-old aunts, Minnie Jackson Hewitt and Lavenia Victoria Hewitt Jackson in 1980. Over a period of many years my uncle Robert Frank Hewitt filled in many details of his father's life. I also heard details of Ben Hewitt's life from my mother, Grace Gordon Hewitt, who didn't think much of him. She said he had killed at least 12 men in gunfights and always looked over his shoulder for fear that someone would try to kill him. All the others, including my own father, Joseph Benjamin Hewitt, spoke well of Ben Hewitt.

Ben was present at the Battle of Adobe Walls in 1874 when Quanah Parker led 1,000 Comanches and Kiowas against 28 buffalo hunters huddled within the thick adobe walls of a small fort north of the Canadian River in the Texas Panhandle.

Ben was primarily a business man. He bought and sold ranches, but had a quick temper and often encountered another quick tempered man. A gunfight resulted in one of them dead. Ben survived. He had 8 sons and a daughter. My father, Joseph Benjamin Hewitt, was Ben's seventh son, born on a 13-section ranch in Motley County, Texas.

This book and all of Joe B. Hewitt's books are available in e-book or print form at your on-line bookstores. E-book, ISBN 9780463551462; printed book, ISBN 9781719441902. 

Discover other titles by Joe B. Hewitt, including Murder on the Sky Ride; Mystery of the Vanished Gold; My Love, My Enemy, and Yellow Rose of Texas.