Ben suddenly jerked the loving pair apart, shoving Sara into a bush and attacking the other young man.  By the time the others at the afternoon party pulled Ben off of the victim, he was limp and lifeless on the ground.  Upon feeling for his pulse, none was found; one of the party goers turned to Ben and said, “He is dead!” and suggested that Ben make a hurried exit from the grounds.  Ben panicked and headed for his parents’ home in Chuckey.
Ben's’ parents hurriedly helped him get ready to travel, light and fast.

In no time he was headed toward the west and the Republic of Texas and Kentucky Town - a trip which would keep him from his family and home town for more than twenty-five years.

On February 8, 1859 Ben W. Earnest and Wm. D. Dyer purchased a business lot in the town of Kentucky Town (Lot 1, Block 12) where they operated a general merchandise store until the building burned in December 1881; their store faced west toward the town square at its northeast corner.  Ben never married but built himself a home on Jefferson Street, one of the four streets running along the sides of the town square.

Ben served in Co. D, 16^th Texas Cavalry as a Private during the Civil War.

Following the end of the Civil War, migration to Texas resumed and among those who came to Texas and settled on a farm at Kentucky Town was one of the young ladies, along with her husband, who had attended Sara’s tea party in Tennessee.  After settling in Kentucky Town the now middle-aged woman accompanied her husband to town to do some shopping; they entered the Dyer-Earnest store where she recognized Ben Earnest, who was shocked and turned pale.  The lady asked Ben where he had been for so long and informed him that his folks and the people of Chuckey had given him up for dead.  She then told Ben that the victim of his beating at Sara’s afternoon tea party had revived after about an hour and eventually recovered after several weeks of treatment and care.  Ben was so relieved, saying he was so glad the young man had lived and that he had been living in fear of being found for all those years.  He then inquired if Sara had married the young man but was told that Sara had indeed married, but to another.

After his store building burned in 1881, he became a bee-keeper at the age of sixty-one.  He was loved by all the children of the community because he gave them honey combs from his bee hives. 

Ben died on January 27, 1907 at the age of eighty-six.  On the day of his death, the children rang the bell in the new church eighty-one times, causing the bell to crack.  Mr. Ernest was buried in Vittitoe Cemetery.

After his death, Pascal N. Connelly, Sr. purchased Mr. Earnest’s home about 1920, dismantled the old home and erected a new home on the lot.  The ledger books from the store for the years 1859 – 1863 and 1880 – 1881 were given to Dr. Eugene Nelms, nephew of Mr. Earnest.

 

Source : Joe W. Chumbley.  Kentucky Town and Its Baptist Church, Houston, Texas: D. Armstrong Co., Inc., c1975.  Information about Ben W. Earnest contributed by Dr. Eugene Nelms of California.