“Jacob said we had to leave,” Ruth recalls. “I asked him how. We had no money, nowhere to go, no way to escape without Benton finding us. That’s when Jacob went to see Benton one last time.”
What Jacob negotiated with Benton remains partially unclear, as both men are now dead. But based on Ruth’s account and the timeline of events, it appears Jacob made a deal: if Benton would allow them to leave Ohio peacefully, Jacob would sign over the farm and consider the debt settled.
“Jacob wanted it in writing,” Ruth says. “But Benton refused. He said Jacob’s signature on the deed transfer was all he needed. If Jacob kept his end—leaving Ohio and never coming back—Benton would keep his end and not pursue them.”
The deal was struck. On the night of July 13, 1992, the Miller family loaded what they could carry into their buggy. They left everything else behind—the farm, the animals, most of their possessions, their entire life.
