CHAPTER ONE

Thompson Helms’ family had followed a common migration path since coming to America, migrating from Pennsylvania to North Carolina to Kentucky to Indiana. The earliest known ancestor of Thompson is his grandfather, Jonathan Helms. Jonathan, born about 1722, may have come from Bethlehem, Bucks County, Pennsylvania to North Carolina with George and Tilman Helms, ¹ probably relatives of his. A grant was issued to Jonathan on April 4, 1750, in Anson County, North Carolina. Jonathan, George and Tilman Helms, as well as Thomas Helms, all lived on Little River, northeast of the Pee Dee River in Anson County, North Carolina. ²

Jonathan’s son, James Helms, migrated to Kentucky in the late 1700s. His brother, John Sr., followed James into the Kentucky wilderness where they first settled in what is now Knox County in the southeastern part of the state. ³ The desire for land drove the two Helms brothers to leave North Carolina and settle in Kentucky. This was to be a motivating force in the migration of huge numbers of Americans and affected how these Americans felt about their land. There was truly a land hunger and "there was truth to the old saw the typical American farmer did not want an unreasonable amount of land- only all that adjoined to his own farm." ⁴ Certainly, "land was the principle source of wealth, indicator of social status, and guarantor of personal and family security to a degree difficult to imagine in our urban bureaucratic age." ⁵

Around 1800 John Helms Sr. married, but the name of his wife, Thompson’s mother, remains unknown. In the early 1800s James, John Sr., and their families moved to Daviess County, Kentucky, located in north central Kentucky ⁶ on the Ohio River, the border between Kentucky and Indiana. It was here in Daviess County that Thompson was born around 1820, the eighth or ninth child of his parents’ marriage, all born in Kentucky.

Thompson’s mother died in her late thirties in Daviess County, Kentucky sometime between 1821 and 1823, since Sanford, the youngest child, was born on November 30, 1821 and in 1823 John Helms Sr. was listed as a widower. ⁷ After the death of his wife, John Helms Sr. migrated in 1823 to west central Indiana to an area which would become Fountain County in 1836. One possible explanation for the move within Kentucky, and the eventual move from Kentucky to Indiana, lies in the problems with land titles in Kentucky. The method by which land was acquired in Kentucky as in a "haphazard, madly disorganized fashion...fraught with unanticipated evils." ⁸ The net result was that "many smaller farmers soon migrated to regions of more secure ownership out of state." ⁹ The moves from North Carolina to Kentucky to Indiana were a reflection of what was happening in America at that time. As one author put it: "The Americans of post-colonial times were movers. Some moved frequently, while others ‘might stay a decade or two before the next move.’ If they had chosen the best land they might stay out their lives. But whenever a new treaty opening up Indian lands or a fresh round of hearsay stirred temptation, plenty of self-chosen responded. Thus automatic selection was still sorting out temperaments to keep the leading edge of America flavored with imagination- as well as recklessness, fickleness, ignorance and opportunism- and a high incidence of courage. ¹⁰ And they knew what they had to face, as their fathers and grandfathers had traveled the same path. The Helms was not unique in moving; rather they were just a few in a wave of thousands of Americans on the move.

The separation lasted for several years. A family story of Thompson Helms passed through his family and was written down by one of his great grandchildren, Lena Chipman Hampton. When Thompson was eight years old a steamboat had come up the Ohio River and was charging twenty-five cents to ride across. Since the Ohio River formed the northern boundary of Daviess County, Kentucky, the river would have been near where Thompson was living in Kentucky. "Great Grandpa had only a quarter," Lena Hampton wrote, so he rode across and had no money to go back. Perhaps Thompson had in mind to find his father. In any event, he supposedly "joined a bunch of horse traders and finally landed in Texas, having married Great Grandma on the way." "On the way" was to be a less than direct route to Texas. Examination of the 1830 census of Fountain County, Indiana indicates that the younger children were living with their father and older sister, probably Margaret. Since John Sr. did not remarry until 1832, Margaret may have been mother to her three younger brothers and one sister.

On September 3, 1832, John Sr. married Sarah Turner, believed to have been a widow. John and Sarah were to have five children, the first born in 1834. John Helms Sr. lived his life out in Fountain County, Indiana. When he died in 1843, he left about sixty-nine acres to his heirs. ¹³ There were many court actions concerning the inheritance because of the two families. It appears that Thompson Helms, probably because of his move to Texas, never received his share of the estate.

Only one brother stayed in Fountain County. That brother, Elisha, lived to be seventy-four years old. His brothers and sisters were not so fortunate. Of the other six siblings for whom a death date is known, one died at approximately forty-one years of age; the other five died in their thirties. However, since death records were not kept, their causes of death remain unknown.

Abby Helms’ family, the Kendalls, had also been part of the westward movement from Pennsylvania to Ohio to Indiana. Abby’s paternal grandfather had migrated with his brothers to Adams County, Ohio from Fayette County Pennsylvania around 1800. On July 8, 1810, James Kendall married Polly McNamar in Adams County. Twelve years later, on March 25, 1823, Abby was born in Adams County, Ohio, the seventh child of James and Polly Kendall. ¹⁴

In 1828 James, his wife and children and his two brothers, Samuel and Elisha, and their families came to Montgomery County, Indiana. It is here in the Coal Creek township that Abby grew up. It was a frontier area, a place of dense forest. "The trees...ran even larger in the Old Northwest than in the northeast. In these well-watered lowish latitudes sycamore, tulip, and oak had ideal growing conditions and their outlandish size sorely taxed the usual clearing methods." ¹⁵ Death seemed to have stalked these three Kendall families. Within seven years, from 1835 to 1842, Abby lost two uncles and the aunt for whom Abby was named. Her aunt Abigail was thirty-five years old at the time of her death. Abby’s greatest loss, however, occurring when she was nineteen, was the death of her parents, James and Polly, both of whom died within days of each other in September, 1842.

These diseases were not just a local problem. In the Northwest, malaria was the most serious disease affecting the population. Although quinine was available to break the chill, it was an everyday sight to see someone with the chills. The relation of malaria to low-lying places was known, but the role of the mosquito was yet to be discovered. Other diseases troubling the settlers were tuberculosis or consumption and typhoid fever, also known as bilious fever, and the flux. The latter disease was caused by infected streams and wells. ¹⁹ For women childbirth was always a danger, especially with bearing so many children, averaging two years between births. It would not be until the late 1800s that medical and scientific discoveries would improve the health of Americans.