CHAPTER TEN

From 1853 through 1855 the Helms land was listed under Jonas Dawson’s name on the Collin County tax list. In 1854 the land was valued at $2.34 acre. In 1855 the value jumped to $5.00. With more and more people coming into Collin County the price of the land increased as demand increased.

After 1855 the land was listed under Thomas Kendall’s name on the tax lists. Since Kendall had his own 160 acre farm on the Phineas Newsom survey in far northwest Collin County, this meant that Kendall had land in two different locations to look after. In 1865 the Helms land was valued on the tax list at $4.00 an acre, a drop of a dollar an acre from the previous year. In 1857 the value per acre rose to $4.69. By the end of the 1850s the value of the Helms land seemed to stabilize at about $4.00 an acre, making the land worth $2,560.00.

While the financial aspects of the estate were settled, the question of the Helms children had to be considered. The children did not live with their guardian Thomas Kendall. In her brief family stories Lena Hampton Chipman, the great granddaughter, relates that "the younger children were taken in by friends." The 1860 census showed the children living with different families. Axie Ann Helms, who was eighteen in 1860, was living with fifty-four years old Sally A. Wash. Jim Helms, fifteen, and his youngest sister, Mary Thompson Helms, seven, were living with Lorenzo D. Davidson and his wife, Isabell. The Davidsons, who were in their fifties, lived near Chambersville, south of Weston.

George W. Helms, twelve, was living with the Leonidas Wilson family. Lee and his wife, Sarah A. Wilson, were in their thirties and had four younger children of their own. George’s older brother, William Helms, about thirteen, was living with the William H. Herron family. Herron’s sister, Rebecca Eliza Herron, had married Thomas Kendall, the children’s guardian. Herron, thirty-seven, and his wife, Louisa, about twenty-four, had two young children of their own. Sarah Helms, ten, was living with William Herron’s fifty-six years old mother, Martha Herron, a widow. The youngest boy, Francis Marion (Doc) Helms, was living with William Shaver, thirty-five, and his wife, Davisa, twenty-seven. The Shavers had two young children. The oldest Helms boy, John, who would have been sixteen or seventeen in 1860, was not found in the 1860 census. Since later records imply that John was alive at a later date, it would seem that he was simply missed on the census. It seems unlikely that John would have been living in another county, as he was a minor, that is under age twenty-one, and a ward of his guardian, Thomas Kendall, a resident of Collin County.

In April 1856 the last lawsuit involving the participants in the Skaggs-Carter controversy was settled when "John Nelson and eleven others found for the plaintiff (Dawson)" ¹ in the slander suit that Dawson had filed against Abraham Carter. Carter was ordered to pay five hundred dollars in damages, a stiff fine in that day’s money. Carter immediately filed a motion for a new trial, but the motion was denied. ²

The remaining question from Abby’s death was what happened to Reuben Allen, her second husband. The last mention of him in Lena Chipman Hampton’s stories of the Helms family was that after Abby’s death "he took the horses." Perhaps that was his settlement as Abby’s legal spouse. In any event, shortly after Abby’s death, Allen moved to Parker County, which is west of Fort Worth. It was there that he remarried, this time to Roxanna Matlin, who was in her early twenties. By this marriage Allen would have two sons. ³

Allen settled on the West Fork of the Trinity River was listed as "among those who settled Parker County—who were here in 1856...". ⁴ At this point the mystery of Reuben Allen’s involvement with the Carter family deepens. On April 6, 1857, Allen appeared before John Matlock, the Chief Justice of Parker County, to swear that he "was a bonafide Settler upon Vacant land on twenty sixth August 1856 and that he now Resides upon the Same." His witnesses to this were Thomas Carter and William H. Allen. ⁵ Evidently Reuben Allen was claiming a pre-emption grant for 160 acres. These were also called homestead or settlers claims. Under an act of 1854 preemptors could locate up to 160 acres. ⁶ Why Reuben Allen moved to Parker County is not known, but the evidence of Thomas Carter as one of Allen’s witnesses, links Allen even more with the Carters.

Thomas Carter was one of the seven Carter brothers. In Collin County Thomas Carter was summoned as a witness in the lawsuit filed by Abraham Carter in Caleb Hart’s Justice of the Peace Court in 1851. Many years later during an interview with a Carter descendant Thomas Carter is mentioned, along with Abraham, as having moved to Parker County. ⁷ In an early history of Parker County Thomas Carter is listed as a settler. ⁸ In a much later Parker County history Thomas Carter is noted as having moved to Parker County in 1850 and as being buried in the same cemetery as his brother Abraham. ⁹ The final, and perhaps definitive, connection between Reuben Allen and the Carters was the marriage in Parker County of Reuben’s son, William H. (Billie) Allen, to Thomas Carter’s daughter, Mary Ann Carter. ¹⁰

On July 14, 1859, Abraham Carter, like Reuben Allen two years before, appeared before the Chief Justice of Parker County to claim 160 acres on Walnut Creek on the West Fork of the Trinity River. His two witnesses were Solomon Hines and Thomas Allen. ¹¹ It may be that Thomas Allen was a relative of Reuben Allen. There was a Thomas Allen, who could have been a relative, listed as a Peters Colonist, ¹² but since Thomas Allen was a common name in the Colony (there were three), it is difficult to be certain. The Parker County Thomas Allen is listed is also listed as an early settler in the county. ¹⁵

While it is uncertain exactly why Abraham Carter moved to Parker County, it is probably that the Colonial Land Certificate of his son, John, was a factor. By virtue of being heir to his son, Abraham had the right to patent 320 acres of land since John had satisfied the Peters Colony requirements. While Abraham Carter had not been successful in patenting the land in Collin County, he could do so in Parker County, which was included in the Peters Colony. Evidently this is why Abraham sold his own land in Collin County and moved to the county where his brother, Thomas, had already settled. Thus, by 1857, Abraham had sold his Collin County land, including 404 acres, to Larkin Adamson, the Weston store owner. This acreage was a large part of Abraham’s headright, which he had finally received on September 27, 1855. ¹⁴

There was apparently an amicable relationship between Reuben Allen and the Carters, based on Allen’s willingness to help the Carters get the last land dispute case moved to Grayson County and based on the willingness of Thomas Carter, who was Abraham Carter’s brother, to witness Allen’s affidavit in Parker County. These are things that friends do for each other, not enemies. The only question is why Abby Helms would marry a friend of the family, which had threatened and perhaps slandered her first husband. If Abby felt strongly enough about Thompson that she named their last child for him —Mary Thompson Helms—after his death, it seems unlikely that she would feel kindly toward her first husband’s enemies. It is possible that she married Reuben out of some perceived need or necessity, or that she married him without knowledge of his connections with the Carters. It is also possible that there was no connection between Allen and the Carters until after the marriage, although the time between the September 16, 1854, marriage and Allen’s October 1854 affidavits supporting the change of venue was very short. If the Allen-Carter relationship did evolve after Abby and Reuben Allen’s marriage, it might explain why Abby and her children returned to Honey Creek by May 1855. Yet, this has to remain speculation, as no records remain to attest to the exact motivations of these people.

By 1858 Thomas Kendall, the guardian of the Helms children, had decided to move from Collin County, although he did not leave until after the final sale of his property on October 1, 1860. ¹⁵ The reason for leaving was the gathering storm of the Civil War and the increasing tensions between secessionists and unionists. Kendall, born in Ohio and raised in Indiana, owned no slaves and would have been inclined to the union side by his past history. While many in North Texas shared his sentiments, many did not. The Kendalls joined other Collin County families for the trip eventually joined up with another wagon train in Fort Quitman on the Rio Grande for the trip on to California.

Their arrival in Fort Quitman was noted by Noah Smithwich, who said, "...another large train of emigrants, hailing from McKinny (sic), Texas came up. Four families, Elliot, Kendal and Austin brothers, were taken into our train. With few exceptions the Texans who came out to California that season (1961) were rampant secessionists, but they were better voters than fighters, they probably having every one voted for secession and than run away from the consequences." ¹⁶

Since Kendall had been planning his move for at least four years, it seems that he had long felt that staying in Texas during this time would be detrimental to him and his family. By the time the election to decide succession was held in February 1861, Kendall had already sold his property and prepared to leave Collin County. Nevertheless, Kendall would eventually return to Texas. The 1900 census shows Thomas Kendall living in Dunley County in the Texas Panhandle, while his son, Samuel, lived in Dallas. ¹⁷ It is known that one meeting took place between Jim Helms and some of his Kendall relatives on his farm near Weston in the early 1900s. ¹⁸

With the departure of Thomas Kendall the Helms children were left without a guardian. On August 26, 1861, however, William H. Herron, an old friend of Thompson Helms, applied for the guardianship of the children. The guardianship was granted on September 30, 1861. ¹⁹

Events had already forced the attention of Collin County residents from their homes to the nation at large as on April 12, 1961, the Civil War had explored into being. The most immediate effect on Collin County was the enlistment of the county’s young men in the Confederate forces. On October 23, 1861, soon after his seventeenth birthday, Jim Helms joined Company I, Martin’s Regiment, Texas Calvary, Fifth Partisan Rangers as a private. ²⁰