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CHAPTER ELEVEN

 

 

While no battles were fought in Collin County, the county felt the effect of the Civil War in the loss of its young men. Women and older men were left to do the jobs usually performed by the men who left to fight in the war. Collin County had not been in favor of secession from the Union, which is not surprising considering the fact that many of its settlers either came from northern states or the upper states of the South. With no particular economic reason to have slaves, very few families owned them. Thus the residents would not suffer economic setbacks with the abolition of slavery. Nevertheless, many Collin County men went to war on the Confederate side, and Collin County, like most of the South, suffered the shortage of goods caused by the war.

In April 1865 the Civil War came to an end and the soldiers returned home. Axie Ann Helms, the eldest of the orphaned Helms children, was twenty-two years old and her brother, John Helms, was twenty-one. Jim Helms, who had come home from the war earlier, was discharged with the rank of sergeant from the service when pneumonia damaged his lungs. 1 Jim was twenty years old. On April 1, 1865, Jim married Isabell Malissa Davidson Leach, a twenty-three years old widow with one son. 2 His new wife was the daughter of his foster parents, Lorenzo and Isabell Davidson

On September 14, 1865, the County Clerk sent out a summons for "James and Axico (sic) Ann Hems and William H. Herron, Guardian of John, William, George W., Sarah E., Francis M. and Mary T. Helms minor heirs of Thompson and Abagil (sic) Helms to be and appear at the September Term of the County Court of Collin County Pertaining to Estate, to be holden (sic) at the Court House in the Town of McKinney on the last Monday in September 1865 to show cause if any why said Estate shall not be partitioned among said heirs. Petition of James Helms having been filed for that purpose...." 3 While this indicates that Jim Helms had already filed a petition asking for partition and distribution of the estate, the records for the petition show the date as September 24, 1865. 4 Whatever the dates, Jim Helms was anticipating the coming of his twenty-first birthday on October 4 and with it his legal maturity. The other confusion in these documents concerns the reference to John Helms as a minor. Since he was the second child, and Jim’s older brother, John should not have been under twenty-one as he is supposed to have been born around 1843.

In any event, the necessary legal moves to distribute the estate were taken. During the October court term in 1865 the County Court appointed A. T. Robertson and Grandison Shawver commissioners to make partition and distribution of the Helms estate. On December 23, 1865, the two commissioners filed a report saying that they found the Helms land to "contain six hundred and five acres, one hundred and twenty-two acres out of the Headright of Robert Skaggs and four hundred and eighty-three acres out of the Headright of Thompson Helms." 5 The 120 acres from Skaggs’ headright was probably the land Thompson bought before his death. This would mean that the land on Skaggs’ side of Honey Creek that Thompson sold to Skaggs contained 157 acres. The commissioners divided the land as follows:

 

Axie Anne 152 acres, valued @ $3.00 Cash $474.40..........$827.49

James 149 acres, valued @ $4.25 Cash $221.49..........$824.99

Francis M. 110 acres, valued @$5.05 Cash $271.49..........$827.49

Sarah T. 79 acres, valued @$6.06 Cash $221.49..........$827.42

George 72 acres, valued @$6.06 Cash $221.49..........$827.49

Mary 50 acres, valued @$6.06 Cash $221.49..........$827.49

$1,528.94 $4,964.83 6

 

Notice the absence of two of the heirs, John and William. In 1865 John Helms should have been about twenty-two or twenty-three years old. William Helms should have been about eighteen years old. While John does not appear in the 1860 Collin County census, William was in the county’s 1860 census. Legal documents of the mid-1860s refer to both John and William, although they refer to John as a minor, which, at least in age, he was not.

John would have been old enough to serve in the Civil War. There is a record of a John Helms listed in the Consolidated Index to Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers (Roll 214), but it was not a company organized in Collin County. There is also a J. Helms listed, but there is no indication that this is the correct John Helms. A J. Helms listed on a Collin County muster roll turned out to be a Jacob Helms. It is possible that John Helms served in the Union forces, but no records definitely showing this have been found.

The most discouraging fact is that no family stories have passed down concerning John or William Helms. It is as if they never existed. While it is possible that they died, no graves have been found; however, that is not unusual. Most early cemeteries were on private land and over the years fell into disrepair and neglect. John and William could have been buried in the Honey Creek Cemetery. With no descendants, they could have been forgotten in the ensuing years. One other possibility is that when they were old enough they simply left the county and went off as restless young men had done before and have done since. It is also possible that one or both went with Thomas Kendall and his family to California. One would have thought, however, that they would have stayed in Collin County to get their rather substantial inheritance. Whatever the situation, these two sons of Thompson and Abby remain a perplexing mystery.

On January 18, 1866, the court approved the partition and distribution of the estate. 7 The reason, incidentally, for the larger amount of cash received by Axie Ann was that she had received a cash advance of $134.39. For the commissioners’ services William H. Herron paid A. T. Robertson $29.50 and Grandison Shawver $10. On July 22, 1866, Herron advanced Axie Ann $100 on her share of the estate. Three days before, on July 19, Jim Helms’ twenty-five year old wife of fourteen months died. 8

Herron’s annual report was made in July of 1867, showing a cash-on-hand balance of $1,313.75. On July 1, 1867, Axie Ann Helms, who was about twenty-five, married Eli Hutchings. 9 A few weeks later, on August 14, 1867, Jim Helms married again, this time to Penelope Tennessee Null. 10

They were married in Grayson County, Texas, the county in which the bride lived. Tennessee Null was the niece of Lee Wilson of Weston, with whom Jim’s younger brother was living. Jim probably met the nineteen years old Tennessee through her uncle.

On December 17, 1867, Jim Helms signed a receipt saying "Received in full of Wm. H. Herron Guardian of Thompson and Abigal Helms deceased all demands against him as guardian...." On the same day Eli Hutchings and Axie Ann Hutchings signed a like document. 11

The next year, 1868, two more of the Helms children were married. First was the youngest in the family, Mary Thompson Helms, who at age fifteen married Charles Snider on May 23, 1868. 12 Ten days later, on May 23, 1868, nineteen years old Sarah Elizabeth married Charles Wesley Richardson. 13

On January 1, 1870, Mary Thompson Helms Snider signed a receipt, as had Jim and Axie Ann some three years before in December 1867, stating that she "received in full of Wm. H. Herron Guardian of the minor heirs of Thompson and Abigal Helms deceased all demands against him as Guardian...." 14 At the same time Sarah E. Helms Richardson and husband Charles W. Richardson signed a like document. On January 31, 1870, William H. Herron made his annual report on the condition of his wards’ estate. He notes the receipts from Eli and Axie Hutchings, James Helms, Charles W. and wife Sarah E. Helms Richardson, and Mary T. Helms Snider and spouse Charles Snider. He also reported that he had advanced George W. Helms $85. 15 This was Herron’s last annual report. With the receipts from these four heirs, the court stated that "it appearing to the court that all claims due said wards from said estate has (sic) been settled, therefore ordered by the court that said W. H. Herron Guardian of aforesaid be and is hereby discharged from said guardianship and that said guardianship be closed. 16

After division of the estate, Axie Ann did not stay in Collin County. On July 18, 1870, she is listed in the Illinois census living in the southern Illinois town of Pinckneyville, Perry County, with her second husband, Andrew Roberson and three stepchildren. In 1871 Axie Ann sold part of the land that she had inherited in Collin County to her brother Jim Helms. 17 By 1880 the Robersons were gone from Perry County, Illinois as they were not listed in the census there that year. Family stories place Axie Ann in San Francisco during the 1906 earthquake, so evidently the family eventually moved to California. Axie Ann is said that have had only one child, a son named Will, who was living in California in the 1930s.

Jim Helms lived all his life in Collin County where he and his wife had eight children. The eldest, named Abigail for her grandmother, died as a small child. It is not known where she was buried, but Honey Creek Cemetery is a possibility. Jim and Tennessee have numerous descendants still living in Collin County. When Jim was sixty-three he went out hunting one day. Climbing over a fence his gun went off wounding him. The wound resulted in his death.

George W. Helms, after living with his older brother Jim for a while, married Arizona Dale on August 7, 1884. 18 Just before the turn of the century, George moved to Johnston County, Oklahoma, apparently with members of his wife’s family. George and Arizona had seven children whose descendants live as far away as Washington State. George was about seventy-one when he died.

Sarah E. Helms moved to Montague County, Texas with her husband Charlie Richardson. Montague County, northwest of Collin County, lies along the Red River, the northern boundary of Texas at that point. In 1879 the Richardsons moved to Wise County, directly south of Montague County and northwest of Fort Worth, Texas. They lived the remainder of their lives in Wise County. Since Sarah had no children, when she died in 1936 at age eighty-seven, she left her estate to her thirty-one nieces and nephews. 19

Francis Marion Helms, called "Doc", lived all his live in Collin County. On August 31, 1876, Doc, age twenty-five, married a widow, Helen L. Dotson Farmer, who had a son from her previous marriage. 20 Together Doc and Helen had four children before Helen died on July 17, 1888, at age forty. 21 On February 10, 1891 Doc remarried. 22 His second wife was Mary Della Guin with whom he had six children. Doc, who lived to be eighty-one, still has many descendants living in Collin County.

Mary Thompson Helms, the youngest child of Thompson and Abby, also lived all of her life in Collin County. She and her husband, Charlie Snider, had ten children, including a set of twins. Mary lived to be seventy-one.

All of Thompson and Abby’s sons and daughters, like their parents, were farmers or married to farmers. Unfortunately, the past would come back to some of these children of Thompson and Abby’s and embroil them, once again, in events that had started with their parents and the disputed land of Robert Skaggs.