CHAPTER TWELVE

Throughout the last half of the 1800s the Helms children were marrying, setting up households and having children. It is not known what kind of relationship Thompson and Abigail’s descendants in Collin County had with members of the Carter families who remain in the county. What had happened between the Helms and the Carters had occurred when Thompson and Abby’s children were very small. The oldest of the children who stayed in Collin County was Jim Helms, who was only eleven years old when his mother Abby died. They may have heard of the troubles from their foster parents, several of whom were themselves involved. The successive generations of the Carters probably also heard the stories of the early days and the troubles.

Despite what they had heard about the Helms and Carter feud, two grandchildren of Thompson Helms and Bill Carter fell in love. It would have been a nice ending for these two to have married and lived happily ever after, but in real life their relationship only brought more sorrow and trouble.

Richard Helms was born January 9, 1884, forty-one years after the death of his grandfather, Thompson Helms. Richard was the son of Doc Helms and his first wife, Helen Dotson Farmer. When Richard was four years old, his mother died, leaving Richard and his three sister motherless. Doc Helms did not remarry until almost three years later, when he married Mary Della Guin who was only twenty years old. She became stepmother to children ranging from twelve to six years old. These events made Richard’s childhood less than ideal.

Berta Carter, born in December of 1888, ¹ was the daughter of John and Mary Carter. John Carter was the son of Bill Carter, against whom the assault with intent to murder case was filed after he threatened Thompson Helms with his gun over the issue of fence rails in 1848. When and where Richard and Berta met is unknown, but living in the same area they may have always known each other. Their relationship became serious enough, however, that on June 30, 1906, Richard, twenty-two, and Berta, eighteen, went to the county seat of McKinney and took out a marriage certificate. ²

Whether John Carter objected to Richard himself or the fact that Richard was a member of the Helms family is not known, but he was dead set against the marriage. ³ On July 1, 1906, the day after the young couple took out their marriage license, Richard Helms went to the barber shop in Weston near his home. Berta Carter’s brother, Jim Bob Carter, was a barber, ⁴ and since Weston was a small town, Jim Bob may have been a barber in the shop where Richard went that fateful day.

The events of July 1 are unclear. It is logical that Richard would be in an upbeat mood. While Berta’s father objected to the marriage, Berta was still willing to marry him. Richard most likely felt like having fun. In the shop that day was Robert Taylor, a young man of twenty-five, and in his pocket was seventy dollars. Perhaps, he had talked about having the money as he hung up his jacket in preparation for getting a haircut. Richard saw an opportunity to pull a prank on Taylor, and in doing so he played right into the Carters’ hands. Richard took the seventy dollars.

One would think that Taylor would have filed a complaint upon discovering his money missing. Perhaps he did not at first know who had taken it, but later Richard returned the money. Only then was a complaint filed, much later in July. In most cases such events are passed over, credited to the foolishness of youth. This time that was not to be the case.

On July 21, the grand jury filed an indictment, finding that Richard had taken the money without Taylor’s consent and with the intent to "deprive said R. L. Taylor of the value of the same and to appropriate the said property to the use and benefit of him the said Richard Helms." ⁵ On July 23 an arrest warrant was issued for Richard Helms. ⁶ Richard had made a foolish mistake at a time others were not willing to tolerate it. The actual trial started in August and several witnesses were summoned to testify at the proceedings.

No records exist of the actual testimony of the witnesses, only that Richard pleaded not guilty. Richard defended his actions saying he took the money in a "spirit of fun and for the purpose of playing a prank upon R. L. Taylor and not with a fraudulent intent of appropriating said money to the use and benefit" of himself. If the jury so believed this, they were to acquit him. Richard’s lawyers stressed the fact that Richard had returned the money before a complaint of its theft was filed with the Justice of the Peace. If they jury believed that Richard had returned the money within a reasonable time and before the complaint was filed, Richard could be fined not more than one thousand dollars. If, on the other hand, the jury believed Richard did not return the money voluntarily, he could be find an unspecified amount. If, however, the jury believed that Richard had actually intended to steal the money, he could be sent to prison for not less than two years and not more than ten years. The jury chose to sent Richard to prison for two years. Richard sold his inheritance from his mother to pay his legal fees and went away to spend two years in prison. Then on October 6, 1907, Berta Carter married George L. Creaghead ⁷ of McKinney and went to live in McKinney. When Richard got out of prison, he went to live with his uncle George Helms in Johnston County, Oklahoma, never returning to Collin County to live. In his early thirties he married Rose Zella Van Hoosier and had two children. ⁸ When Richard died, he was buried in Collin County. With the sad story of Richard and Berta the last chapter of the feud came to an end.

Thompson and Abigail Helms were real people. They laughed, cried, dreamed and grieved. They did not live long, but they lived long enough to carve out a home on the raw frontier. Like most people, they did the best that they could and, in doing so, established an enduring home for their descendants in Collin County, Texas.