CHAPTER TWO

A combination of factors caused Thompson and Abby to leave Indiana, but the migration of members of Thompson’s family was the most influential. In 1834 Thompson’s older sister, Elizabeth, and her husband, Joseph Williams, left Indiana, eventually settling in northwestern Missouri in 1838 in DeKalb County. Another older sister, Margaret, also settled in northwestern Missouri in Buchanan County. So shortly after their marriage in April 1840 in Montgomery County, Indiana, Thompson and Abby moved to Missouri. Their first child, Axie Ann, was born in Missouri in about 1841.¹

Missouri was not to be a long stop for the young Helms family. The first settlers into a new area naturally got the pick of the best land and tended to stay as a result. Since the Helms family had arrived in Missouri after the first rush, their opportunities to obtain the better land was limited.

In 1843 Thompson and Abby’s second child was born in Missouri and named John for Thompson’s father. It was then that Thompson first hear about the Peters Colony, founded by an act of the Congress of the Republic of Texas. Based on the Mexican Empresario Law, the law allowed the Kentucky Colonization Company to bring colonists into a set area of North Texas and required this land company to bring so many colonists into the area in a certain length of time. To attract colonists, the land company advertised in newspapers and published fliers. The big attraction for Thompson was the land grants for heads of families. "According to the law, colonists who were heads of families would after three years receive up to 640 acres and single men up to 320 acres if a ‘good and comfortable cabin’ were built on the place and at least 15 acres of the tract were fenced and cultivated." ² Texas sounded good to Thompson Helms.

When moving to a new frontier area, families commonly moved with other relatives who supplied a support system in times of trouble, danger and illness. The concept of family, therefore, was different than today. In the days before Social Security and other governmental and nongovernmental support institutions, it was the family that provided the necessary help. Friends made in the new land would help out in times of need, knowing that some day they, too, might need help. The head of the family struck down by illness could not rely on disability insurance, but rather a more informal, personal network for help.

Thompson and Abby had left many relatives in Indiana. In Missouri Thompson had two sisters married to two Williams brothers, but when Thompson and Abby decided to go to Texas, his sisters remained in Missouri. One of Thompson’s sister, Elizabeth, was married to Joseph Williams, whose sister, Catherine, was married to Page Stanley. ³ It was with the Stanleys that Thompson and Abby came to Texas. Page was about forty-three years old while Thompson was about twenty-three years. Catherine Stanley was about thirty-seven, and Abby was twenty-two. Both had small families, although the Stanley children were older than Thompson and Abby’s two children.

Settlers migrating into Texas came by many means. Some simply walked, carrying their few belongings. Some rode horses, with small children perched behind their parents. Others rode in various vehicles, from carts to farm wagons. The Helms and the Stanleys probably came by wagon. There were frequent wagon trains, and it is likely that they joined one. Large groups traveling together offered safety and companionship.

The route to Texas from Missouri crossed the Indian Territory, which is present-day Oklahoma. The trail from the western area of Missouri was the West Shawnee Trail, which joined the famous Texas Road or East Shawnee Trail coming from Saint Louis. The two trails met at Boggy Depot in south central Oklahoma and continued south to Coffee’s Station, later called Preston Bend, on the Red River. ⁴ After crossing the Red River, probably at Colbert’s Ferry eight miles downstream ⁵ the travelers were in the Republic of Texas, founded only eight years prior in 1836.

Sometimes men went and explored an area before going back and bringing their families. In this way, they could select the land before moving. Yet in frontier areas it was dangerous to travel alone or sometimes even in small groups. Many times relatives disappeared while remaining family members were helpless to do much, considering the primitive roads, means of travel and poor lines of communication. Claiming and settling land in the Peters Colony seemed to have been simply a matter of finding the best possible unoccupied land for one’s needs and filing a claim at the Peters Colony office, which was located in northern Dallas County, near present-day Farmers’ Branch. ⁶ Some of the land had already been granted to veterans of the Texas Revolution. These landholders did not have to live on their land to make their claim. There were also other settlers who had preceded the Helms and Stanley families, but the country was sparsely settled and much good land was yet to be chosen. The Stanleys selected land in present-day Grayson County, Texas while Thompson and Abby went farther south, settling in present-day northwestern Collin County.

This part of Collin Country had rolling land with good water and timber. There were no dense forest to clear before cultivation could begin. However, there were plenty of trees for building cabins and fences as well as for firewood. Interestingly, many people at this time believed that crops would not grow well except where trees had grown. There were no roads, although sometimes travelers could follow "a mark across the prairie made by a pole dragged under the rear axle of a wagon driven by a pioneer who had traveled the route previously." ⁷ For the most part, early settlers had to pick their way across the land seeking the easiest passage.

The land selected by Thompson Helms lay almost due south of Preston and Colbert’s Ferry where the family probably crossed into Texas. It is located slightly northwest of present-day Weston, Texas and not far south from the county line dividing Collin County from Grayson County. They settled near a creek which was soon named Honey Creek, because of "the enormous number of wild bee trees in the forest nearby." ⁸