CHAPTER SEVEN

The writ of certiorari trial was not the only legal action the participants were involved in at this time. Perhaps Abraham Carter had decided enough was enough. In any event, the real issue finally surfaced sometime around February 6, 1852, when Abraham Carter filed suit against Robert Skaggs for trespass to try title. This is the procedure by which rival claims to title or right to possession of land may be adjudicated. ¹ This case would finally decide who would get the east half of the section.

Thompson was involved in the case, certainly financially as well as emotionally because of the assault and slander cases. On June 30, 1852, Thompson received a receipt from Skaggs showing that Thompson had paid Skaggs "twenty-three dollars at one time and twenty-three dollars at another and five dollars at another time all amounts to fifty-one dollars received." ⁵ The receipt’s inclusion with other receipts concerning the various suits leads to the conclusion that this receipt pertained to these cases also.

On November 30, 1852, Thompson Helms and Robert Skaggs agreed to sell each other parts of their land. It was, in itself, a sensible transaction. Their sections were in even-sides squares of land, one mile square, which ignored geophysical aspects of the actual land. As it was to reach the southwest corner of his land Thompson had to cross Honey Creek, and likewise to reach the northeast corner of his land Robert Skaggs had to cross Honey Creek. So the two men agreed to exchange corners, which would mean that all of their respective land would be on one side of Honey Creek. Thompson sold his land to Skaggs for $600.00, with $300.00 "in hand". Skaggs sold his land to Thompson Helms for $1,000.00, with $500.00 "in hand". This would leave Skaggs with $200.00 over his cost in the transaction. Interestingly, at least for tax purposes, Thompson’s land was valued fifty cents an acre on the Collin County tax list for 1852. Whatever the motives for this transaction, it gave Skaggs needed money for legal fees. Meanwhile the trespass to try title case was postponed by the District Court until the next tern in the spring of 1853.⁶

The tax lists show increasing prosperity in the area. At first land was the main taxable item. By 1850 horses and cattle were listed as taxable items. At this time Thompson listed one horse, value $100.00, and sixteen head of cattle, value $80.00, for a total of $180.00 of taxable items. Note that land was not included that year, probably because Thompson did not yet have his Peter Colony certificate from Hedgcoxe guaranteeing his 640 acres. In 1851 Thompson lists his land as well as eight horses, increasing his total to $720.00. In 1852 Thompson’s total was the same. Throughout the county items such as sheep and hogs began to show up on the tax list. Also wagons, and even a Rockaway carriage owned by the Lessenbee (Lissenbee) family, were listed. Even Caleb Hart’s mill was listed, valued at $200. By tax time in 1853 Thompson’s taxable property was valued at $1,200.00. This was 640 acres of land, which had jumped in value from fifty cents an acre to $1.00 an acre, and fourteen horses, valued at $560.00. The tax lists indicate that the rough times might well be behind and more prosperous times ahead.

In December 1852 Robert Skaggs and Thompson came to an agreement concerning the cost of the upcoming Spring trial. Unfortunately the agreement is difficult to read and thus is not completely clear. Basically the document, signed by Robert Skaggs, states that the men agreed that Robert Skaggs would agree to "go my half of the expenses" in the upcoming suit. Skaggs would give "Tom Helms" the "production of my place for to make the said Helms safe from my part of the expenses of the above named law suite (sic)."⁷

It is an interesting sidelight that Thompson was called "Tom" in this document. This is the only evidence that Thompson was called by anything but his full given name. Yet apparently even more than today, few people were called by their given names. Whereas official documents, such as census records generally list proper names, in common usage these same names were shortened or replaced by nicknames. So, as Abigail became Abby, Thompson was probably called Tom. Their son James was called Jim, while son Francis Marion became Frank and later Doc (Dock).

Thompson Helms had gone hunting for bear in the middle of that December 1852 and, as he had often done before, he was skinning the bear he shot "up above the old barn." ⁸ This time, however, there was a mishap. His knife slipped and he cut his arm. This would be a minor accident in days after the introduction of penicillin and other antibiotics, but for Thompson, it became a life-threatening event. Bacteria entering through the cut increased so greatly that Thompson developed blood poisoning–septicemia.⁹ Thompson felt unwell, experienced loss of appetite and developed fever and chills. When Thompson first cut his arm, George T. Key, a forty-nine year old neighbor and doctor, came by and left some medicine. That was on December 20. Doctor Key did not come back until December 26, the day after Christmas. At that time he brought opiates and several doses of powders. He also dress Thompson’s arm, which by now had a painful spreading red halo around the infected wound. Two days later, on December 28, Doctor Key returned with doses of "campihorated powders" and three doses of Squills. Squills was a stimulant which was also "a fine rat poison," ¹⁰ an indication of the stage of development in medicine at that time. Once again Doctor Key dressed Thompson’s arm, returning the next day, December 30, to redress it.

Another doctor was also called to help in December. Doctor G. A. Foote, a twenty-eight year old physician born in Virginia, visited Thompson for "Cuppin Blister and med." This may have been the bleeding done in the belief that loss of blood would relieve the patient. With the last visit on December 30, 1852, the medical record ends. ¹¹ Shortly after this date Thompson Helms died. The thirty-one year old Peters Colony pioneer left his wife, Abby, twenty-nine and pregnant, and seven children. The eldest, Axie Ann, was about twelve years old, followed by John, who was about ten, Jim, eight, William, who was about six and George, five years old. The other children were Sarah, three, and Francis Marion (Frank), two years old.

Death was common in pioneer days. Neighbors and friends came to wash the body and dress it in the deceased’s best clothes. Coins were placed on the eyelids, if death occurred with the eyes open. People sat with the body at all times even through the night. When the coffin was finished the body was laid inside and the lid nailed down. Usually burial took place the next day, especially during warm weather. Thompson Helms was laid to rest in Honey Creek Cemetery, which is located south of Honey Creek on Robert Skaggs’ survey. (The cemetery, which would eventually have two dozen graves, lies on a slight rise, north of present Texas Highway 455. Large pecan trees were planted sometime in the 1930s. Well into the 1900s this cemetery was surrounded by a fence. ¹² The fence is gone now and only two tombstones are to be found, one of which is broken in two.)

A few weeks after Thompson’s death, Thompson and Abby’s last child was born on February 15, 1853. Abby named her Mary Thompson Helms.