The first legal action in regard to the estate was on February 11, 1853. This action set aside property for Abby and the children. The property was 200 acres of land including improvements, the "dwelling house and houses as homestead". Also included was "all the bacon on hand, 1 crib of corn supposed to contain 150 bushels, all the stock hogs belonging to said estate, five cows and calves, one horse and one yoke of work oxen, all the bedding and bed clothes, also all the kitchen furniture and $250 in property as it is appraised at its appraised value or in money." ¹

Jonas Dawson asked the County Court to grant him letters of administration, and these were granted on February 28, 1853. ² William H. Herron, Thompson’s fellow chainman on the survey of the Skaggs land, and Thomas Bruce, a forty-one year old farmer born in Tennessee, were Dawson’s sureties in the sum of $1,700 for the bond. The estate was responsible for the various legal fees, in this case for $6.10. This covered various legal items, such as "filing Petition for letters" (ten cents), "giving notes of the same" (fifty cents), "Bond and oath as Adm." ($1.00), "docking order appointing appraziors (sic) (fifty cents) and "Filing" (ten cents).

It was not long before claims against the estate started coming in. While the circumstances were sad, the claims offer insight to the daily activities of these people. The impact of the loss of Thompson on the young family is shown by some of the things Jonas Dawson did for them, before and after he was the appointed administrator. On March 15 and 16 he hunted cattle for two days. These were the days of open range, as economical fencing had not yet been devised. Consequently cattle roamed at will. On the three days of March 17-19 Dawson went to the Red River, hunted stock and took care of estate duties, such as appraising property and attending court. All these activities cost the estate eleven dollars. ³

On March 5 Jonas Dawson paid the taxes on the Helms estate. The taxes were $2.30 and were listed under Dawson’s name on the Collin County tax list. Also in March, on the 28th, two inventories of the real and personal property of the estate were filed in court. The first inventory was "presented by Jonas Dawson, Adm. of Said Estate to the appraisers of Said Estate." ⁴ This inventory was a listing of property and has some unique spellings, such as cittle (kettle), mar (mare), pale (pail) and chirs (chairs).

Another inventory done by three appraisers differed from Dawson’s inventory in that there was a price listed for each item. ⁵ This inventory was written in a nice flowing script and spelling was accurate. The total value of the Thompson Helms estate was $2,712.15. The appraisers’ inventory found in the probate box follows:

After the filing of the inventory, Dawson’s next step was to call in all the debts owned to Thompson. ⁸ This he did on April 12, 1853, asking that they make immediate payment. Meanwhile claims were still coming in against the estate. Doctors Key and Foote filed their claims on April 14. On April 21 John H. Miller of Grayson County filed a claim for twenty-two dollars for breeding horses for Thompson in the year 1852.

It was because of the claims against the estate that a sale of estate property was held on April 21. Jonas Dawson paid J. P. Stuart five dollars for the one day crying sale. The main items sold were cattle, horses, rifles and corn. The sale brought in $869.65. ⁹ On April 25 Dawson listed $12.30 more sold. The items appear to have generally sold for more than the price listed for them in the appraisers’ inventory. For example, a black cow with an inventory price of $10.00 sold for $13.75.

Sale Bill of the Property of Thompson Helms, Deceased.

Sold on the 22d day of April A.D. 1853 by Jonas Dawson,

Administrator ¹⁰

One interesting item was filed on April 30. The estate paid J. O. Straughan, the Collin County District Clerk, $9.12. Evidently Straughan had paid the money to Thompson in error for his being a witness in the case of Skaggs v. Abraham Carter. ¹⁴ Which case referred to is unclear.

On May 30 Jonas Dawson wrote a note to John L. Lovejoy, Jr. asking that Thomas Kendall be given a list of the sale bill. ¹⁵ This is the first mention of Thomas Kendall as an interested party in the Helms estate, although he was one of the people purchasing property during the one day sale. Thomas Kendall was Abby’s first cousin. Kendall’s father, Samuel, was a brother to Abby’s father, James. He was not listed on the 1850 census of Collin County, so he must have been a recent arrival. It is not known whether he came to Texas in response to Thompson’s death at Abby’s request, or if he was already there. It is probably that Abby wrote informing her relatives in Indiana about her husband’s death. Four months (January to April) might have been adequate time for a letter to get to Indiana and for Thomas Kendall to come to Collin County. In any event, he obviously had some interest in the progress of the estate settlement or he would not have asked Dawson to get a copy of the sale bill for him.

Most of the legal necessities were now taken care of, at least until the minor heirs of Thompson were old enough to receive their shares of the estate. After May Dawson’s duties mainly consisted of annual reports to the court and approval of purchases made by Abby. On June 16, 1853, Abby bought domestic cloth, a cotton fabric, from Isaac D. Newsome, a merchant who had come to McKinney in 1852 and had opened a general merchandise store there. On the same day Jonas Dawson paid W. B. Beuge (?) and Bro. four dollars "for clothing for the heirs". Also in June Abby went to the Larkin Adamson store in Weston, which was closer to home. Among the purchases she made there was six pounds of coffee, five pounds of sugar, a fine tooth comb, a pair of white gloves, six yards of black cambric and six yards of white cambric. ¹⁶ Cambric is used for dress goods and is also known as handkerchief linen.

Arrival of stores like Larkin Adamson’s meant that spinning wheels and looms would be replaced by mill produced cloth, considerably reducing the time and labor required to make clothing for the family. Stores also offered other items for wear as seen by Dawson paying $2.50 for "one pair of shoes for the widow" during July 1853. During the same month he paid $2.00 for a pickle barrel for Abby. ¹⁷

On October 2, 1853 Abby’s cousin, Thomas Kendall, married Rebecca Eliza Herron. ¹⁸ Rebecca, twenty-one, was the younger sister of William H. Herron. Herron had been Thompson’s fellow chainman in the 1850 survey of Skaggs’ property and a fellow witness in some of the Carter-Skaggs lawsuits.

In November Abby went to the store at Skidmore and Wilkerson in McKinney where she brought a variety of cloth including cotton for twenty-five cents, domestic for seventy-five and one half cents at ten cents an ounce and calico, a cheap cotton print on which small designs were printed. The calico sold for ten cents at twelve and one half cents an ounce. She also purchased two papers of needles, two combs (one fine, one coarse), four hair caps, and one pair of children’s shoes (one dollar). Non-clothing items included twelve pounds of brown sugar at twelve and one half cents a pound, fifteen pounds of "rio" coffee at sixteen and two thirds cents a pound, two bushels of salt at two dollars each and one pocket knife for forty cents. Also purchased in November, with an eye on the coming winter, were one blue blanket for $5.50, one pair of small shoes, size four, and sleratus (baking soda). These items were bought from Newsome’s store. From E. M. Stokepole Abby bought several yards of cloth, including flannel. ¹⁹ Blankets were replacing bear skins, machine made cloth was replacing homespun. The early raw days of pioneering were mostly over, and the settlers were being to enjoy some relief some their isolation and hard labor.

Late December 1853 brought to an end Abby Helms’ first year as a widow. Jonas Dawson continued to collect debts owned to the estate and to pay estate debts. He paid state and county taxes for 1854 in the amount of $3.37, an increase from the previous tax paid in March 1853 of $2.76. On May 23, 1854, Dawson filed his annual report with the county clerk summarizing the business of the estate in the past year. First, the estate appraised at $2,756.95. Second, the property sold on April 22, 1853, amounted to $869.69, "which amount was secured by cash payment down or by Note and good Security." Third, Dawson collected accounts and notes due the Estate for $104.25. Fourth, Dawson paid the debts of the estate, a total of $412.61, including the $250.00 that Abby received. The amount owned John C. Easton, a lawyer, was left blank. Last, other property was sold for $12.30.²⁰

On May 27, 1854, about ten years after Thompson and Abby had come to Collin County, the land certificate for their 640 acres along Honey Creek was finally issued. From settler’s claim as a Peters Colonist, to colonial certificate, to patented land, the section of land was finally Thompson’s. ²¹

In July 1854 Dawson was ordered by the court to "let out to the lowest bidder the building of a residence for the late widow (Abby) and heirs of the deceased. Said house to be an ordinary and comfortable country residence on the farm of the deceased." ²² What had happened to the Helms previous residence is unknown. Considering that it had been built eleven years before in late 1844, it is possible that it simply had become too old and rundown. Or it could have burned down as this was a common occurrence with log buildings with fireplaces and no fire departments. One spark or a faulty fireplace could set off a fire. It is interesting that the year before, young William Hicks had built a fireplace for the widow. Perhaps it was poorly constructed. In any event, fires were a constant source of worry for these people.