History Of Rush County Indiana
Brant & Fuller
1888
JEFFERSON HELM, M. D., retired physician and capitalist, of Rushville, though
not a native of Indiana, has been identified with her history for more than
two-thirds of a century. He is descended from the Anglo-Saxons and the
Scotch. His paternal grand parents emigrated at an early day from England to
Mason County, Ky., where he was born November 27, 1803. His mother’s family
came from Scotland, her native land, and settled in Pennsylvania, near
Pittsburgh, where her father was accidentally killed. They afterward removed
to Kentucky. Before their marriage, his father, William Helm, and his mother,
Elizabeth Drummond, were inmates of Bryant’s Station during its memorable
siege by the Indians; and the father was engaged for some time in the border
wars. March 10, 1811, the family came to Indiana Territory, and settled on
the Whitewater River, five miles below Connersville, in what was known as the
“Twelve-Mile Purchase.” Here Mr. Helm bought three quarter sections of land,
and began clearing it. At the beginning of the War of 1812, he was
commissioned Colonel and placed in command of the troops guarding the
frontier. They were garrisoned in blockhouses, built about six miles apart,
arid extending from the Ohio to Ft. Wayne. Before leaving home, he protected
his cabin by a stockade and trench, that his family might resist an attack.
Many were their days and nights of anxious watchfulness, but happily, the
savage foe never did more than to menace them by skulking through the
surrounding forest. Colonel Helm was a brave soldier and a prominent and
successful businessman. His son Jefferson worked on the farm until the age of
sixteen, when he began reading medicine in the office of Mason & Moffett, the
latter of whom was a skilled physician. Up to this time his winters had been
spent at a common school in a rough log house with greased paper windows; and
he never attended school in a building provided with the luxury of glass
windows. But, though the houses were rude, the teachers were well qualified.
He continued his medical studies three years, living in the meantime with the
Mason family. At the end of that period, he formed a partnership with his
preceptor, Doctor Philip Mason, and commenced practice in Fayetteville, Rush
Co. After one year, Dr. Mason returned to Connersville, and Dr. Helm went to
a point three miles north, and there laid out the village of Vienna, now
Glenwood. He remained there till about the year 1845, when he removed to what
is now Farmington, and two years later, founded Farmington Academy, where
three of his children were prepared for college. Before commencing practice,
he passed a very rigid examination by the Board of Censors of the Third
Medical District, at the first annual meeting of the society. This body was
organized in 1827, under a special act of the Legislature; but in 1839 was
merged into the Fifth District Indiana Medical Society, of which he became a
charter member, and occupied the position either of Censor or President as
long as it existed. With his medical skill and knowledge Doctor Helm combined
large political intelligence and ability, and in 1850, as a delegate to the
Constitutional Convention he helped to revise the fundamental law of the
State. Two years later he was elected to the Senate from the County of Rush,
which was then a senatorial district, and served one term of four years. In
1861, having shown himself, in the investment of the proceeds of his practice
and in the management of his business, to be an excellent financier, Governor
Morton appointed him Sinking Fund Commissioner, an office he held two years,
being one of the three Commissioners who, with a President and Cashier, had
charge of $5,000,000. Two years prior to this Doctor Helm removed to
Rushville, and soon afterward abandoned practice. In the Civil War, at the
call for more surgeons, he was appointed Surgeon of the Twenty-seventh
Indiana Infantry, but was favored, on account of age and intimate friendship
with Governor Morton, by being placed on the easy service. He served at
Shiloh, Louisville, Madison and Evansville. Dr. Helm is a very large land
owner, his possessions comprising about 900 acres in Rush, and 2,000 in
adjoining counties, besides a large property in Indianapolis. He helped
organize the Rushville National Bank, of which he has since been a Director.
He married April 28, 1831, Miss Eliza Arnold, a native of the Isle of Wight,
England, and cousin of John Arnold, M. D. By this marriage he has had six
children: Alice, wife of B. F. Claypool, a prominent attorney of
Connersville; Elizabeth, wife of “William A. Pattison, a wholesale druggist
of Indianapolis; William H., a farmer, Jefferson, deceased, formerly an able
lawyer of Rushville; Captain Isaac A., Fifth United States Infantry, who was
first breveted Lieutenant Colonel, then Colonel, and died of cholera, in
1867, at Ft. Zarah, Kansas, of which he was in command; and the youngest,
Florence, who now resides in Indianapolis. Mrs. Helm died October 30, 1866.
Though nearly eighty-four years of age, and though an attack of paralysis has
rendered him almost helpless, Mr. Helm continues in full possession of his
faculties and attends almost as actively as ever to his business, which is
buying and selling land. By this he has amassed an honest fortune. His
pecuniary success is largely due to his strong common sense and remarkable
judgment; he reads men by intuition, rather than by the knowledge gained from
experience, though that is extensive. While practicing his profession his
diagnosis seemed the swift result of intuition, instead of the slow
conclusion of reason; but this natural faculty did not cause him to neglect
the study of the science of medicine, and when he closed his professional
career, he was among the best qualified physicians of the State. With these
superior talents is united a moral excellence that heightens the character of
his influence and exalts him in public regard. Doctor Helm is very widely
known. He was in practice for a very long time which formed for him an
extensive acquaintance all through the State, which fact may be attributed to
the great difference between the calling of a medical man now and what it was
in the first half of this century. Dr. Helm began life without money, and
with a very limited education. The wonderful success he has made in life is a
matter of inspiration and encouragement. From the uneducated youth of
poverty, he has become a scholar, and he now stands one among the wealthiest
men in Rush County — all the legitimate results of his prudent management and
foresight.
