1925 Biography -

There seems to be two branches of the Helm family, both coming from Tennessee. Whether they sprang from the same ancestor or not is not known. Thomas Helm was the head of one of these families coming here when his son, Robert A. was a youth. The latter was a member of Smith's Battery of Light Artillery, attached to the 6th Illinois Cavalry and gave his life for his country during the Civil War. The father of Thomas Helm, tradition says, was a soldier of the Revolutionary, serving from Virginia and lost his life at the battle oi Guilford Courthouse. His family followed the trend of immigration and came to Tennessee, and Thomas Helm Jr., continued from there to Johnson County. He married a Miss Cowden and their children were Robert A. (2), Leroy (2) and Elizabeth (2), who married Lee Walker. This family lives in the southeastern section of the county. Robert A. (2) married Mary J. daughter of Thomas Rice, who came originally from North Carolina. They had one son, Senator D. W. Helm, who is a native of this County and the only surviving member of this family. He was reared and educated here, graduated from Southern Illinois Normal, also the Wesleyan Law School of Bloomington, Ill. and located in Metropolis. He served Massac as States Attorney three terms and has represented this district in the State Senate several times. He was chairman of the investigating committee to determine whether William Lorimer had been legally elected to the United States Senate, which was known as the Helm Committee. He was a member of the law firm of Courtney and Helm. Senator Helm married Mary, daughter of Henry C. Howell. (For family see Harvick).

Extracted 06 Feb 2017 by Norma Hass from 1925 A History of Johnson County, Illinois, by Mrs. P. T. Chapman, page 393.