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Birth: Sept. 1900 Death: Sept. 1972
Careers: Farming, Gas Fields in Louisiana, Southern Pacific Railroad, Ranch-Raising Cattle and Prize Pigs
Benjamin L. Helm Pedigree
Benjamin LaBeaume Helm Biographical Sketch
(by Trudie Helm.– Benjamin L.’s older sister) and The Meteor Journal-Arkansas
Charles A. Helm and May Ross Helm were married for over 60 years and lifelong members of the Methodist Church. Charles Helm farmed most of his life and even in his old age had a large vegetable garden and grew beautiful flowers. He was a devoted father and husband. He was a farmer, a timber man and a merchant throughout his life. Dad always saw to it that his family had a nice way to go to church and that we were well dressed. He saw to it that we had a fine buggy that we were exceptionally proud of. He played games with his boys and had horse for them to ride, and sings and other games. He was a good provider in every way. He loved to have his family gather around and sing religious songs for hours. He had a variety of fruit trees that we were at liberty to share with friends and neighbors. He only allowed the best of people, in character to be entertained in his home. He taught us the value of a good character and that honesty is the best policy. His word was his honor. During his 72 years of life I never heard of anyone who doubted his word or deed of honesty. I remember we were allowed to go for buggy rides, driving those beautiful horses just like youngsters go for car rides today. Papa had a stroke in 1961 and entered a rest home two months later. He died a month after being in the rest home. Mama died 4 days after Papa. (1920 Census puts Charles A. Helm 45yrs and May Ross 40yrs. Farming in Scooba, Mississippi with their son Lebeaume Helm 19yrs., Ross Helm 17 yrs. Old, Murl 15yrs., Laura May 12 yrs., Delores 8yrs, Katherine 3 months old. With two black Servants- 19yrs. And 23 yrs. farming with Charles) This is when Benjamin meets Frances Kimbrough and they get married in 1921.
The eldest son of Charles A. and May Helm. He was named for a dear Neighbor, who had been friends of his parents who had been friends of his parents for many years. He and his wife, Quiller Labeaume had no children and at that time were past middle age. They were financially well off and often begged the parents of this fine boy to give him eth them. Of course that was unthinkable. They him many presents but were wonderful to all of us, treating us as grandparents did, having the family spend weekends with them and a part of all holidays.
Labeaume was an exceptionally smart and quick thinker, which endeared all who met him to take special interest in him. When he was about 9 to 10 years of age his father gave him a little calf which Labeaume raised to the market age. When he sold it he bought brood sows and started raising pigs for the market. He could not get the love of cattle out of his system, he started buying weaning size calves, turning them in on his Dad’s pastures and winder fields. Soon he could make a nice profit. Soon he was doing so well that a banker at Delight, Mr. Charlie Reid offered to let him have any amount of money to buy cattle with. That was when he got too involved with the business side of life that it interfered with his schoolwork and his father had to call a halt to the cattle business. But off and on after he was out of school he would find time for the raising of cattle.
Lest I forget Labeaume was a lifetime member of the Methodist Church. When he was small his parents lived near a Christian Church as they were called in those days but Church of Christ now. They were the only church in town that had a summer bible school. He never missed attending Rev. Brooks Stell was the teacher. Little fellows as young as 3 years old attended, all learning the books of the Bible, and memorizing verses that would astound the older people of Delight, Arkansas. This love of the Bible and singing never left him.
His father Charles A Helm moved to Scooba, Mississippi for a few years (Census has around 1920 they moved to Scooba , Miss from WolfCreek, AK), where Labeaume met and married Frances Steele Kimbrough, a very pretty girl, who could play the piano and sing well. To this union were born Norma, Camille, BL. Junior, Dorothy Ann and Carolyn. He followed various occupations while in Miss. But never could feel settled, tho he had been with the Standard Oil Co. along with the other occupations. This was a very small town, with plantations surrounding it, most folks went to Meridian, Mississippi for shopping. Therefore he realized that as his Dad found it the wrong place to make a good living that he too should come back to Arkansas, but on his way he stopped in Swartz, Louisiana to work in the gas field, for the Huber Carbon, Co..
Oil Fields in Louisiana Early 1900's
He had worked there for The Southern Carbon Co. when he and Frances first married and had their first daughter. It was only through the persuading of his father that he ever went back to Mississippi. He divorced Frances and left Mississippi and the five children to live in Arkansas. Frances met and married Russell Gilbert in Escambia Co., Florida.
After his coming to Arkansas with his sister Trudie after the death of Stone, he met and married Vermell Evelyn Cook Dawson in 1939, a widow with two children, Mary Jo and Wendell Jackson Dawson. Her children are both talented in their fields. Vermell is a home maker and doing all kinds of handiwork. Her sewing is most outstanding. When one says “Homemaker” that covers a lot of territory with her. She is married to a fine man who is equally as versital in his talents as she. They are both very charitable, outstanding in anyone’s estimation. I. J. Parish
She is an outstanding worker in the Adkins Memorial Methodist Church in The Social Hill Community.
His first family with Frances Kimbrough, continued to live in Scooba, Mississippi until they were grown and finished high school there then went their own ways married and had families. They are all doing well in their chosen professions.
His wife is a great outset to him in his work. After a few years in Arkansas, he began looking for greener fields which led him and Vermell to Calif. with their children, three more being added to the brood now. They moved to Roseville, Calif. Where he worked for 17 years on the Southern Pacific Railroad. They had a small ranch where they grew nut trees, vegetables, had chickens, turkeys and all manner of animals. He grew tons of flowers as well. He was a member of the local Carmen Union for the railroad , and also a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles (The Fraternal Order of Eagles, an international non-profit organization, unites fraternally in the spirit of liberty, truth, justice, and equality, to make human life more desirable by lessening its ills, and by promoting peace, prosperity, gladness and hope. “People helping people” is a statement that guides the charitable actions of the Fraternal Order of Eagles)
He retired from the railroad in 1960 and returned to Saginaw community and worked as a cattle rancher.
Benjamin L Helm in his Truck with Grandchildren- Pam, Kim, Kris & Kelly
1962 Kris and Kelly with Benjamin's prized Sows that he raised
Camille visiting Helm Plots with Father and Stepmother, Benjamin Lebaume and Vermell 1962
Pancho- Benjamin's Cattle horse
The Meteor Journal Thursday Aug. 10, 1967
“B.L. Helm moved to Arkansas seven years ago with the grim prospect of living for three or four months. “I wanted to get back home while I still had time,” Helm said as he told about his surgery performed by a German doctor at the Southern Pacific Hospital in San Francisco.
It was in April 1960, that Mr. Helm had his larynx and vocal tubes replaced with plastic because of malignant cancer. Unable to talk he used a whistle to communicate.
Mr. Helm never gave p in learning again how to eat (he is still unable to drink water) and to speak by whispering. He can whistle loudly himself and also use a whistle.
Mrs. Helm and Trudie Jordan, Mr. Helm’s sister, believe it was largely his love for animals that kept alive Mr. Helm’s desire to live.
Born in Union County, Mr. Helm was given his first calf by his father, who thought the calf was going to die. Helm later sold the calf and bought two brood sows.
And although he has been an overseer of a plantation, operated a grocery and worked as an inspector for the Southern Pacific Railroad until he retired in 1960, it was the farm life and raising of hogs and cattle that Mr. Helm returned to on Route 1, Donaldson almost seven years ago.
“I sold hogs, bought cheap cattle, sold them and bought some registered ones.” Mr. Helm said.
He now raises Hereford and Angus cattle and 100 head of Yorkshire hogs a year keeping four breeding sows.
But it’s his dogs, Rube and Wheeler, that have since “worn out,” and his Indian pony Pancho that Mr. Helm speaks of with real pride.
The dogs worked exclusively by signals and the whistle. Mrs. Helm said she often could not tell wether he was calling the dogs or her with the whistle. “I nearly walked myself to death,” she said.
In hunting for lost cattle in thick over grown woods, one of the dogs would stay with a cow while the other dog returned to Mr. Helm on his pony and led him to the lost one.
Five-year-sold Pancho who loves apples, is trained as well as the dogs were. Mr. Helm tells of times he has been lost in the woods but was always led out by Pancho who has never been lost…..
The pony has found lost animals no person could find. He will never run off and leave a his rider; when the rider gets off, the horse he freezes.
Mr. Helm demonstrates how well-trained Pancho is by motioning for him to jump into and out o the bed of the pickup truck. And it takes Pancho just a few minutes to round up a herd of cattle in a pasture near the Mt. Zion Community.
In the past seven years Mr. Helm has demonstrated that he is a man with remarkable patience and courage. Yet he seems unaware of it.
When asked what advice he would give to a man in the condition he was at age 60, he replied:
“I tell a man it can be done. Get two or three sows and raise pigs. And raise several calves a year on a cow.”
Malvern Daily Record- His obituary on Sept. 27, 1972
He died at the age of 72 years old.
