20 Facts About William Helm

William Helm was an American sheep farmer and among the early pioneer settlers of Fresno County, California.

William Helm was instrumental in the growth and prosperity of the San Joaquin Valley.

William Helm was born in the province of Ontario, Canada on March 9,1837, about forty miles above Montreal, on the St Lawrence River.

William Helm is the son of George and Mary, both of whom were born in Scotland.

William Helm left home in 1856 to Wisconsin for three years engaged in lumbering and operating a sawmill on the Chippewa River.

In 1859, William Helm sailed from New York City to San Francisco, California by way of Panama.

William Helm traveled to Sacramento and searched for gold in Placer County but soon found it unprofitable.

William Helm spent the next three years as a butcher, first in Foresthill, Todds Valley, and then in Bear river in Placer County.

William Helm saved his money and decided to raise sheep for a living.

William Helm brought his wife and his sheep to Fresno county, which was then a vast space of open land, before the railroad came through the valley.

William Helm was one of the earliest settlers to experiment with growing wheat.

William Helm was the largest individual sheep grower in Fresno County.

At Dry Creek, on section four, William Helm bought a ranch six miles northeast of Fresno.

William Helm acquired up to 2,640 acres, paying one dollar an acre.

William Helm bought additional land to establish a winter camp for his sheep on the present site of the Fresno court house.

William Helm's herd increased rapidly, at one time owning 22,000 head of sheep.

In 1881, because of a growing family, William Helm bought the block bounded by Fresno, R, Merced and S Streets from Louis Einstein.

William Helm built his home there in 1881 where it stood for 71 years.

William Helm died on April 10,1919, at the age of 82, following a lingering illness of seven months.

William Helm died at the home of his daughter, Jessie Marie Helm.