Published by permission from the historical society.

Transcribed by Mrs. McElroys' MMS class.

H. C. (Clay) Helbert, of one of the oldest pioneer families of the Mulvane area, gave land for the Sedgwick County side of Mulvane when the town site was laid out in 1879.

Mr. Helbert was one of the sons of "Grandma" Sarah Crittendon Helbert, widow of George Henry Helbert, a Baptist minister, who came from Arkansas and took a claim, which is now included in the City of Mulvane, on which the Villa Maria home for the elderly, formerly the Santa Fe Hospital, now stands.

George H. W. Helbert, a native of Washington County, Virginia married Sarah Pearl Crittendon of Tennessee in 1843 at Lebanon, MO. They moved to Fayetteville, Ark, where they operated a mill in addition to Mr. Helbert’s work as a minister. Their nine children were born in Fayetteville, two dying in infancy. On the day after Christmas, 1849, Mr. Helbert was shot to death by a drunken John Webb in a holdup. Mrs.Helbert reared her family in Arkansas, through the Civil War days. After the war the family returned to Missouri where they remained until coming to Kansas in 1873. Family tradition has it that Grandma Helbert traded an Indian pony for the claim with its log house.

Clay Helbert got the quarter section, now included in the City of Mulvane, lying on the Sedgwick County side of the Sedgwick-Sumner County line. The farm home he built on that farm still stands, though much changed, at 319 North Second Street. George Bird got an Arkansas River quarter in the Central neighborhood southeast of Mulvane, and the youngest of the family, L. Dow, also got a river bottom farm southeast of town.

When the Santa Fe Railroad was built south out of Wichita the junction of lines, one running southeast to Winfield, and the other southwest to Wellington, was located just south of the county line. When the town site was laid out, a gathering of representatives of the town company and the railroad was held in the Clay Helbert home. Mrs. Helbert served them a sumptuous dinner, and while the men ate they discussed a name for the new town. After some discussion which no appropriate name was agreed on, Mrs. Helbert suggested the name Mulvane after the railroad contractor and builder, and the name was accepted. Dow said he was too young to be in on the name selection, but was helping Mrs. Helbert serve, and heard the discussions.

After getting her Mulvane farm, Grandma Helbert returned to Missouri for a while but came back to Mulvane in 1878. She later went to Harper with one of her sons and a granddaughter, but again came back to Mulvane, living here until she went to the home of a daughter at Fargo, Okla., where she died at the age of 75 years. Her remains as are those of many of her descendants, lie buried in Littleton Cemetery.

A daughter of Clay Helbert, Sara (Sadie), became a registered nurse, and married a doctor in Cincinnati, Ohio, She was superintendent for many years at an institution fifteen miles out of Cincinnati, established by a Mr. Kroger, for underprivileged boys to keep them off the city streets in the summer months. Mr. Kroger was head of the Kroger store chain which began with two small grocery stores in Cincinnati.

After Dow Helbert’s death his widow, needing a change of climate because of her ill health, went to the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. She was followed there by her sons Oscar and Everett; both died there, but their remains were returned for interment in Littleton Cemetery.

A daughter of H. Clay Helbert, Mrs. Winifred Schober, the widow of a Topeka banker, lives in Topeka, Kans. A granddaughter, of Martha (Helbert) Smith, Mrs. Helen Shephard, lives at Fargo, Okla. Another granddaughter, Mrs. Thelma Miller, is living at Atmore, Ala. It is she who has furnished the most of the information contained here.

At Mulvane’s Old Settlers’ celebration, Mrs. Shober, Mr. and Mrs. Shepherd, Everett Helbert and daughter Claudine Sloan gathered here with other Helbert relatives. Several of them were given prominence in the annual Old Settlers’ parade.

Complied by George Smysor.