Thomas Jefferson Helman
1855 - 1942
Thomas Jefferson Helman came to Liberty from Weston, Missouri, around 1878. In 1885, he married Elizabeth Ruff, one of Benjamin and Kittie Dougherty Ruff’s daughters. He started out as a day laborer doing odd jobs in the late 1800s and early 1900s. His wife Lizzie was a washerwoman since her teen years. In the early 1900s, his brother Albert gave him an old cow that Tom used to start his dairy. The business grew, and by the 1910s, he was supplying products to a large Liberty clientele. He owned 18 milking cows, a horse for the delivery wagon, and three other properties besides his home, mortgage free. In 1916, it was reported that he had “amassed a fortune of more than $10,000.”
The Topeka Plaindealer, August 18, 1916
The Topeka Plaindealer, June 28, 1918
Tom ran his dairy until the 1930s. By 1940, he retired to South Terrace Avenue where he lived his brother Albert, now both widowers. Lizzie died in 1940, and Albert died in 1941. Tom Helman followed in 1942. Tom, Lizzie and Albert are buried in Fairview in unmarked graves.