Rev. Edgar James HELMS

SHERWIN, HELMS, PRESTON

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 3/5/2016 at 19:32:04

January 19, 1863 ---- December 23, 1942

Edgar James Helms was the son of William Sands and Lerona Kesaih Sherwin Helms. He was born Jan. 19, 1863, in a small lumber camp in upstate New York. His father was superintendent of the camp, and his mother, Lerona, was the camp's cook. As a small boy he moved with his parents by covered wagon to a farmstead near Nashua, Iowa and then on to the Spirit Lake/Okoboji where Edgar grew up with his sisters and brother.

Edgar went to work for the Spirit Lake Beacon and later co-published two newspapers. He graduated from Cornell with a degree in Philosophy and from Boston University's Theological School with a degree in Theology.

He married Eugenia Preston in 1892 in Sac City, Iowa, and to them three children were born; Pauline, Ruth and William. Eugenia died in 1900. In 1902 Edgar married Grace Preston, Eugenia's sister, and to them nine more children were born; James, Rollin, Lerona, Eugenia, Phoebe, Henry, Sherwin, Edgar and Robert.

As a minister in the poorest districts of Boston, MA, Rev. Helms created what would later become Goodwill Industries in 1902. Edgar James Helms died 23 Dec 1942, in Boston.

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[Eugenia and Grace Preston were the daughters of Rev. William Preston of Eagle Grove, Wright, Iowa]

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