Abel Helman
Abel D. Helman (April 10, 1824 – 5 March 1910) was an American pioneer of Ashland, Oregon.
Helman was born in Wayne, Ashland County, Ohio on April 10, 1824. Of German descent, he was the fourth of seven children. His youth was divided between work on the farm and education through a subscription school, which was common to that period. On October 23, 1849, he married Martha Jane Kanagy, with whom he had eight children. Helman learned the carpenter's trade in Wooster, Ohio, and worked in cabinet-making until he was twenty-six years old.
News of the mid-century gold finds in California made its way East from time to time, fueling Helman's desire to make his own fortune. In January 1850, he sailed for California via Aspinwall, today's Colón, Panama, as a passenger on the steamer Ohio.
In April 1850, he arrived in San Francisco, where he made his way to Beaver Creek, California, and eventually on to Sacramento. In 1851, he drove a mule team from Yreka over the mountains to the Willamette Valley of Oregon, arriving in Salem. While en route he crossed a part of the tract of land that he afterwards took up through the Donation Land Claim Act, and upon which a large portion of Ashland, Oregon now sits.
He returned to California, and made his home at Yreka until January 1852, when he came to Jackson County, Oregon, with several others, all of whom secured donation land claims. After making preparations for having a home there he returned to Ohio for his wife and children.
Ashland, named after their old home county in Ohio, became their permanent place of residence. From that time on, Helman was closely associated with the community's growth and its surrounding development.
The boundaries of his farm extended north and south along what is now First Avenue above the Chautauqua grove and west on what is now Nutley Street, then north through what is now the old North School grounds almost to Bear Creek. As the town developed, he sold off much of his original tract, but at the time of his death was still occupying about 10 acres (40,000 m2) of the northern part of the claim.
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