page_title: William Helm
section_title: Fresno, California
hierarchical_section_title: William Helm / Fresno, California
caption_attribution_description: English: This is a picture of William Helm house with family wagons, animals, and Helm family. Located on Fresno Street. Now site of Fresno Com. Hospital.
context_page_description: William Helm was the largest individual sheep farmer and noteworthy among the early pioneer settlers of Fresno County, California. He was instrumental in the growth and prosperity of the San Joaquin Valley. Helm was vice-president of the Fresno Bank of Central California, and the president of the Fresno Canal and Irrigation Company.
context_section_description: In 1865, 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. By 1877, Helm made Fresno his home with a five-acre tract of land at the corner of Fresno and R streets. 
  Helm was the largest individual sheep grower in Fresno County. In carrying his wool to market at Stockton, he used three wagons, each drawn by ten mules, and spent twelve days in making the round trip. When the railroad came through the valley in 1872, it was a great boon to Helm.
  At Dry Creek, on section four, Helm bought a ranch six miles northeast of Fresno. He acquired up to 2,640 acres, paying 1 dollar an acre from William S. Chapman, a pioneer landowner and developer of the Fresno area. He bought additional land to establish a winter camp for his sheep on the present site of the Fresno court house. His heard increased rapidly, at one time owning 22,000 head of sheep.
  In 1881, because of a growing family, Helm bought the block bounded by Fresno, R, Merced and S Streets from Louis Einstein. He built his home there in 1881 where it stood for 71 years. As their daughters married, Helm gave them parts of the block on which to build their homes. This block is now the site of the  Fresno Community Hospital in 1959.
  The city Helm, California was named after William Helm.
caption: William Helm House
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