H. L. HELMAN, grocery and produce, is a son of R. P. Helman, and a native of Allen Township, Noble County, Ind. He commenced an active business career when sixteen years of age, during the late war buying horses for the army, in association with his father. He then went to Michigan and was engaged in the lumber business and in dealing in horses until 1867 when he went to Iowa, buying land in Henry County, and followed farming, attending school in the meantime at Mt. Pleasant, and handling stock for three years; he purchased this stock in Missouri and the Indian Territory, shipping it to the east. Returning to Indiana, he purchased a farm near Lisbon, soon after trading for a hardware store in Kendallville, which he conducted, in association with his father, for five years, doing a large and successful trade and carrying a valuable stock. He then sold out on account of ill health, went to the West and was dealing in land until January, 1877, when he returned to Kendallville and commenced a broker's business, also as commercial traveler for a Bryan (Ohio) manufacturing company, continuing about three years. In the meantime, had engaged in the grocery and produce trade, to which he now devotes his attention. Mr. Helman carries a fine line of groceries, and is also an extensive shipper of apples, produce, etc. He is an enterprising and wide-awake business man, and a citizen of value to Kendallville. He is a Knight Templar and a fifth-degree member of I. O. O. F. Mr. Helman was married in April 4, 1871, to Miss Maria Merchant, a native of Adrian, Mich.; they have two children, Robert and Claude
Goodspeed, Weston A, Richard Collins, Thomas R. Marshall, W. L. Matthews; Counties of Whitley and Noble, Indiana: historical and biographical; Chicago, F. A. Battey & Co., 1882, p. 304-305.