Woman of the Century/Lucinda Barbour Helm

HELM, Miss Lucinda Barbour author, born in Helm Place, near Elizabethtown, Ky., 23rd LUCINDA BARBOUR HELM. December, 1839. She is the granddaughter of Ben. Hardin, the satirist, humorist and jurist of Kentucky, and the daughter of John L. Helm, twice governor of Kentucky. He was the first governor after the Civil War. Her paternal grandfather. Thomas Helm, went to Kentucky in Revolutionary times and settled near Elizabethtown. That place, known as Helm Place, is still in the possession of the family. Her mother, Lucinda B. Hardin, the oldest daughter of Ben. Hardin, was a woman of culture. She early trained her children to a love for books. Miss Helm inherited from her mother a love for reading and a deep religious faith. At an early age she commenced to write poetry and prose under the pen-name "Lucile." When she was eighteen years old, she published a strong article on the "Divinity of the Savior." During the Civil War she wrote sketches for the English papers, which were received very favorably and were widely copied in England. While George D. Prentice was editor of the Louisville "Journal," she wrote many sketches for that paper. She afterwards wrote short stories for the "Courier" and the "Courier-Journal." and articles in the "Christian Advocate." She has published one volume, "Gerard: The Call of the Church Bell" (Nashville, Tenn., 1884). Miss Helm has written many leaflets for both home and foreign missions, which have been widely circulated. In May, 1886, the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South authorized the Board of Church Extension to organize the woman's organization known as the Woman's Department of Church Extension, until 1890. when it received a more definite title, Woman's Parsonage and Home Mission Society. Miss Helm was made the general secretary, and to her endeavors is due much of its success. The society, hoping to enlarge its power of good, decided to publish a paper, "Our Homes." Miss Helm was made the editor, and its success is assured. Miss Helm is also a member of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society and of the International Christian Workers' Association.