Chico Daily Record, Monday, December 2, 1901, pg 1 col 1: B.M. Helphenstine Succumbs After Ten Years’ Illness. Old Gentleman Had Been a Well-Known Resident of Butte County For More Than Twenty Years. Another has dropped from the ranks of the old settlers of Butte County, B.M. Helphenstine, who passed away yesterday morning about 5 o’clock, at the family home about three miles north of Chico. The old gentleman had been an invalid for nearly ten years, during which he had suffered much, his ailment being rheumatism.

Deceased was a native of Kentucky, aged 78 years. With his family, he came to California upward of twenty years ago, and located in Butte County where he engaged in farming. He leaves a wife and one son, William Helphenstine, six grandsons and one granddaughter. Mrs. Waste, who died a few years ago, was a daughter of him. Jack Waste, one of the grandsons, is a teacher in the public schools of Weaverville. He is expected to arrive on Tuesday morning’s express.

The funeral has been set for tomorrow at 11 o’clock at the Presbyterian church.
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" ... His father [Benjamin Helphinstine] was a native of the Blue Grass country, Kentucky, the grandfather [John P. Helphenstine b. 1777 VA d. 1831 IN and his wife Elizabeth Kaiser b. 1786 VA d. 1830 WA.] moving from Pennsylvania to that state. The father moved to Indiana and married Emily Veale, a native of Indiana. She now resides, in the evening of her life, with her children, at the advanced age of eighty-five. The father was a farmer and enlisted with an Indiana Regiment during the Civil War, serving until its close, afterward continuing his occupation of farming until 1869, when he sold his interests in Indiana and brought his family to Butte County, Cal. He purchased a ranch and broke the first land around Nelson Station, later entering into horticulture. He died at his home in 1901. He was the father of two children: Flora, who was the wife of Jack Waste, who was a farmer near Chico, and both died here; and William Veale..." [Biography of William Veale Helphinstine] Source: "History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 915-916, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.