There are so many stories of frontiersmen covering prodigious amounts of territory under extreme duress that it’s become a trope — the stuff of cinematic drama. Mountain Man Hugh Glass’s ordeal was the basis for the Oscar-winning The Revenant. John Colter’s run for life from the Blackfeet was transposed into an African setting for The Naked Prey.
And who can forget all the trail running in Last of the Mohicans, propelled by that magnificent score?
The 1936 novel Drums Along The Mohawk portrayed Ranger Adam Helmer’s epic run to warn settlers of a raid by Joseph Brant’s Iroquois warriors and Loyalist fighters — which John Ford blithely gave to Henry Fonda’s lead character Gil Martin in the 1939 movie, turning it into a run for reinforcements.
Strangely Helmer’s Run is little marked in Frontier Partisan history, reduced to a local legend of the Mohawk Valley.
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John Adam Helmer was a young farmer in his early 20s when the conflict that would become the American Revolution broke out in 1775. In the Mohawk Valley of New York, the conflict was a civil war, pitting neighbor against neighbor and rupturing the League of the Iroquois. Helmer’s family were of Palatine German descent and staunch Patriots — “rebels” if you were on the other side of the fence. Helmer was enlisted in the militia, holding the rank of lieutenant. Of average height and of lean and athletic build, he was noted for his endurance and was tapped for scouting and ranging duties — patrolling and serving as a courier on the Mohawk Valley frontier.
This David Wright painting is representative of a whole generation of young frontiersmen like John Adam Helmer, men who served as scouts and rangers in the Mohawk Valley of New York.
In 1777, the British launched a force down the Mohawk Valley from the west, in support of General John Burgoyne’s campaign down the Hudson Valley, designed to cut off the New England colonies and end the rebellion.
The British force laid siege to Fort Stanwix at the western end of the Mohawk Valley, and the Patriots mobilized a large militia contingent under General Nicholas Herkimer to march to the fort’s relief. Helmer’s father and brother marched with the militia, while Adam was one of three couriers tasked with notifying the Stanwix garrison that help was on the way.
Helmer’s trek was arduous, taking him across rugged, boggy terrain, but the assignment may have saved his life. On August 6, 1777, Herkimer’s militia entered a ravine east of Fort Stanwix — and walked into a kill zone set up by Iroquois and Loyalist Rangers. The ensuing battle was fought at point blank range in a forest thicket, with the combatants often engaging hand-to-hand with bayonet and tomahawk. Oriskany was probably the bloodiest and most intense combat of the Revolutionary War. The Patriot militia was badly mauled — and Helmer’s brother and father were numbered among the Patriots’ 385 dead.
The Battle of Oriskany, portrayed here by the great Don Troiani, was some of the most savage fighting of the Revolutionary War. It pitted Loyalist and Patriot neighbors against each other, and Patriot-allied Oneida Iroquois against their brethren.
The battle — which deserves a post of its own — was a clear tactical victory for the British, but they lost the strategic advantage and lifted their siege of Fort Stanwix. A bereaved Adam Helmer returned to the German Flatts community of the Mohawk Valley where he resumed scouting duties out of Fort Dayton.
On September 16, 1778, Lt. Helmer led an eight-man recon patrol southwest into the Unadilla River Valley to investigate rumors that the Mohawk War Captain Joseph Brant (Thayendenegea) was in the area and moving north. Helmer’s patrol verified the presence of the enemy alright — in the most painful way. While pausing at a fine spring on the Carr Farm, Helmer’s patrol was jumped by a large contingent of Brant’s men. Three scouts were killed outright and the others scattered. Helmer managed to escape and evade — then launched himself over the heavily wooded hills to warn the settlers of German Flatts.
Helmer first ran to his sister’s farm, where he warned his family members to flee to the fort. After securing fresh moccasins, he trekked on, bushwhacking cross country and warning outlying settlers to “flee for your lives.”
Accounts vary as to how far Helmer ran — 17; 26; 30+ miles. Regardless, it was an arduous run. When he got to Fort Dayton, he was badly torn up from busting through the underbrush, and he collapsed into a sleep that would last 36 hours. His labors were not in vain.
Brant’s force, which included a contingent of Loyalist Rangers led by the highly capable Captain William Caldwell, fell on German Flatts like a storm, burning 63 houses and 59 barns filled with grain that was vital to the supply of General George Washington’s Continental Army. Hundreds of horses, sheep and cattle were carried off or killed. However, only two citizens died in the raid.
The community had forted up, and the raiders didn’t have the heavy weaponry needed to breach the defensive works.
Captain Caldwell later reported that his men “would have in all probability killed most of the inhabitants of German Flatts had they not been apprised of our coming by one of the scouts getting in and warning of our approach.” Caldwell thought that, had they maintained the element of surprise, his force would have “perhaps got to their forts.”
Helmer, who slept through the raid, had saved German Flatts from annihilation.
Three days after the raid, Helmer retraced his route with another patrol, which found his three dead scouts at the spring at Carr Farm. They were buried where they fell, and a marker stands at the spot to this day. The fate of the other five members of the Helmer Patrol remains unknown.
In Memory Of Three Scouts.
Adam Helmer continued to serve in New York’s militia levy. He farmed in the Valley and sired 10 children with his wife Anna Bellinger, an “ordinary” citizen of a fertile land he helped to hold with blood, toil, tears and sweat.
deuce says
The town names on that map closely correspond with the names of Pictish settlements in REH’s “Wolves Beyond the Border” and “Beyond the Black River.” He got those names by way of Robert W. Chambers’ “Cardigan” novels, which are set in that region during the Revolutionary War.
Broadalbin, the town where the Chamberses had settled 200 years before, is only 35mi n-w of Albany. Chambers grew up smack in the middle of that region and heard tales of the war from people who had grandparents that lived through it. Chambers himself was born in 1865.
JimC says
X-ring Deuce.
Final chapter of Beyond the Black River “Conajohara No More.”
Conajoharie = Mohawk castle
And Balthus’ run to warn the settlers to “Get up! The Picts are over the river!” is absolutely analogous to Helmer’s feat. Drink to his shade and the shade of the dog that knew no fear.
Matthew says
That’s really interesting, deuce. I did not know that about “Beyond the Black River,” except I knew Howard had read Chambers.
lane batot says
Great post! And I LOVE all this time period artwork they have these days that you illustrate the posts with! And I also love the 1991-2 film version of “Last Of The Mohicans”–double ditto for the magnificent soundtrack–and this isn’t just because I was a peon Xtra(on the French side as a coureur de bois, thank God) on the film. In fact, I love the film DESPITE having worked on it, as almost everyone that did, even people with many years experience in the film business, said it was THE WORST(hands down) project they ever worked on. Which is a crying shame, as it didn’t have to be. It’s just that the Director, Michael Mann, was just a supreme arsehole, and was one of those unfortunates that make everything ten times harder to do than it needs to be–I theorize such people do that in the belief that by making things HARDER, they somehow think they make them BETTER, which of course is far from the truth! But a bit of trivia now(that links my rambling to this post specifically)–I heard, on a later project(the TV series “Christy”, filmed in East Tennessee) from a fellow who was a set designer, that Michael Mann was proposing a remake of “Drums Along The Mohawk”(you gotta at least give it to the guy for being interested in such projects at all!), but could not get the funding or interest from others to do it. He apparently sent a script of some sort to another set designer the fellow I met knew, who had been the main designer on “Last of the Mohicans”. This fellow did not even bother to read the script, his memories of working with Mann on LOTM being so bad–he just hocked a big green loogey on page one, and mailed it back to him! Just a story I heard(cain’t verify it, in other words),but I’d not be a BIT surprised if it weren’t true! A shame, as pain-in-the-arse as getting it made under that ego-maniac it would have been, I still bet it woulda been a SUPERB final product! Now another bit from LOTM illustrating perfectly about making things HARDER than they need to be…..to be continued…..
JimC says
Damn! That’s a film that really does need to be made. John Ford was one of the greats, but I can’t watch DAM. Claudette Colbert just looks ridiculous…
lane batot says
…..the film clip from LOTM you have above is one of my few pet peeves regarding frontier accuracy in the film–which in most things, great effort was made to be accurate in every nit-picking thing–costumes, tatoos, hair styles, guns and other weapons, etc. etc. Which I admire. And I DO understand perhaps WHY The Mann had Hawkeye, Chingachgook, and Uncas in pursuit of those ranging Hurons, LABORING up that rock face just as HARD as they could go–very dramatic and determined in appearance, certainly! But REALLY STUPID in the reality of steep mountain travel, as ANYONE who has ever traveled long distance in the mountains, trying to make good time for whatever reason, knows! Only a green, flatlander city boy woulda done run up that slope like that! Just think about it for a second(all you green flatlander city boyz reading this….)–no matter HOW HARD you try to run up such a steep slope, you are NOT going to go much faster than just a good, long-stride walk in SPEED. What you WILL do is frikking wear yourself to an exhausted frazzle very quickly, so you can make little good time overall! What you SHOULD do is long-stride the steep places, and run the level and downhill grades–you’ll do far better and last longer for sure! Just a little mountain lore for you there, and I know it is nit-picking(sorry), and I understand the Director’s attempt to make the heroes bad-asses(but in that scene, they came across–to me–as dumb-asses), but it IS a telling example illustrating how someone who thinks making everything HARDER makes it BETTER, which runs throughout the making of this entire film(whether the viewer sees it or not!)…..
Fletcher A. Vredenburgh says
Great post, and it’s got me aiming to give Edmonds’ book a try this year.
JimC says
Glad it hit home Fletcher.
Ernie Cupernall says
DAM is the story of my family. At least 5 fought at Oriskany. They were all in Klock’s 2nd regiment. All farmers from Stone Arabia. Someone should make a movie about the siege of Fort Stanwix and Oriskany as it relates to the Saratoga campaign. Maybe Martin Scorsese as he was one of the driving forces behind the preservation of DAM. Scorsese believes that DAM was one of Ford’s finest films.
JimC says
Thanks for stopping by the campfire Ernie. Powerful Frontier Partisan heritage you have. I’d love to see a whole series on the NY frontier conflict — it has everything a drama needs. Done right, it could be both exceptional drama and open a window on the past that people could really relate to in these troubled times.
Michael Sepal says
Thank you for the post about Lt. John Adam Helmer. I first learned about him while researching my paternal grandmother’s family history. Her birth name was Grace Anne Barker (1907-1972). Her paternal grandfather was Edwin H. Barker (1831-1888), whose maternal grandmother was Anna E. Helmer (1781-1866), the daughter of John Adam F. Helmer (1754-1830) and Anna Maria Bellinger (1757-1841). I can’t imagine how difficult that must have been for Lt. John Adam Helmer to run 30 miles in moccasins while bushwhacking his way cross country from the Carr Farm to Fort Dayton, but descendants of the many lives he saved that day owe him.
JimC says
Absolutely one of the great epics of the frontier. Thanks for stopping by the campfire. I’m responding to your email now.
Ken Helmer says
My name is Ken Helmer. And if had DNA search and I found out that J A Helmer is my Great G G G Grand Father. Hoping to make a visit to the site of him this year.
JimC says
Noble Frontier Partisan heritage. Thanks for stopping by the campfire.
Steve Passage says
I grew up remembering my Mom telling me the story of Adam Helmer and his famous run. She said our family was related to him on my Dad’s side. As I grew older, I became aware of the fact that my Dad said the he had Adam Helmer’s powder horn. I have always loved history and in fact, I still have that same powder horn in my possession today. It’s an honor to be related to a Revolutionary War hero.
My records show that Adam’s daughter, Anna (1781-1866), was married to Henry Passage (1775-1830). Adam Helmer would be my 4G Grandfather.
Steve Passage
JimC says
That’s some serious Frontier Partisan heritage. Salute.
Michael Sepal says
Lt. John Adam F. Helmer is my 5x great grandfather.
I first learned about him while researching my paternal grandmother’s family history. Her birth name was Grace Anne Barker (1907-1972). Her paternal grandfather was Edwin H. Barker (1831-1888), whose maternal grandmother was Anna E. Helmer (1781-1866), the daughter of John Adam F. Helmer (1754-1830) and Anna Maria Bellinger (1757-1841).
Anna E. Helmer (1781-1866) married Henry Passage (1775-1830) and they had a daughter, Hannah Anna Passage (1803-1862), the mother of my paternal great-great grandfather, Edwin H. Barker (1831-1888).
Hannah Anna Passage (1803-1862) married Roswell H. Barker (1801-1880) and they had 11 children; one of whom was my paternal great-great grandfather, Edwin H. Barker (1831-1888).
Michael Sepal
JimC says
Welcome to the campfire.
Daniel Helmer JR says
Am I descended from this man? Adam Helmer
Jeroen Helmer says
I find this story so interesting, so thanks for posting it online. My last name is Helmer, so I feel a connection with that alone.
I would be really proud (or even prouder) if I could confirm that there would be a bloodline. I currently live in the Netherlands (Europe), so yes, where do I start?
Best regards from the Netherlands,
Jeroen Helmer (56)
Jeroenhelmer@gmail.com
Tony spalsbury says
My great, great, great,great, great grandfather’s farm was burnt to the ground by Brants raiders west of cherry valley. I happen to know several helmers.
Tony spalsbury
JimC says
Wow — that’s serious Frontier Partisan heritage. Do you live in the region?
Tony spalsbury says
Michigan it always amazes me of all the names of places in Michigan that are identical to New York names.
JimC says
We’ve got a bit of that in Oregon, too — Lake Oswego for example.