Helm attended the area's public schools and studied with noted educator Duff Green.[5] When Helm was 14 his father fell on hard financial times and Helm returned to work on the family farm.[6] In 1818 he took a better-paying job in the office of Samuel Haycraft, the circuit court clerk of Hardin County.[6] While there he read law with Haycraft, then entered the law office of Ben Tobin in 1821.[1]