Lee Helle: "Uncle Delbert was the Inventer of the family."The hydrauic sawmill" log dogs & turners. Where ever you find a sawmill today it will have Helle equipment in it. But what I most remember about him is the man who would make a nephew feel like he was one of his own family."
Ethel Helle Walton: "Delbert, the one Dad always said had "Tinkoritis", manufactures sawmills and allied machinery. All are his own inventions. He also has many hobbies, including restoring old violins. He is the only one of us who received a musical education."
Sheldon Helle: "As I remember Delbert, when I was a small boy of eight or nine, he was generally putting wires on a piece of plywood. Some time later, we heard the first radio in our home. In 1924, Delbert had built the first wireless music box (radio) in our area. Delbert's knowledge of electronics was very useful some forty years later when he invented and began manufacturing the "Helle Log Turner and Sawmills". Delbert started Sawmill Hydraulics in Farmington, IL. The Helle sawmill was the first fully automatic portable sawmill in the nation. It used electric controls with hydraulic power. This equipment is in use in all parts of the world, even in countries like Malaysia and New Guinea. Delbert and Nellie were in a terrible accident in 1971. Despite the modern hospital, they could not save Nellie's leg. It was amputated above the knee. Delbert died of a heart attack Aug. 18, 1990."

Gail Helle: "Delbert always had time for me and always made me feel important. All guys have to have an older pal and he was it. I could tell him my tales of woes and he would listen. He must have really loved kids. That must be why the good Lord saw that he had the most. I also remember Delbert tinkering with his homemade radios and his interest in electricity."

Helle Sawmill Hydraulics, http://www.4helle.com/history.html - By 1950 Delbert Helle had built an impressive sawmill operation in Farmington, Illinois. A left hand #5 Corley mill, a dry kiln, a planing operation, tongue and groove machine, pallet line, molder and joiner. The operation fed him and his wife, eight kids, two grandparents, and a hired hand. As he approached his fifties, he realized that turning logs by hand was detrimental to his health and hard on productivity. So, he went to the major manufactures and asked about a log turner. Well it seemed that the only thing available was a ram device that required a pit for the cylinder. He observed that it would fill up with water and freeze in the winter time. So he built his own Helle Log Turner. Today over 600 oft hese were operating wherever logs are sawed!

Source: "Frederick Helle and Katherine Krauser" by Alice Riley: "DelbertVernon Helle, considers 25 January 1932 as the most important day in his life when he married a wonderful girl. During the first ten years of their marriage, Delbert and Nellie moved 13 times; usually in a farm house near the sawmill. Nellie recalls: "We had running water in only two homes before our present home. I have drawn water from a well with a bucket, dipped it from a spring and a few times had a pump at a sink in the house. However, I never had to wash clothes on a washboard. Our most unusual home was an 24 square foot cabin beside the Mississippi River in Joe Daviess County, Illinois in 1935-36. The weather was 35 degrees below zero for the first few days and we had a lot of snow. Our cabin was built above the mark of the previous high-test previous flood and when the spring flood reached its crest, only the three chimney tops were visible.We never went back." (Sharon Bearce)