Major Oliver Helme was born in Kingstown, Rhode Island, October 1770, and came here from Ballston, N.Y. He engaged in the chair making business in 1798. In 1801 he kept the Yarringtom ferry and tavern in Kingston. He was sheriff of the county from 1828 to 1831, and in 1832 he purchased the Exchange Hotel in Kingston which he conducted for many years. He died in 1851.