Helland, Hans

Hans Engel Hansen Helland (born August 10, 1854 in Bergen, Norway; died March 9, 1928, in San Antonio, Texas) was trained as an engineer and did railway work in Norway and Germany before coming to Texas to work as an engineer on construction for the Houston and Texas Central Railroad in 1881.

In 1885 he married Marie Müller from Dresden, Germany, with whom he had six children. He left the Houston and Texas Central Railroad in 1889 and became the Vice President and General Manager of the Fort Worth and New Orleans/Central Texas and Northwestern Railroads. Helland kept this position until 1902 when his company merged with the Houston and Texas Central Railroad and Helland rejoined his previous company in the position of the Maintenance of Way. In 1906, Helland started a private engineering office in Dallas, Texas, with his associate Nils Werenskjold. Some of his major accounts were with the West Texas Construction Company and the Panhandle Short Line Railroad. Helland left the office in 1908 to take a position of Maintenance of Way for the San Antonio and Arkansas Pass Railroad until 1913 when he was named the City Engineer of San Antonio, Texas. Helland stayed with the city of San Antonio until a change of administration in 1921 forced him to seek other employment. In 1921 he became an engineer with the Grayburg Oil Company in San Antonio, Texas, and in 1926 he left the oil business to return to private consulting work in San Antonio until his death in 1928.

In addition to his professional work, Helland maintained several personal business interests, including land purchases and various business enterprises with his friends and fellow immigrants Eniar Grieg and Frantz Matzow. Helland was also a member of several professional organizations, including the American Society of Civil Engineers, the San Antonio Scientific Society, the American Municipal Engineers Association and the Chicago Norwegian Technical Society.