Olive Helms Mulholland was the oldest daughter of Belle and R.E. Helms, a Midwestern family who settled in San Diego in the early 1900s. Olive attended Knox College in Galesburg, Ill. in 1896 and 1897. In 1900, Olilve Helms married Elgin McCormick Mulhulland (1875-1904), a native of Pittsburgh. Their daughter Rachel Isabel was born in 1902.The Mulhollands lived in Montana, Colorado, and Washington. When Mulholland died of tuberculosis, his widow taught a black school in Alabama and later worked as a housekeeper for a minister in Massachusetts, before moving to California to join her family shortly after 1910. Olive Helms Mulholland lived in San Diego, Riverside, and Los Angeles and worked as a teacher. She was in YWCA and various church groups. Her daughter Rachel Isabel Mulholland followed in her mother's footsteps. She graduated from Knox College in Galesburg and then attended Mills College in California.
From the description of Correspondence of Olive Helms Mulholland, 1881-1911. (Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens). WorldCat record id: 123401470
