As the story goes, Martha and her siblings came into some money from the death of her father. Her grandfather (Peter Skroch - the appropriately nicknamed "Lame Pete") attempted to keep this money from them. In 1923, Helen took him to court, the children represented by Ole J. Eggum, and won the right to her inheritance that paid for Martha's school. She went on to work at the Mayo Hospital where she later met John Murphy. Helen learned to be ambitious for her children from her mother as can be read about in this post.