Jeffers Indian Mound may date as far back as 400 B.C.

Controversy over the placement of a historical marker has stirred up interest in a local historic site that far precedes the founding of Worthington in 1803.

The Jeffers Mound is located on a bluff overlooking the Olentangy River. Plesenton Drive is the first road north of West Dublin-Granville Road off Olentangy River Road.

Some of the city's most expensive homes are located around the perimeter of Plesenton Drive. In the center is a 30-ft. high, 150-ft. diameter mound.

According to the most popular accounts, the mound was built by Hopewell Indians as a burial place for their most honored people between 100 B.C. and A.D. 400.

Some say it is even older. An archaeological team which uncovered remains of a 25 ft. by 47 ft. house immediately south of the mound in 1978 concluded it was built between 300 and 400 B.C.

The mound formed the south wall of an enclosed burial site. Four walls 3 ft. high and 10 ft. wide made a 630 by 550 foot rectangle. Portions of the north wall still exist on private property on the north side of Plesenton Drive.

The house was on the south side of the mound. The archaeologists, led by Raymond Baby, then curator of the Ohio Historical Society, collected about 900 artifacts and evidence of a house that could have been a dwelling or a temporary residence for burial grounds maintenance, according to a story in The Columbus Dispatch on Sept. 10, 1978.

That was the second dig at the site. The first, according to a story in the old Columbus Morning Journal, was done by William Heath of Worthington in 1866.

Heath ran a tunnel from the east side to the center, and sank a shaft from the top, intersecting the tunnel. He found fragments of antique pottery and remains of two skeletons.

"Mr. Heath was prevented from pushing his explorations further on account of want of time. He is confident that interesting developments await the explorer, and though the terms of his permit require him to fill up the excavation, this will not be done till Wednesday," stated the newspaper article. "If any gentlemen of the city wish to continue excavation, opportunity is offered, if application is made before the earth is replaced."

The land on which the mound stands was purchased in 1923 by Herman Plesenton Jeffers. He owned about 140 acres, much of which was farm land.

His grandson, John W. Jeffers, is now an attorney in Cleveland. He testified before the Board of Zoning Appeals last week, and submitted historical documents about the mound.

He remembers the mound being surrounded by corn fields when he was a boy, and finding old gravestones from the Civil War in the area.

He recently climbed the mound with his grandson, Michael, who lives in Upper Arlington.

"I certainly think this mound is a significant piece of Ohio history and that school children,in particular, can get a better appreciation for the history of Ohio and the people who originally lived here by being able to observe this particular burial mound," he wrote in a recent letter to the Ohio Historical Society.

The Jeffers family began selling their land for residential development in the late 1960s, with the first plat of Plesenton Drive filed with the city on Jan. 10, 1968.

In 1974, Millie Jeffers, wife of Herman P., deeded the mound and the land around it to the Worthington Historical Society.

Among the first to build homes there were John Stover, Paul J. Filing, Jr., Dr. Walter Slatter, Clifton F. Schmitt, Myron A. Mann, and Morton Y. Reeves. The Schmitt family later moved to Arizona and sold their property to Dr. Charles Harding. Herman Jeffers reportedly hand picked those who were sold the first lots.

According to a story from the original Worthington News, which was acquired by ThisWeek Community Newspapers more than a decade ago and was the predecessor to ThisWeek in Worthington, Mr. Jeffers said that "God and the Indians have done much to make this place unique and beautiful."

You're hitting some interests of mine today. I recently wrote a short story, where an Indian mound in involved in small way and they are one more subject on my list of things I'd like to know more about.

I too am fascinated about Indian mounds...I have seen a few in the midwest. I think there's a so-called "mound culture" description of tribes mixed with a certain historical period.

The Cahokia Mounds on I-70 in Missouri/Illinois/Indiana(can't remember) are fantastic. They have a nice park and visitors center there...

thanks for the great article about the Worthington mound... and I think you also helped me find one of my ancestors....William Vining!

That was interesting & I know I shouldn't complain but would it have been too difficult to tell us in the title which part of the country this was mound was in? I finally found the word Ohio. That just happens to be a little pet peeve of mine. So now I said it, thanks for an interesting article.

Cahokia Mounds are in Illinois a few miles east of St. Louis. There are some Indian mounds in Indiana near Evansville, and others near Jackson, Tennessee, and Cartersville, Georgia (Etowah Mounds). I've seen only the last of these.

A Blast from the Past.

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8 posted on 03/16/2006 9:27:48 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Yes indeed, Civ updated his profile and links pages again, on Monday, March 6, 2006.)

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