The Mound-Builders

Introduction to the 2004 Edition

INTRODUCTION TO THE 2004 EDITION HENRY CLYDE SHETRONE AND THE MOUND-BUILDERS Bradley T. Lepper Rude effigies ofby-gone savage hearts, Wrought from the silent everlasting rocks; What varied store oflong-forgotten arts And mystic rites, within themselves they lock! Mute voices from the ages they span, Once vibrant-in a moment's hurried fiight- "Come be the guest ofDeath" their message ran: Thus ruled the primal law when might was right. Footprints-last records ofthe fading van Of stealthy hosts, along the trail well worn; Memorial ofprimeval bronze-browed man, His silent passing to an unknown bourne. H. C. Shetrone (1907) HENRY CLYDE SHETRONE Henry Clyde Shetrone (1876-1954) was born in Millersport, Ohio, a small town twenty miles due west of Columbus and barely ten miles south ofthe remarkable Newark Earthworks. Frank Setzler (1956:296), in his obituary of Shetrone published in American Antiquity, speculated that growing up in the vicinity of these remarkable monuments ofantiquity may have had something to do with Shetrone's eventual decision to seek his fame and fortune as an archaeologist of the Mound Builders. Setzler (1956:296) and others have repeated the claim that he attended, but did not graduate from, Denison University in Granville, Ohio. There are, how- XX1I BRADLEYT. LEPPER ever, no records in the university's archives to substantiate this assertion . Certainly, Denison awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1944, acknowledging his achievements regardless of whether he was ever formally enrolled at the university. Shetrone was a slightly built man, five feet, seven inches tall, with gray eyes and fine, almost effeminate, features. He married Lillie Mae Klinger ofColumbus in 1905,but beyond that, we know little of his private life. Upon his death in 1954, his obituaries indicate that he was survived by a cousin and a brother-in-law, both ofwhom were living with him at the time. The cause of his death is not mentioned. Shetrone served in the U.S. Volunteer Signal Corps during the Spanish-American War in 1898. He was stationed in Cuba and had attained the rank ofcorporal by the time he was discharged. After the war, he stayed on as the provincial superintendent of telegraphy for the Cuban government. Upon his return to the United States in 1902, he was employed as a commercial telegrapher in NewYork City. In 1903, he came back to Ohio and worked as a telegrapher for various newspapers in Columbus. Over the next decade, he worked his way up from press telegrapher to telegraph editor to financial editor to feature writer for the American Press Association. Shetrone was passionately interested in archaeology and enjoyed writing stories aboutWilliam C. Mills's excavations at the Adena, Gartner, Harness, and the smaller, conjoined, Seip mounds (Setzler 1956:297). Mills was, at that time, curator ofarchaeology for the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, and he and Shetrone soon became good friends. In a letter Mills wrote to a Pro£ Talkington of Lewiston, Idaho, in response to a request to purchase "specimens of the mound builders," Mills referred Talkington to Shetrone: "Mr. Shetrone is a very estimable gentleman , and ... is one ofour foremost collectors in Ohio." He "has one of the largest private collections in the State, and he may be able to furnish you with duplicates from his collection" (Mills 1910). In 1913, Mills offered Shetrone a job as his assistant. Shetrone was 37 years old and had no formal education or training in archaeology , but Mills was impressed with his passion and, doubt- SHETRONE AND THE MOUND-BUILDERS XXlll Photograph of Henry Clyde Shetrone. The image is undated, but is clearly an early photograph. It may have been taken around the time of his appointment as Curator of Archaeology for the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society in 1921. Ohio Historical Society archives, Negative number OHS 11819. Used with permission. less, with the extensive contacts Shetrone had established across the state through his collecting activities and his newspaper work. SHETRONE AND OHIO ARCHAEOLOGY Shetrone began his professional archaeological career by conducting archaeological surveys around the state (e.g., Swauger 1984:145-148). In addition to identifying sites for the Archaeological Atlas ofOhio (Mills 1914), he also aggressively sought to acquire private artifact collections for the state museum. In the William C. Mills Papers in the Ohio Historical Society's archives, there are several letters from Shetrone detailing his adventures in the field. Unfortunately, most of these...