Wellington Indian Mound – 1951

While trying to find the four other articles about Col. Raymond C. Vietzen (mentioned in the October 16, 1951 article that I posted here), I "unearthed" something else: a three-article series about an Indian mound located near Wellington.

The series starts with the article below about the Indian mound on the E. M. Prentiss farm, which appeared in the Lorain Journal on October 9, 1951. 

The article notes that "The slumbers of an ancient Indian chief appear due for an interruption when spring of 1952 rolls around to greet this southern Lorain-co village.

"For that's when it's highly probable Harry Martin will resume operations at an Indian mound near here, operations which were suspended 18 years ago.

"At that time Martin and his two sons, Leland and Chester, had completed a large tunnel into the heart of the mound and from 13 to 15 feet above where they believe an Indian chief to be buried in a sandstone vault.

"Martin, a village waterworks employe, was working at the filter plant west of town and in his evenings after work would walk over to the mound, about one-half mile away, and dig further into the man-made hill. It is located on the E. M. Prentiss farm.

"That was in 1932, and the tunneling required almost five months of hard labor. Martin and his sons gradually forged their way back into the mound, thru layers of varying types of earth and finally wound up with the shaft directly under what appeared to be a sandstone layer placed above the chief's burial vault in order to shed water.

"And why is Martin so certain this glamorous figure of the past is buried within the mound? His reasons are two-fold. First, because of certain scientific knowledge and processes, the second because of the actions of an old pioneer and good friend of the Indians."

The article goes on to explain that Alex Justice was that good friend of the Indians, and that Justice "knew how and where noted ancestors of his friends were buried – but he kept this secret to himself."

But as noted in the article, Justice supposedly left a clue on or near the mound as to where a chief and/or Indian princess were buried. 

Part two of the series ran on October 10, 1951. It provides some details of the actual digging done by Martin and his sons, and why they felt there were on the right track.

The last article in the series continues the account of the Martins' tunneling efforts and why they were forced to pause: the transfer of Harry Martin from the filter plant to the city, and his inability to find the time.

I was unable to located any article from the spring of 1952, which was the planned date to continue their work. My search for articles from the early 1930s (the period in which the initial work was done on the mound) was also unsuccessful.

I can safely say, however, that while searching the Journal archives for the phrase "Indian mound," I discovered that it was used far too frequently by sportswriters when writing about Cleveland pitchers.

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So where was the Prentiss farm? A 1965 Journal article about a fire on the Earl Prentiss farm located it on Pitts Road, three quarters of a mile south of State Route 18 – locating it quite close to the Filtration Plant also on Pitts Road.