A Walk Through History: Learn about the history of Westerville, Ohio. This newsletter was created by the Westerville Library’s Local History Center.

1. THE WESTERVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY
LOCAL HISTORY RESOURCE CENTER NEWSLETTER
OCTOBER 2009
Page 1
NATIVE AMERICAN ARTIFACTS
When Carl Fritsche was a young boy one of his favorite activities was to walk through his
father’s freshly plowed farm fields looking for treasures. His
uncle had collected similar treasures as a young boy in Del-
aware County, so Carl knew what he could find. Carl also
read and educated himself about the items he was collecting.
The Fritsche collections now reside at the Westerville Public
Library’s Local History Center on permanent display. The
collections tell us something about the people who were on
the land before the first settlers arrived in their covered wag-
ons.
The early Paleo Indians fed themselves by hunting.
They travelled in small groups following their food sources
and carried with them everything they owned. The tools they
made helped them
kill animals and
prepare their meat
and skin for food
and clothing. The
only evidence we
have of these people today is the tools they created. There
are no burial sites or campsites to show how they lived.
The Archaic Indians began to develop tools to use
in processing plants – pestles and grinding stones to grind nuts and seeds; axes for felling trees for
canoes. The hunters of this period sought smaller animals so the tools were different. Hunting still
provided most of their food.
In the Adena period pottery making began as they were not as nomadic as earlier
groups. The Adena are most noted for their burial mounds. In the Westerville area most of these have
disappeared. Early maps and pioneer writings show mounds located along the west side of Alum
Creek in the Main Street area, at the west end of Hiawatha Street, and in the Annehurst area.
When the Griswold and Phelps families, the first settlers in Blendon Township, arrived on
the banks of Alum Creek, the Native Americans who also had camps along the creek came to visit.
Within several decades these Native Americans had almost disappeared from the state. By 1831 it was
estimated that about 2,000 Native Americans remained in Ohio and eleven years later tribal life came
to an end when the Wyandot reservation in Upper Sandusky closed. Today artifacts are our link to
A WALK THROUGH HISTORY
The collections tell us something
about the people who were on the
land before the first settlers ar-
rived in their covered wagons.

2. Photographs of Artifacts from the Collection at the Local History Center
page 2

3. page 3
PALEONDIAN
12,000 BC
PLANO
8,500 BC
ARCHAIC
7,500 BC
2,500 BC
5,500 BC
WOODLAND
2,000 BC
HISTORIC
1,600-1,700 AD
FORT ANCIENT
1,000 AD
600 AD
1 AD
OHIO TIME LINE
Asian migrants cross Ber-
ing land bridge and enter
the New World. Fluted
point users spread over
most of North America.
Early Archaic
First use of side notched,
bifurcated, and corner
notched pointe.
Late Archaic
New cultures were devel-
oping from the Archaic,
Red Ocher, Glacial Kame,
and earliest of Adena.
Middle Woodland
The Hopewell appears.
Geometric earthworks,
trade routes, exotic materi-
als. The Hopewell disap-
pears.
Fort Ancient
In southern Ohio, Erie in
northern Ohio and Mo-
nogahela in eastern Ohio
all lived in large agricultur-
al villages.
Plano
Plano Period begins. De-
scendants of Paleo-Indians
live a less nomadic life.
Middle Archaic
New styles of hafting de-
signs were invented. First
ground stone tools such as
axes and celts were made.
Early Woodland
Discoverers of pottery. The
first mounds were built by
the Adena.
Late Woodland
Intrusive Mound people
appear and bury their dead
in Hopewell mounds. Only
evidence of a Late Wood-
land culture in Ohio.
All prehistoric people had
disappeared and Ohio had
no inhabitants. Many Indi-
an groups move into Ohio
from other areas.
Sources: Ohio Flint Types,
Robert N. Converse
Indian Flints of Ohio, Lar Ho-
them

4. Carl Fritsche was born
in 1920 on a farm in Genoa
Township. His family had
farmed in the area since the
1880s. Carl’s mother Clara
was a school teacher in several
one-room schools in Delaware
County. Carl attended Wester-
ville High School graduating in the class of 1938.
During World War II Carl served as an Air Force pilot stationed in India fly-
ing in the China-Burma-India area. It wasn’t until 28 years after the war that Carl
realized that the bombing of a bridge depicted in the 1957 movie “Bridge over the
River Kwai” was part of his own wartime experience. He had bombed that bridge
to prevent supplies from being moved across the water. After it became known that
Carl was involved in the war story told in the movie, he became very popular as a
speaker and travelled around the world being honored in England, Netherlands and
Taiwan for his military service.
After the war, Carl graduated from OSU
with a degree in agriculture, married a young
lady who grew up on a nearby farm in Genoa
Township and set up a poultry farm business.
Carl became a builder in the Westerville area.
Carl was very active in the Westerville Histor-
ical Society and loved visiting schools to share
some of his NativeAmerican artifacts. He want-
ed the things he had collected over a lifetime to
have a permanent home where schoolchildren
and adults could enjoy them. Upon his death in
2006 the items he had collected were donated
to the Local History Center at the Westerville
Public Library where they can be viewed.
CARL FRITSCHE
PAge 4
Carl Fritsche, 1994
He wanted the things he had collect-
ed over a lifetime to have a permanent
home... the items he had collected were
donated to the Local History Center.

5. Map Acvitity
The Adena are famous for building burial mounds in the United States. Listed below is the name of the
burial mound and which state the mound is found in. Using the map above, draw a mound inside the
state where the mound belongs.
1. Adena Mound, Ohio
2. Biggs Site, Kentucky
3. Criel Mound, West Virginia
4. Mounds State Park, Indiana
This is a burial mound
found in Miamisburg, Ohio.
This is a burial mound found
in Miamisburg, Ohio.
After reading the description of the spear base, fill in the
blanks under each spear on the right.
Dovetail Base: A dovetail based spear point is round on the
bottom, has small notches on the side and is fairly wide.
Bifurcate Base: A bifurcate base is extremely curved in at
the bottom.
Paleo Knife: A Paleo knife is flat, large and has rounded
sides.
________________
Which Spear is Which?
________________
________________
PAge 5