A Wonderful Surprise	by Tim Dunham
Central States Archaeological Societies 2022 April Journal	Missouri

A part-time job application at my alma mater, Otterville High School, which I attended all twelve years and graduated from in 1976, began this adventure. After accepting the part-time custodial position offered me, I began to reacquaint myself with staff members I had known in the community for years. One of the joys of small-town living is that many of the school staff were also alumni who returned to the community to make a difference. One such teacher was Jessica Helmig, whom in conversation about hobbies and interests, discovered I had a love for archaeology, artifacts and arrowhead hunting. Jessica was the daughter of Bob and Linda Jeffress, whose families had lived in the area for many years. She indicated to me that her parents had a few arrowheads that a family member had passed down to them. Having gone to school with Jessica’s parents, I told her to give them a call and let me know if they would be interested in showing them to me.

A nice afternoon surprise occurred when I contacted them through Facebook Messenger, and they were open to me coming by to see their arrowheads. Jumping at a chance to see the collection, I headed over to their house to see if I could teach them a little about what they had and expand their knowledge of artifacts. After catching up a little on what life had thrown at us over the years, they invited me into their home. Much to my delight, on the countertop, lay a varied collection of points from four different periods (Figs 1, 2). They ranged from Dalton to the Late Archaic and included some from the Late Woodland and the Mississippi periods. Upon my asking about them, Bob explained they had been found by Teddy McCleery, back in the 1970s, on the Otto Zimmershied farm. The property goes into the Lamine River bottoms southeast of Otterville. Teddy entered Bob’s family by marrying his first cousin. In the collection (see Figs 1, 2) there is a Dalton drill; Late Archaic Etley, Smith and Tablerock points; Woodland Dicksons and Gibsons; and Mississippi darts, Huffaker and Sequoyah points. There were also Sedalia diggers, a hematite celt, and some bi-face blades, all from local Burlington sources.

After discussions about the ages and uses of the tools, I advised them the collection had some value and inquired as to whether they would consider allowing ...

 

Read the complete "A Wonderful Surprise" column in the Central States Archaeological Societies 2022 April Journal which can be purchased on-line after March 2022