10

THE WIDOW AND THE DOCTOR

The next part of the rich and colorful history of the Franklin Castle involves the various occupants and owners who followed the Tiedemann family. They are a unique fellowship, which begins with a young lady named Louise Strangmann.

In 1870, Louise came to Alexandria, Virginia, to live with her uncle, Robert Portner, who had immigrated in 1853 and owned the Robert Portner Brewing Company. The following year, he hired a young German brewmaster named Paul Mühlhaüser.

By 1872, Paul Mühlhaüser and Louise Strangmann had wed and occupied a house on the brewery grounds. A few years later, Louise’s younger brother, Carl Augustus Strangmann Jr., came to Alexandria and worked as a shipping and office clerk at Portner’s brewery.

Paul and Louise Mühlhaüser’s love resulted in the birth of baby Ernst on September 23, 1876. Shortly thereafter, Paul took his young family to Baltimore, Maryland, where he and a man named Franz Thau partnered in a business venture named the Thau & Mühlhaüser Crystal Springs Brewery. In 1881, it became the Adler & Mühlhaüser Enterprise Brewery, after Thau sold his interests to a man named Elias E. Adler.

Paul and Louise’s family continued to grow, adding daughter Anna on October 18, 1880, and son Paul Jr. on November 5, 1882.

By now, Robert Portner wanted Paul back at the Portner brewery, because big things were about to happen. The Mühlhaüser family returned to Alexandria, and Paul resumed his position of brewmaster and superintendent. He was also promoted to vice president.

Robert Portner, early 1890s. From One Hundred Years of Brewing, 1903.

In May 1883, the Robert Portner Brewing Company was incorporated, and Paul received stock in the company, as did Carl Strangmann, who had been promoted to facility manager two years earlier.

Two more Mühlhaüser children joined the family circle: Carl in February 1885 and Otto in April 1886. Another child was expected in August 1890, but forty-year-old Paul Mühlhaüser was not there to greet him. In early August, Paul was admitted to the Alexandria Infirmary with diphtheria and died on August 21, 1890. A few days later, Louise gave birth to their sixth and final child, Albert.

The Portner Brewery was struggling by the mid-1890s, so in January 1895, Carl Strangmann was asked to resign as secretary and treasurer. At that point, Carl and his sister Louise each had one hundred shares of brewery stock. Carl had received his in 1883 with the incorporation, and Louise had inherited hers from her husband’s estate. They sold their stock back to their uncle, each receiving $17,500.

Soon after, Carl Strangmann traveled to Cleveland, where he met brewer George V. Muth, a major contributor to the Altenheim. Muth had recently developed several health problems and could no longer operate his brewery. The George Muth Brewing Company was sold on April 24, 1896, for $100,000 to Carl Strangmann and John M. Leicht, the man who’d replaced Paul Mühlhaüser as vice president at the Portner Brewery in October 1890. Leicht would be the new president and Strangmann the new secretary and treasurer.

During that first year, Carl Strangmann resided at a house on the brewery grounds just across the street from previous owner George Muth’s residence. The two became close friends. It was Muth who introduced Carl to August Tiedemann, the secretary and treasurer of the Phoenix Brewing Company.

When August Tiedemann learned that Strangmann was living at the brewery, he mentioned that his father was in the process of moving to Lakewood and his Cleveland home would soon be unoccupied.

Carl Augustus Strangmann, circa 1900. From Memorial and Family History of Erie County, New York, 1908.

So it was that in the late spring of 1897, Hannes Tiedemann rented his Franklin Avenue home to Carl Strangmann. Strangmann contacted his sister, and within a month, Louise Mühlhaüser and her six children left Alexandria and joined him in this wonderful new home. Louise Mühlhaüser must have fallen in love with the house at once. On December 6, 1897, she purchased the Franklin Castle from Hannes Tiedemann for $20,000, most of which she’d received from selling her Portner Brewery stock.

It should be noted here that it was Louise Mühlhaüser who purchased the Franklin Castle and not Carl Strangmann, as has been previously related in the legend.

It was also during her ownership that the house underwent two address changes due to city redistricting. In 1902, 283 Franklin Avenue became 504 Franklin Avenue. In 1906, it received its current address of 4308, and Franklin Avenue was finally changed to Franklin Boulevard.

Carl Strangmann remained at the Franklin address until 1899, when he moved to Buffalo, New York, and purchased the German-American Brewing Company.

By 1900, the Mühlhaüser family had settled into their new home quite well. The youngest child, Albert, had become fast friends with next-door neighbor Edward Ralph Wiebenson, both being the same age. Also living with the Mühlhaüsers were twenty-one-year-old servant Julia Malley and forty-six-year-old coachman John L. Vogt. Julia occupied the first-floor bedroom in the home, while John lived in the second-floor apartment of the carriage house.

Sadly, death visited Franklin Castle on the evening of Friday, October 9, 1903, when thirteen-year-old Albert Mühlhaüser succumbed to syncope-sarcoma. Dr. Hoover pronounced the death, and services were handled by Saxon and Son, Undertakers. Albert’s remains were then sent back to Alexandria, Virginia, to rest beside his father’s.

Shortly after, Albert’s sister, Anna Mühlhaüser, married a man who lived just up the street on Franklin. He was Carl John Weideman, grandson of Hannes Tiedemann’s former business partner John Christian Weideman. In 1904, Carl and Anna Weideman and Anna’s brother, Ernst Mühlhaüser, left Cleveland for Buffalo, where they joined their uncle, Carl Strangmann, at the German-American Brewing Company. Ernst and Carl became vice president and treasurer, respectively, at the brewery.

Louise Mühlhaüser lived at the Franklin Castle until she sold it on May 26, 1915. She then lived on West 80th Street in Cleveland with her son Otto. Two years later, she moved to Lakewood. Then, in 1926, as her health declined, Louise Mühlhaüser moved in with her son Paul at 1421 Waterbury Avenue, Lakewood. It was there that she passed away on September 25, 1927. She was then buried in Alexandria, Virginia, beside her husband, Paul, and son Albert.

The next owner of the Franklin Castle was not, as every account claims, the German Socialist Party. The new owner was, in fact, a doctor named Ulysses Sherman LeRoy Shirkey.

Dr. Shirkey was born to pioneering settlers in Maple Grove, Seneca County, Ohio, in 1863. A graduate of Ohio Northern University, he received his medical training at the old medical college in Columbus, Ohio, that is now part of The Ohio State University.

He wed Mary Brockman in 1889 and began his medical practice in Tiffin, Ohio, the following year. In 1891, he relocated to the west side of Cleveland, where he and his wife would eventually raise two children: Martha and LeRoy.

Dr. Shirkey’s home and office were located on Lorain Avenue. He’d make his rounds beyond the city limits by horse and buggy and was instrumental in compiling a book that listed the names of patients who didn’t pay their bills. The advent of this book proved helpful to other area physicians. If a person was listed in it, the doctor could ask for payment up front.

When Dr. Shirkey learned of a grand house for sale not far from his office, he purchased it on June 3, 1915. Dr. Shirkey moved with his family into the Franklin Castle but retained his office at 6404 Lorain Avenue.

The doctor’s son, LeRoy, who had been a pilot on a Great Lakes freighter for five years, left that occupation at the end of the 1919 shipping season. At this, he opened the Franklin Auto Repair Company, located in the carriage house behind the Franklin Castle. The main floor was large enough to work on multiple vehicles at one time, with easy access to their undersides. Located in the center of the floor was a small trapdoor with access to a pit in which one could stand while servicing the under-workings of automobiles. This was better than crawling underneath in very cramped conditions. The pit also had a short tunnel that was perfect for storing tools.

Dr. Ulysses Sherman LeRoy Shirkey. Courtesy of the Cleveland Public Library Photograph Collection.

In 1921, LeRoy moved with his wife, Edna, and newborn child, Ruth, from the Franklin Castle to a home on Lorain Avenue near his father’s office but retained his service garage at his father’s home. Before summer’s end, he’d need to relocate his garage as well. After just six years, Dr. and Mrs. Shirkey sold their house.

The Shirkeys purchased a grand home at 9912 Lake Avenue in Cleveland, where they would live out their days. The doctor was noted among his new neighbors for keeping beautiful gardens on his property, which still exist today.

Dr. Shirkey’s wife of forty-eight years, Mary, passed away on April 16, 1937. After this, LeRoy Shirkey moved with his wife and children to Columbus, Ohio, and returned to his former job of sailing on the Great Lakes. He was working as the third mate of the steamship William B. Davock, a 7,200-ton freighter, during the 1940 shipping season.

On the evening of November 11, 1940, the Davock was on Lake Michigan with a load of coal bound for South Chicago, when a sudden gale blew up. The gale blew hard and long, and by the next morning, more than twenty ships were wrecked, aground or missing. Among these was the William B. Davock, which was smashed to pieces in what became known as the Armistice Day Storm. LeRoy Shirkey managed to escape the wreck in a lifeboat with seven other men, but all died from exposure. There were thirty-three souls aboard the Davock when it foundered. All hands were lost.

Dr. Shirkey followed his son on January 8, 1945, passing away at his home on Lake Avenue. Two weeks earlier, he’d caught a cold and, shortly thereafter, stopped visiting his patients. He’d been in excellent health throughout his life and had only been ill once, around 1916, when he’d contracted influenza. He always attributed his good health and unfailing activity to his temperate habits. Dr. Shirkey was eighty-two.

It’s unfortunate that such a prominent person should be overlooked when tales of the Franklin Castle are told. Dr. Shirkey has never been mentioned in relation to this story until now.

Many years later, LeRoy Shirkey’s widow, Edna, would recount her experiences in the Franklin Castle to her family. According to her greatgranddaughters, Edna would claim that things would constantly move around on their own. Also, their blankets would be pulled off of their beds in the middle of the night. These are the earliest reports of paranormal activity at the Franklin Castle. Events matching those reported by Edna would be experienced by others who would occupy the house some fifty years later.