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FROM SÜDERAU TO CLEVELAND

So what is the true story of the Franklin Castle, and who was Hannes Tiedemann, really? Was he the villain who appears in every telling of this story? Was he a monster capable of murder? Perhaps there’s more to this story than any of us have heard. As with any legend, it’s best to start at the beginning.

This beginning takes place in the small village of Süderau, Steinburg district of Germany, some 4,025 miles from Cleveland. Back then, this part of Germany was the state of Holstein in the Kingdom of Prussia. Our tale starts on April 12, 1832, with the birth of a boy named Johannes Tiedemann. His father, Hans, owned a blacksmith’s shop located at Hof 887 Süderau, which had been purchased by his father, Claus, in 1799. Johannes’s mother was the daughter of wealthy landowners Leutje and Anna Schueder Mohr, and her first name was actually Wiebke, not Wiebeka.

Johannes was one of eight children born into this family. He had four elder siblings: Claus, born March 4, 1823; Anna, born April 24, 1825; Ludwig, born March 16, 1827; and Catharina, born March 24, 1829.

The family was blessed with three more children following the birth of Johannes: Johanna, born October 15, 1834; Rebecca Eliese, born March 30, 1837; and Lowiese, born on August 3, 1842. Sadly, both Anna and Johanna died in childhood.

The yuletide season of 1846 fell upon the family with somber tones, as the family patriarch’s health was deteriorating. Hans Tiedemann was ill for some time, and the blacksmith shop was now operated by his eldest son. The final hammer fell on Christmas Eve of that year. Hans Tiedemann was dead at forty-nine. The day after Christmas, he was interred in the local churchyard at St. Dionysius Areopagita Lutheran Church. Wiebke was now a widow and the children fatherless. The future looked uncertain.

Now also came a troubled time for the Kingdom of Prussia, as war was brewing with Denmark over control of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. The Tiedemanns needed to make a decision. With Hans dead and war on the horizon, it seemed a good time to pick up roots and seek better opportunities elsewhere. The boys were already skilled tradesmen—perhaps America could offer more. Claus carried the blacksmith shop along pretty well, while Ludwig was employed as a merchant and Johannes as a joiner, an archaic term for a carpenter.

In the spring of 1848, Claus Tiedemann sold the blacksmith shop and the family relocated to Altona, a village near Hamburg, where Wiebke applied for herself and six children to emigrate from Prussia to the United States. Their original destination was listed as Wisconsin, likely Calumet County where many natives of Schleswig-Holstein were then settling.

That May, the Tiedemanns boarded the Danish brig Manon with 111 other passengers and sailed for America. On the voyage, Wiebke Tiedemann’s eldest daughter, Catharina, met a man named Henning Bolten. Bolten, a manservant by trade, was also seeking a better life in America. As of late, he’d been burdened by a chronic cough and believed the travel would do him good. A relationship soon developed between Catharina and Henning.

The Manon docked in New York on May 27, 1848, and its passengers disembarked. There, the Tiedemanns were to continue to Wisconsin and began their journey west. They arrived in Cleveland, Ohio, in early June. Here they stopped. Perhaps this was as far as Henning Bolten was going and he invited them to stay with him. Perhaps this was as far as he could go and they decided to stay for him. This much is known. On June 18, 1848, just three weeks after arriving in the United States, Catharina Tiedemann married Henning Bolten in Cleveland.

As it turned out, Bolten’s chronic cough was due to consumption, known today as pulmonary tuberculosis. Before he set foot on the Manon, his days were numbered. Time ran out for Henning Bolten on July 8, 1848, as consumption took his life. He and Catharina had been married just twenty days. He was originally interred at Erie Street Cemetery in Cleveland, but his remains were moved in 1909 to an unmarked grave at Highland Park Cemetery.

Ship’s manifest from the Danish brig Manon showing the names of the Tiedemann family. Courtesy of the National Archives.

A few miles south of the city sat a parcel of land in Brooklyn Township, comprising 83.33 acres. On June 20, 1848, Wiebke Tiedemann purchased this parcel for $1,400. Much of this farm is now the city of Linndale, Ohio—specifically, the intersection of Bellaire Road and Memphis Avenue. Curiously enough, this transaction wasn’t recorded until July 8, the same day that Henning Bolten died. Most likely, the money came from Catharina, Henning Bolten’s sole heir. Immediately after making this purchase, Wiebke Tiedemann sold twenty-nine acres to her eldest son, Claus.

Seven acres of this land were plowed, and twenty-two were meadow. There were also two structures on the property, those being a barn and a small house. It was in that small house that the Tiedemanns began to make their way in America, the land of opportunity.