Haunted Franklin Castle

Perhaps it’s best to take a look back at the history of the Franklin Castle and, more specifically, the Tiedemanns. So far, we’ve learned about the early years of Hannes Tiedemann, his origins in Germany and what ultimately brought him to Cleveland. We’ve also learned about the Wolvertons, who built the first house to occupy the property.

Hannes Tiedemann began his career in Parma as a cooper’s apprentice but decided to change directions and entered the grocery trade. He married and became the father of six children, three of whom died as infants. Stories told about the deaths of these children all say that they died in 1883 under mysterious circumstances. As earlier stated, this was not the case. They died from fairly common causes over a ten-year period. It was the re-interment of these children in 1883, brought about by an act of kindness, that spawned legends of foul play.

Other tales have told us that Hannes was responsible for killing a servant girl and secret lover named Rachel, as well as a niece named Karen. Neither of these people ever existed. All of Hannes Tiedemann’s servants’ names were given in the preceding pages, and although he had many nieces, no one was named Karen. That name will, however, appear in future events. After conducting thorough searches of the county coroner’s records, the only person to die in the Franklin Castle during the Tiedemanns’ tenure was Hannes’s wife. His daughter Emma and two sons Albert and Ernst died in the first house on the site. Many people have speculated that Emma was insane or promiscuous and was dispatched by her father. This is completely absurd. We’ve read in letters written by Dora that Hannes Tiedemann was a loving father and wasn’t given to fits of rage. There should be no debate hereafter concerning the passing of Emma Tiedemann. Her cause of death was diabetes. This is reinforced by the fact that her younger sister suffered from the same affliction, which contributed to her death.

So what is the true story of the Tiedemanns and the early years of the Franklin Castle? It is the tragedy that ensued over the years. That is the true legacy of the Franklin Castle. Simply put, it is sadness. Hannes Tiedemann, though suffering through the loss of his family, still managed to become one of Cleveland’s most well-respected businessmen, yet the legacy that follows him is one of accusation that blames him for murdering people, some of whom never existed.

We also know when the Franklin Castle was built, despite what’s written on the transom window above the front door. We have an idea of what the house originally looked like, as well as who occupied the various rooms. After all, the people who dwelt within this house must have left something of an impression. We know also what function each room served. This would be reflected on the house in later years and contribute to the ways it’s changed between then and now.

One would think that the Tiedemann’s legacy of tragedy ends with the death of Hannes Tiedemann, but it doesn’t. In fact, when Hannes Tiedemann passed away, his death marked the beginning of a sad chain of events that plagued the family in the months to come.

On the morning of February 20, 1908, Gaston G. Allen, the husband of Hannes’s sister Catharina, passed away in his home at 1422 West 77th Street in Cleveland. Gaston was ill for ten days and finally succumbed to bronchial pneumonia. Services were held at Bigelow Lodge, after which he was buried with high Masonic honors at Monroe Street Cemetery in the same lot that once held the remains of the Tiedemanns’ three infant children. A large monument was placed at the site by his fellow Masons. Gaston G. Allen was eighty-six. Catharina followed him to the grave on August 2, 1912.

On March 26, Hannes’s sister Eliza Tiedemann Foote passed away. Like Gaston, she was ill for ten days, but like her brother Hannes, she died from arteriosclerosis. Funeral services were from her daughter’s home in Lakewood, after which she was interred beside her husband at Riverside Cemetery.

Just one week later, on April 2, Alice Tiedemann, the nineteen-year-old granddaughter of Hannes’s brother Claus, passed away and was buried at St. Joseph Cemetery on Woodland Avenue in Cleveland.

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Rebecca Eliese Tiedemann Foote. Courtesy of Dora L. Wiebenson.

Twenty-five days later, Hannes’s eldest brother, Claus, passed away. The death occurred at his family farm on Tiedeman Road in Brooklyn, Ohio. His cause of death was cerebral apoplexy, likely from a stroke. Funeral services were held at his residence, and interment was at Woodland Cemetery, located just up the road from where his granddaughter was buried only a few weeks earlier. Claus Tiedemann was eighty-five. His wife, Emielie Baumgart Tiedemann, joined him the following August.

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Edward Johannes Louis Wiebenson. Courtesy of Dora L. Wiebenson.

Then in late March 1910, Edward Wiebenson, Dora’s widowed husband, began experiencing pains in his lower abdomen. He’d just returned from a trip to Jamaica, where he hoped to recover from failing health. He was taken to Lakeside Hospital, diagnosed with appendicitis and received an appendectomy. Unfortunately, an infection set in. This infection developed into pneumonia, and Edward knew he had reached the end of his days and would soon be reunited with his beloved Dora.

Lying on his deathbed, Edward Wiebenson composed two letters. The first was of a personal nature and addressed to his eldest son, Edward Ralph Wiebenson. It read as follows:

Feeling that you should be prepared for the responsibility that may soon be thrust upon you, I will jot down a few thoughts about things, others may not be informed on. Mr. Cook will hand you a few letters from mother. They refer mainly to Walter—I concur in everything in those letters—Kindness and affection is what he wants and needs.

John is very ambitious and should not be hindered, but rather less in channels that will bring out all the good there is in him, but not along selfish lines.

Walter and Howard must understand that they must look out for themselves and not allow themselves to be worked—This may be good for you also—The main thing is that you must all be careful of your health—Exercise and outdoor life as much as possible. The kindness of friends and associates will always mean much for all—You know how upright mother was—It was her influence, advice and example that helped me in my battles, and it will help you all also—Think of her in all your acts in the future and you will not do anything you will afterwards regret. I do not mean, that you should not make any mistakes—We all have, and all must err—Through errors we should learn “Here are my don’ts.”

Never injure or harm the “other fellow” if it can be avoided in honour. If you have, apologize or “make good.”

Don’t let the “other fellow” do you, but do all the good you can in a sensible way.

Don’t try to accomplish too much. Many have ruined themselves and others through overconfidence. Lasting good and success generally comes through evolution. It does not pay to be too risky.

I do want you boys to stick together and “stick up” for each other always no matter what happens.

Be temperate in all things and don’t do any thing that will injure your health. If any weakness should develop in any one, be kind and true and do what mother would have done were she still here—When misunderstandings occur, as they are bound to, don’t let pride keep you from making full explanation and admitting an error—Don’t worry! Do your duty at all times and everything will come out all right in the end.

Cheer up, help each other all you can, always be happy and make others happy. It will lighten the load. If the worst should happen, I want everything carried on as quietly and simply as possible.

It was mother’s wish and is mine also that no monument be erected on our lot—Headstone same as mother’s is all—Don’t wear any mourning or put wreaths on the house or on the bank—Flowers on desk will be better than crape—Be brave, do your duty, stick together and all will be well.

PS Edward I want you to be sure that all is over before you allow them to bury me.

Edward Wiebenson expired from pneumonia during the early hours of April 1, 1910. He left behind four sons; the eldest, Edward, was seventeen. The youngest, Howard, was ten. As instructed in his letter, Edward Wiebenson was buried beneath a small headstone that matched his wife’s just a few feet north of the Tiedemann family plot at Riverside. Aside from being the president of the United Banking and Savings Company, he was also vice president of the Cleveland Pneumatic Tool Company, director of the Beckman Company and Cleveland National Bank, director and treasurer of the Stark Electric Railroad and trustee of the Public Library Sinking Fund and of Riverside Cemetery. Edward Johannes Louis Wiebenson was fifty.

Following the untimely death of Mr. Wiebenson, his boys continued to reside at their home on Franklin with their cousin, Lillie Wieland, and their mother’s former nurse, Agnes Payn, who was serving as their governess. Both had remained members of the household since Dora’s passing. Also residing in the home were Lillie’s sister, Anna Wieland, and a twenty-two-year-old domestic servant named Anna Goohs.

Edward, the eldest of the Wiebenson boys, was already attending preparatory school in Asheville, North Carolina. Also attending this school and living in the room beside him were his cousins Carl and Herbert Tiedemann. The following year, Herbert attended college at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where he resided with his mother.

On February 27, 1911, Ella Rauch Tiedemann sold Hannes’s former home on Lake Avenue in Lakewood, which had been willed to her and her children. It was Hannes’s wish that the property remain in the Tiedemann family as long as an heir of that name existed, though it was not construed as listing any attachment. In short, it was only a request and not a stipulation of the will. The home was sold to Mabelle and William James Hunkin.

The Hunkins changed the name of the Lakewood estate from Steinburg to Ledgewood soon after taking possession. They remained at that address until October 1914, when they sold it to Charles Wieber, a friend and neighbor of Hannes Tiedemann and vice president of the Rauch and Lang Carriage Company. The land was divided and sold off piece by piece. The section the house sat on was sold to an inventor and rubber industrialist named Lawrence Alonzo Subers.

Subers resided at the former Tiedemann home for ten years. On December 18, 1924, he sold the property to the Cleveland Trust Company, which transferred it to the Morris Arnoff Realty Company. Ultimately, a twenty-eight-suite apartment building was planned. At this, the Tiedemann estate was razed and in its place was built the Shoreham Apartment Building. The Shoreham had a short run as far as apartments go. In 1940, it was demolished to make way for the Lakecove Apartment Building, which graces the site today. Edgewater Drive cuts across what was once the long, green yard that extended to the lake.

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Left to right: Carl Hans Tiedemann, Herbert August Tiedemann and Edward Ralph Wiebenson at Asheville, North Carolina. Courtesy of Dora L. Wiebenson.

In 1914, Herbert Tiedemann and his mother took a trip to Europe. Herbert’s elder brother, Carl, went on to attend Cornell University, where he learned the wool manufacturer’s trade and later took over his grandfather Hannes’s former position as president of the Beckman Company in Cleveland, where his father, August, had been working at the time of his passing.

After returning from Europe, Herbert married a woman named Anna “Nan” O’Boyle of Philadelphia. It’s likely that he met her while attending school there. They ultimately moved to Atlantic City, New Jersey. Ella Rauch Tiedemann also found a spouse in an industrial mogul and inventor named John Tefft Clarke of Nebraska.

The four Wiebenson boys all married and had children of their own, and although they eventually lived in different parts of the country, they would stick together per their father’s dying wish. Ella Rauch Tiedemann’s second husband died on November 10, 1941, and was buried at Riverside Cemetery. That same day, August Tiedemann’s cremated remains were also interred. Ella lived to the grand age of eighty-six, and died at her residence in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on May 5, 1955.

Herbert Tiedemann and Nan O’Boyle were divorced during the early 1920s. Soon after, Herbert remarried. His second wife was Katherine Cartmell, who met Herbert while living in Asheville.

Herbert’s second marriage was also short-lived. By 1933, the couple had begun divorce proceeding and separated that May. Herbert moved to Florida, but the divorce was never finalized. Herbert August Tiedemann died in St. Petersburg, Florida, on March 7, 1934, from myocardial insufficiency. Like his father, he was forty-one at the time of his death. Of Hannes Tiedemann’s six grandsons, Herbert was the only one who didn’t have children.

Herbert’s brother Carl remained in the Cleveland area, living in Shaker Heights. Sadly, the stock market crash of 1929 forced the Beckman Company into liquidation. Even though his company was being sold off, Carl was assured a place in the industry and would always have a position in that field.

On the evening of December 16, 1929, while driving home from work across the old Clark-Pershing Avenue Bridge, Carl was involved in a minor auto accident in which he struck two oncoming vehicles. After apologizing to the other drivers, giving them his home address and assuring them that their damages would be taken care of, Carl Tiedemann walked to the side of the bridge, placed his hat on the hood of his car, waved briefly and leaped over the side. His body was discovered on the railroad tracks near the guard shack of the steel mill below. His cousin, Howard Wiebenson, identified him at the coroner’s office. The site of this tragedy was only a few blocks from the home that Carl had grown up in on Jennings Avenue. Funeral services were held on December 19, followed by interment at Riverside Cemetery. He was survived by his wife, May Glenn Tiedemann, and two children, Frances, age eight, and Carl Hans Tiedemann II, age three.

It was debated whether or not his death was a suicide. The day after the incident, an associate of Carl’s, Bruno Uhl, released a statement giving the opinion that the reason for Carl jumping was that he was disoriented from a severe blow to the head that occurred during the accident and he wasn’t aware of what he was doing. According to friends, he’d been quite happy as of late and had a wonderful home life with a loving family. No explanation could ever be determined as to why he jumped from that bridge. His mother returned to Cleveland many times over the years and, on many occasions, petitioned to have Carl’s cause of death changed, though she never succeeded. Even today, his death is still ruled a suicide. Carl Hans Tiedemann was thirty-eight.

So there it is. Legends say that Hannes Tiedemann died from a stoke while walking in the park, yet we know that he died at his home in Lakewood and not from a stroke. It’s also said that his marriage to his second wife, Henriette, ended in divorce and she inherited nothing. This is also untrue. She inherited $50,000, provided she make no claim against his estate, which she didn’t.

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Carl Hans Tiedemann, circa 1918. Courtesy of the National Archives.

Henriette remained in the Cleveland area after Hannes’s death. In 1909, she moved into an apartment at 4405 Franklin Avenue—just across from the Franklin Castle—but, more importantly, across from the Wiebenson house, where her step-grandchildren lived. She resided for a time with a friend named Ida Stuhr but ultimately moved to an apartment at 11119 Clifton Boulevard in 1926. This is her last known address. She likely returned to Germany and lived out her days in Hamburg. If this is true, it may also be unfortunate. Henriette was financially independent, thanks to her husband, and Germany was experiencing halcyon times. That would all change with World War II. In fact, tens of thousands of civilians in Hamburg were killed or wounded during Allied bombing missions. There is a grave in Hamburg’s Ohlsdorf Cemetery that contains one such bombing victim, who died in 1945. Her name is Henriette Tiedemann, but there are others with that name, so it might not be her.

The legend of Hannes Tiedemann says he outlived every member of his family. While it’s true he outlived his first wife and all six of his children, he was survived by six grandsons, and all but one had children. Hannes Tiedemann has many living descendants.