*****************************
This site is for an educational purpose. Anyone who uses information without permission may be subject to prosecution!This information is Copyright Protected please see below for information on the author to obtain permission to use this information. Thank you!©
***********************These are the FACTS about the Franklin Castle and its first resident. Everything that you have read about Tiedemann ownership is correct to the best of my knowledge. I'm certain that many aspects of it may seem boring and only interesting to anyone who's really into genealogy and early Cleveland, Ohio History, but it is all part of the haunted history, tragedy and life of a fascinating family who arrived in this country as immigrants only to leave an enduring American legacy to succeeding generations. The story begins in the early summer of 1848. In May of that year a 16 year old boy named Hannes Tiedemann arrives in New York with his 51 year old mother Wiebka (pronounced Veebkah), his 25 year old brother Claus, 21 year old brother Ludwig and their sisters, 19 year old Catharina, 11 tear old Rebecca Eliese, and Lowiese who is only 6. They leave behind them, their family farm in Süderau, Prussia. Their father, Hans Tiedemann, who was the village blacksmith, passed away two years earlier on Christmas Eve of 1846.
Claus Tiedemann purchases adjoining farmlands located in the townships of Brooklyn and Rockport, Ohio. The entire Tiedemann family settles here except for Ludwig who continues on and settles in Defiance where he marries and raises a family. Tiedeman Rd. in that city is named after him, just as Tiedeman Rd. in Brooklyn is named after Claus.Catharina Tiedemann marries a man from New York named Gaston G. Allen on Oct. 31, 1852. Gaston works as a ship's carpenter, but would be remembered most as being a prominent Cleveland Mason.
Hannes takes an apprenticeship around 1850 in Royalton, Ohio as a cooper (or barrel maker). He then relocates to Cleveland around 1855, finding employment as a clerk with the wholesale grocery firm of Babcock and Hurd, then located at No. 146 Water Street (now West 9th Street). Hannes boards at a rooming house called the Bennett Forest City House located on Cleveland's Public Square (now the site of the Renaissance Hotel). In the spring of 1862, Hannes Tiedemann returns to Süderau and marries his first, Louise Höck. Shortly after their return, they move into a home at 112 Hanover Street (now West 28th) located on the old Franklin Circle. The following year (1863) Hannes enters into a partnership with Bavarian-born immigrant John Christian Weideman, whom he had met when Weideman was working for a rival grocery firm adjacent to Babcock and Hurd called Edwards and Idings. The new venture would be called Weideman and Tiedemann, Wholesale Liquor and Grocers and operated out of No. 30 Merwin Street.
That June, Hannes and Louise Tiedemann had their first child, a girl named Wilhelmine Hanna. Sadly, she would die from consumption only two months later and is interred in Cleveland's Monroe Street Cemetery. The following year, they would have their second, a boy, named August Johannes. Another child, a daughter whom they named Emma, followed in 1865. In October of that year, the growing Tiedemann family moves from the Hanover Street house to a home located at 279 Franklin Street. City rezoning changes the address several times to 275, 285 and 281. In 1869 the address settles at 283 and stays there for many years to come. In 1907, a final redistricting changes the home's address to 4308 Franklin, which it remains to this day. In December of 1869 a fourth child is born to the Tiedemanns, a boy whom they name Ernst. Tragically, on July 10th of the following year, baby Ernst succumbs to brain fever (meningitis) and is laid to rest beside his infant sister, Wilhelmine. In 1871, another child, the Tiedemann's fifth, is born: a daughter named Dora Louise. A sixth and final child, a son named Albert, is born in 1873 but also died in infancy, joining his siblings in Monroe Street. Around this time, Hannes sells his interests in Weideman and Tiedemann, but keeps his business offices in the Weideman building. In late 1880, Tiedemann, now retired from the grocery industry but listed in the city directories as a capitalist, has two houses built. The first was located at 12016 Lake Avenue in the Rockport hamlet of Lakewood. Tiedemann named this house Steinburg which in English translates to "Stone Castle". The house, though quite beautiful, was not constructed of stone, nor did it resemble a castle, although it was four stories high and built in the half-timbered English Tudor-revival style popular at that time. It was the second home, however, that history would name "The Franklin Castle" after the road on which it was built and because it does, in fact, resemble a castle in many ways.
Picture is owned and copyright protected by Paul seek permission for useage or rights.Over the years some have speculated that Tiedemann merely commissioned the modification of an existing structure at the Franklin Street site while others believe that the structure standing on the Franklin Street lot prior to 1881 was demolished by builders to make way for construction of the Tiedemann home, however there is some documentation that may prove otherwise.
On January 16, 1881, 15-year-old Emma Tiedemann dies of complications from sugar diabetes. Services are held from the family home on Franklin Street and she is the first of the Tiedemanns to be buried in the new family plot at Riverside Cemetery, when she is finally interred on March 18th of that year after a two-month wait for the cemetery ground to thaw sufficiently to receive burials. Emma was joined at Riverside by Hannes mother, Wiebka, who died of natural causes in April 1881. In 1883, they would be reunited with the other deceased Tiedemann children when Hannes orders the removal of their remains to the new family plot at Riverside.
(Picture copyright protection Property belongs to Paul)It was around the early 1880's that Hannes first began his banking interests. He would co-found many financial institutions throughout the city; the most prominent being The United Savings and Banking Co. It would be here that he would build his financial success and become one of Cleveland's wealthiest financiers.
In 1884, two men arrived in Cleveland from Prussia. They were Johannes and Ludwig Tiedemann, sons of Heinrich Tiedemann; Hannes cousin. Shortly after arrival, Ludwig took ill with brain fever. He was admitted to Cleveland City Infirmary (now Cleveland Metro Hospital) where he resided until his death on July 6th, 1886 at the age of 30. He is buried in the family plot at Riverside. Johannes (or John as he was called in the U.S.) stayed with the family at the Franklin Castle until 1890 when he returned to Prussia.On June 20, 1889, August Tiedemann married Helena Elizabeth Rauch (or Ella) as she was more commonly known. She was the daughter of Marie Strebel and Charles Rauch, Owner of the Rauch and Lang Carriage Company who would later build the Rauch and Lang Brougham and Club Roadster, two of the most sought after automobiles by collectors. August would work for this company from 1890 to 1892. He and Ella had two children: Carl Hannes (1890 - 1929) and Herbert August Tiedemann (1892 - 1934). Carl would eventually marry a woman named May Glenn and have two children, Frances and Carl. Herbert would never marry; he died in St. Petersburg, Florida.
August was employed from 1892 till 1899 by the Phoenix Brewing Company located on the corner of Columbus and Willey Ave. in Cleveland. St. Wendelin's Church currently sits on the site. He would work briefly at Langenau Manufacturing and finally at the Beckman Company, a wool manufacturing company co-founded by his father, until his death on April 23, 1906 from cerebral "lelerosis". Meanwhile his sister, Dora Louise Tiedemann, married a man from Holstein, Prussia named Edward J. L. Wiebenson who worked as a teller at Hannes Tiedemann's bank. They were married on May 23, 1891 and would have five children Edward R. Wiebenson (1892 - 1970), Walter E. (1896 - 1992), Albert A. (1896 - 1896), John J. (1897 - 1969), and Howard C. (1899 - 1969). The Wiebenson family lived briefly at 71 McLean St. and later at 4304 Franklin Ave. (site of the former home of John C. Weideman... it's the gray frame house standing next to the castle). Dora Louise Wiebenson would die from accidental injuries sustained from a fall while seeking treatment for her diabetes in Frankfurt-on-Main, Germany on December 4, 1906; less than 8 months after her brother, August. Louise Tiedemann, Hannes wife, passed away from liver trouble on March 28, 1895. Services were held in the front parlor at the home on Franklin. She was then buried at Riverside Cemetery. After his wife's death, Hannes traveled to Prussia where he met a woman named Henriett. In 1896, the two were married and returned to the U.S. The Franklin Castle was ultimately sold to the Muhlhauser family in 1897 (not 1895 as previously believed). Hannes and Henriette moved into Steinberg in Lakewood. In January of 1907, Hannes Tiedemann retired as president of the United Savings and Banking Co. of Cleveland. His son-in-law, Edward J. L. Wiebenson succeeded him as president. In February, Hannes changed his last will and testament (his daughter no longer being alive). He left his fortune, and it was quite extensive, to his daughter-in-law, son-in-law, his "hired man" of 23 years service Heinrich (Henry) Buehning, a west side home for the elderly, and a trust fund for his six grand-children. His wife, Henriette, inherited $50,000 provided she make no further claim against his estate. One specific item listed in the will was that Steinberg was to always be called such and was also to always remain in the family Tiedemann (referring to Carl or Herbert or any descendants thereof). On January 16, 1908, Hannes Tiedemann suffered a physical breakdown. He had been ill for some time, suffering from Arterial Sclerosis (hardening of the arteries). Many stories claim that he died suddenly from a stroke while strolling through Lakewood Park on a cold Sunday morning, but this is not true. He actually fell ill while working at his bank that previous Friday. In all, he was sick for three days and passed away on Sunday, January 19th, 1908 at Steinberg and was buried from McGorray Funeral Home in Lakewood. He was interred at Riverside Cemetery on Wednesday morning, January 22, 1908. On February 20, 1908 Gaston G. Allen died from pneumonia. He was interred at Monroe Street Cemetery in the plot where the Tiedemann children were originally buried. There is a Masonic Lodge now named in his honor. On April 27, 1908 Claus Tiedemann passed away. On August 2, 1909 Emielie Tiedemann, Claus' wife, died from cancer. She and Claus are buried at Woodland Cemetery on Cleveland's east side. Edward Wiebenson died from appendicitis on April 1, 1910 and was buried at Riverside beside his beloved wife, Dora. Catharina L. (Tiedemann) Allen died August 2, 1912. Henriette M. Tiedemann died around 1926. Ella Rauch sold Steinberg in 1915 to William J. Hunkin, thus breaking the last wishes of Hannes Tiedemann that it remain in the family; Hunkin tore it down a few years after the purchase. An apartment complex named Lake Cove currently stands where the old building once stood. Ella Rauch remarried a man named John T. Clarke in 1917. He died on November 10, 1941. At his burial, Ella Rauch had August's cremated remains interred beside her son Herbert. Ella died from heart disease in Atlantic City, New Jersey on May 5, 1955. She is buried between her two late husbands. And that is the history of Hannes Tiedemann and the early years of the Franklin Castle. Was Hannes Tiedemann an evil man: a monster... wicked and overbearing? I don't know. Honestly, he seems more like a humanitarian than anything else. He did leave a sizable amount to a retirement home when he died. He would also house newly arrived immigrants at the castle as well as at Steinberg, until they could find gainful employment. I've never found anything pointing to him committing murder. That story comes from a psychic named Eleanora Bernstein who briefly stayed at the castle in early 1980 who had the intentions of writing a novel about Hannes Tiedemann. There was no murdered sister named Rachel and no illegitimate daughter named Karen who hung herself. Despite popular myth, Hannes Tiedemann does have living descendants.This brief history of the first ownership of the Franklin Castle was written by William Krejci and first appeared on HauntedAmericaTours.com in 2006. Used by permission of the author. Any unauthorized reproduction of any or all parts herein constitutes a breach of U.S. and international copyright law.© Violators will be prosecuted.
