Published by Haunted America
A Division of The History Press
Charleston, SC 29403
www.historypress.net
Copyright 2015 by Chuck L. Gove and Beth A. Richards
All rights reserved
Front cover: David Grim, via Flickr.
First published 2015
e-book edition 2015
ISBN 978.1.62585.486.5
Library of Congress control number: 2015943188
print edition ISBN 978.1.62619.972.9
Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the authors or The History Press. The authors and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
We would like to dedicate this book to all the guests we have had on our Haunted Cleveland Ghost Tours over the years. We are grateful for the stories they have shared with us and the pictures they swore they would send us!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank our families for their support during this project and all the years of tours. We especially want to thank our spouses, Rita and Paul, for never minding our Friday nights together and all the phone calls and texts.
An enormous thank-you has to go out to all the people who have helped us out with this book. Without their help, time and stories, this wouldnt have been possible: Tim Leslie and Tim Daley from Soldiers and Sailors Monument, Tom Armelli and Bob Cermac and the board of trustees from the Cleveland Police Museum, Gregory Kapcar from Riverside Cemetery, Steve Korpos and Charlie Sedgley from Midwest Railway Preservation Society, Kristin Roediger from Grays Armory, Paul Farace from the USS Cod and Carol Lee Vella, retired from Playhouse Square.
Thank you to the Cleveland Public Library Photo Collection for some great photos and guidance.
Thank you to all our guests who shared stories with us over the years, and thank you to our best guests ever, Karen Guder and Harold Hileman, for coming back year after year and telling us its the best tour ever!
Thank you to Beths boss, Mary Lou Mellinger, for all the time off to work on this and her proofreading skills. Any mistakes I may have made were certainly not her fault!
Thank you to the guys from A&E for their help over the years, and a special shout out to Joel Craig for his photos.
Thank you to Bonnie Brihan for freezing to death with us in pursuit of a good picture.
And finally, thank you Krista for your help, guidance and patience through this process.
INTRODUCTION
I have always believed in ghosts, and Chuck has always loved Halloween. We both love Cleveland history, so this was a match made inwell, I would say heaven, but I guess another world seems more appropriate. We have over the years combined all these things and shown our tour guests the creepy side of Cleveland.
Since its founding, Cleveland has gone through many changes and many nicknames. We have been the Best Location in the Nation down to the Mistake on the Lake. But Cleveland is bringing itself back and building itself into a city to be reckoned with again.
Moses Cleaveland and his surveyors arrived at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River on July 22, 1796, and decided this was the perfect location for the capitol city of the Connecticut Western Reserve. In October of that same year, Moses Cleaveland returned to Connecticut and never returned to the settlement that he established and that his surveyors subsequently named after him.
There were only three original settlers who stayed in Cleveland through that first winter. Two of them were Job Phelps Stiles and his wife, Tabitha. Tabitha gave birth to their son, Charles, and they lived at Lot 53, which is now the corner of Superior Avenue and West Third Street. They later moved to higher ground to escape malaria.
Cleveland was incorporated on December 23, 1814, and Lorenzo Carter, one of the early settlers, made Cleveland a solid trading post. He was also one of Clevelands first peace officers.
In 1831, the spelling of the name of the city was changed from Cleaveland to Cleveland. An early newspaper needed to drop the A so the name would fit on its masthead. The spelling stuck; the newspaper did not.
In 1822, John Willey came to Cleveland, where he established himself and wrote the Cleveland Municipal Charter. He was elected the first mayor of the city and served for two terms.
The city really started to grow in 1832 with the completion of the Ohio and Erie Canal. This allowed the city to prosper due to an easier system of trade and import and export of items.
When the Civil War finally broke out, it brought an economic boon to Cleveland. In 1863, 22 percent of the navy ships built for use on the Great Lakes were made here in Cleveland, and by 1865, that percentage grew to a whopping 44 percent. The Civil War launched Cleveland as a major manufacturing city, and by 1870, the citys population had doubled.
In 1920, Cleveland was the fifth largest city in the United States, and the Cleveland Indians defeated the Brooklyn Robins in the World Series. In 1927, the Van Swerigen brothers began construction on the Terminal Tower to increase train travel into the city.
When Prohibition took effect in Cleveland, it brought about the rise of Clevelands organized crime syndicate. The Sugar War started, and the Mayfield Road Mob came out on top as the citys biggest bootlegging operation.
The Great Depression took its toll on Cleveland, and mob activity increased throughout the city. At this time, Mayor Harold Burton brought in Eliot Ness, of Chicago fame, to be the citys new safety director. He felt Ness could clean up the city. Eliot Ness managed to bring illegal activity down 38 percent in a year.
Nesss career in Cleveland was brought to a halt by the Torso Murders. He left Cleveland after this but returned to run for mayor in 1947, but he was defeated by Thomas Burke. People said if he had run sooner, he would have won, but his failure in solving the Torso Murders made him lose the publics trust.
Cleveland became known as the Best Location in the Nation until 1969, when the Cuyahoga River caught on fire, earning Cleveland the nickname the Mistake on the Lake.
In the 1970s, Cleveland was opened to more ridicule with the election of Mayor Dennis Kuchinich, the boy mayor. Under Kuchinichs leadership, Cleveland became the first major American city since the Great Depression to default on its financial obligations.
When George Voinovich became mayor, he brought the city out of financial ruin and started a major revitalization of the city.
Cleveland is undergoing a renaissance right now, becoming a must-see city. For the reason behind this, I believe we have to look at Clevelands history and realize Cleveland has always been a city filled with can-do people who believe in the city and its potential.
Through the years, we have been able to collect story after story and haunted location after haunted location here in Cleveland and share them with Clevelanders and visitors to the city as well. We hope to give them a glimpse into the fascinating history our city has to offer.
