Beth A. Richards - The Ghostly Tales of Cleveland

Published by Arcadia Childrens Books
A Division of Arcadia Publishing
Charleston, SC
www.arcadiapublishing.com

Copyright 2021 by Arcadia Childrens Books
All rights reserved

Spooky America is a trademark of Arcadia Publishing, Inc.

First published 2021
E-Book edition 2021

ISBN 978-1-43967-339-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021938344

Print edition ISBN 978-1-4671-9803-5

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 author or Arcadia Publishing. The author and Arcadia Publishing disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

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All images courtesy of Shutterstock.com; p. 40 Nina Alizada/Shutterstock.com; p. 54 Barbara Kalbfleisch/Shutterstock.com; p. 64 Kenneth Sponsler/Shutterstock.com; p. 100 Showcase Imaging/Shutterstock.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS & MAP KEY

Introduction

Hopefully you have heard of Cleveland, Ohio. It is the second largest city in Ohio and has the second largest theater district in the country (after New York City), as well as world-renowned museums. If youre a sports fan, you know its home to the Browns football team, the Cavaliers basketball team, and the (soon to be renamed) Indians baseball team. And Cleveland has a rich history that has earned the city the nickname, the Best Location in the Nation.

Moses Cleaveland and his team of surveyors arrived at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River on July 22, 1796. They established a settlement there and named it after their leader. Moses went back to his home in Connecticut and never returned to the settlement that was named after him. The city of Cleveland was incorporated December 23, 1814, and early settler Lorenzo Carter made Cleveland a trading post and became one of the citys first policemen. (Fun fact: the original spelling of Cleveland was Cleaveland, but in 1831, a newspaper dropped the a so it fit on the page better. The name stuck, but the newspaper didnt.

Today, Cleveland is a must-see city, not only due to its incredible history, but also because of all the incredible things you can see and do there. And that just happens to include ghosts. Bet you didnt know that one of the most awesome things about Cleveland is our ghosts! And being a tour guide for Haunted Cleveland Ghost Tours means that Ive had the pleasure (and the fright) of meeting some of the citys ghosts.

Franklin Castle

Looming eerily over Franklin Boulevard on Clevelands west side is a home called Franklin Castle. Considered the most haunted house in Cleveland, it was built for Hannes Tiedemann and his family. Construction started on this massive gray sandstone four-story home in 1881 and was finished between late 1882 and early 1883. The house has a tower, a fourth-floor ballroom, a wine cellar, and about thirty rooms. It was home to Hannes, his wife Luise, and their children. Hanness mother also stayed with the family for long periods of time.

Hannes and Luise had a son and daughter, August and Emma, and they had lost three other children who died shortly after they were born. The family enjoyed the first few years in the home, but then tragedy struck. In 1891, when she was 15 years old, Emma died from complications from diabetes, and then Hanness mother passed away not long after that. Its said that Luise Tiedemann began to redecorate the house to cheer herself up after these sad events. Legend has it that this is when the hidden rooms and secret passages were added to the home.

There were a lot of rumors about Hannes Tiedemann. One of the stories claims that he became angry with one of his servants, a woman named Rachel, and he strangled her to death in the tower room. Later occupants of the house reported hearing the sound of a woman choking in the upstairs tower room, and many people claim they have seen a woman in black standing at the window in that room.

Hannes is also rumored to have killed a girl in the ballroom, and there are many reports of supernatural things happening in that space. One woman reported that when she was at the top of the stairs leaving the ballroom, something pushed her from behind; lucky for her, she was holding the handrail.

Luise passed away in 1895. Years later, a newspaper delivery boy was delivering the morning paper to Franklin Castle. It was very early and still dark as he opened the gate and started to walk up the front walk. As he reached the front door, a woman in a white dress floated through it. The paperboy stopped dead in his tracks and watched her drift past him and down the front walk, where she disappeared in front of his eyes. When he could finally move, he ran all the way home and quit his paper route that day. Most people think that the woman in white is the ghost of Luise Tiedemann.

Hannes sold the house in 1896, and the creepy stories stopped for a while, until the Romano family bought the house in 1968. They planned to turn it into a bed and breakfastand thats when the ghostly activity started up again. The Romano kids asked their mom if they could take cookies to the little girl upstairs crying; they said she was wearing an old-fashioned dress and seemed really sad. Mrs. Dolores Romano heard organ music playing in the housethe organ had been taken out of the house years earlier. She also heard voices coming from empty rooms, perhaps paranormal echoes of the past. The story goes that the Romano family moved out of Franklin Castle because their priest was afraid that something in the house was going to hurt them.

Around 1975, a local radio host, John Webster, came to the castle to do a special Halloween radio show. When he went upstairs, his tape recorder was ripped off his shoulder and thrown down the stairs. After the broadcast, he listened to the play back of the show. He was terrified to hear a sinister laugh in the backgroundthe laugh could only be heard on the recording.

I cant tell you if all these stories are true, but I can tell you about my personal ghostly experiences at Franklin Castle. One year, my Haunted Cleveland partner Chuck and I were invited by the caretaker to spend the night before Halloween and do a live radio show from the castle. The night started out great. We filmed all over the castle and finally, Chuck, the caretaker, and I settled down for the night in the front room. Chuck was the last to fall asleep. He had just dozed off when he heard two people talking right outside the room. He thought we had woken up and got up to see what we were doing. To his surprise, the two of us were still asleep. He did the most sensible thing he could think of: he laid back down and pulled the blanket over his head! I guess that is one way to hide from ghosts!