Journal Van Tries

                            Journal Van Tries  part 3




On my way home from the hardware store, I drove past the rather elegant looking old Van Druzul Mansion on Old Clifton Boulevard overlooking Lake Erie.  The fog seemed to develop around it and envelop the old carriage house on the property.  Wow! I thought to myself ,I could be living there one day if only I had paid attention to my older relatives, and the stories they told.

     Old Auntie K as all of the kids called her, was a fine elegantly dressed lady with sparkling jewelry
and a bright smile,  very caring, loving and very well educated, she called all of us her children.
Aunt K was childless losing her son Samuel  at the age of 6 when a horrible destructive fire struck bath house at Euclid Beach Park in Cleveland.   They said the body was so badly burned it was unrecognizable, her son had gone into the bath house a few minutes before the fire hit to use the restroom, the started 5 minutes after Samuel entered the bath house and quickly engulfed the entire structure.
      Firefighters on the scene extinguished the blaze within 45 minutes, upon entering all they found were the charred remains of what appeared to be the body of a small child.  Aunt K was devastated by the tragedy and closed herself up in the mansion for several weeks.   In September of 1966 two months after the death of Samuel, Aunt K would once again experience tragedy when her husband of 25 years Wilhelm Van Druzul was mysteriously murdered outside of Terminal Station on Euclid Ave in downtown Cleveland while waiting for a train. Authorities at the scene discovered a tarot card next to his body no robbery was involved.

      As I got out of my car to walk into the cottage my cell phone rang, it was my cousin Michael Van Tries calling to tell me he would be arriving shortly and would be staying with me.   That's fine I thought we have a lot of catching up to do as we haven't seen each other in 5 years.   I told him I had just driven past the old place on Clifton and informed him of the neighborhood meeting being held that night.   I'm going with you he said, I want to see these people and hear what they have to say.
You can't cause problems mike I said, just keep your cool and act like you don't know anything.

     I walked into the cottage and sat down on the couch, I reached over to the antique end table next to the couch and placed my cell phone on it, ah; I chuckled there it was the letter/ western union telegram from a few days earlier.  Oh I remember moving day, leaving Lewistown Pennsylvania to come back home to Cleveland Ohio , back to my roots.  I had left Cleveland along with the rest of the family in 1976 after the mysterious and untimely death of old Aunt K.

     After Aunt Ks death, the old Van Druzul mansion was boarded up, the old carriage house was left alone as it served as housing for the caretakers of the property.  I picked up the telegram which was put inside of another envelope with a letter explaining to me that this to be delivered to myself and all remaining family of Katherine Van Druzul  34 years after her death.  How strange I thought ,
a summons from the grave, all my cousins, all around the same age male and female suddenly summoned back to Cleveland from a request from the grave of Aunt K.

    The summons appears to be for a reading of a second part to Aunt Ks will, a second section of the will to be read 34 years after her death.  Mike and I arrived at the meeting at 8:10 pm, at the old lantern café and tavern built in the 1840s, near the old hardware store, but closer to the lakefront.
 Wow it sure is crowded here mike said to me, yes very crowded I replied. 

      Ah here we go I said to mike, it's the sheriff's deputy.   Good evening Mr. Knepp he said, good evening I replied back to him.
Who is your friend? he asked  just then my cousin started to talk  hi i'm Mike Van...... this is my cousin I interrupted Mike Knepp .  A cousin? the deputy said now that is rather interesting. And you sir I said, what is your name? I never did get it .   No you didn't did you he replied ; staring at the both of us.   No sorry , I didn't what was it again I asked.   Hmm he chuckled, the names Miller, Samuel Miller.

      After giving his name he walked away, my cousin then grabbed me by the arm and pulled me aside, Knepp? he asked that was Aunt Ks mothers name, you know you're a Van Tries! he said angrily, we all take the name Van Tries when we turn 18 its a tradition.   Are you nuts! I shot back at him, you tell them you're a Van Tries and someone will connect the name with Van Druzul.

       Good evening said a voice from behind us, I turned around and it was the old man from the hardware store.  Good evening I replied back to him.  This is my cousin I said introducing him to the old man as Michael Knepp.  Good evening Michael, I'm Dr. Kilborne retired dentist and neighborhood historian.  Oh responded Michael an historian.  Unbeknownst to both of us we were standing under a picture of a courtroom with three judges one of which looked just like Michael, it was a picture of Gustaf Karl Van Druzul the son of Elizabeth Van Tries and Duncan Van Druzul
the other judge which I resembled would be my great grandfather Alexander Yohan Van Druzul.

       As the doctor looked at the picture he just traveled of in his conversation, his eyes came back to glance upon our faces, we glanced back at him and he finished his conversation and started walking away, just as he was walking away, he paused for a moment and looked back at us and said
you know, there's something strange going on here and I have a feeling you two know more than I,
having said that the doctor walked away.

      Mike and I wandered around the tavern talking with the different people there, at about 8:30 a woman arrived carrying a book .  I knew that book, a book that was stolen from the shoreway printing company on Madison Ave in Cleveland in December of 2012.   Having learned of this book printed in 1976 but never released, I immediately started to make inquiries , I found out that 500 of these books had been printed and stored in the back of the print shop.

      The books were bound in soft leather and shrink wrapped for their protection, they were later placed on a table to be priced and put out on the shelves for sale.  In July of 1976 a terrible storm hit the city of Cleveland causing damage to the shoreway printing property.  The company was then closed and boarded up.  In December of 2012 upon hearing of the discovery of this book I had made arrangements to purchase all 500 books for $10,000.00.    I was told that they would have liked to sell the books to me, but the building with all its contents had gone up for sheriffs sale and the bank had an offer of $25,000.00 for it.

        I needed those books, I called a friend of mine at Cleveland Trust National Bank, he told me there was 24 hours left to place a bid on the property.  At that time I then placed my bid of $200,000.00 on the property.  I was successful in acquiring this property and then had it boarded up and padlocked and had all but one book for myself burned and completely destroyed.



Journal Van Tries, a work of fiction by Tim R. Francis     Lorain, Ohio

END JOURNAL VAN TRIES PART 3  TUNE IN SUNDAY SEPT. 22ND
SAME VAN TRIES TIME SAME VAN TRIES CHANNEL FOR PART FOUR    3PM