Hi, how goes it? It’s been a while since we last chatted. I’m still researching a bunch of questions in Tammen world and beyond, but I thought…what the hey? Why not provide you with an update regarding a relatively small question to help kick off the weekend? Why not rule out one possible theory in a vexingly long list of them?
This post has to do with Dorothy Craig, the long-time Champion Paper and Fibre employee who’d written a check to Ron Tammen shortly before he disappeared. We don’t know the date of the check. We don’t know the amount of the check. Most significantly, we don’t know why the check was written. However, what we can be sure of is that a representative of Oxford National Bank had told Carl Knox about said check and with that new bit of intel, Carl had scribbled the following question at the top of the ridiculously small notepad that he was using to conduct his investigation: “Where was it cashed?”
Those four words told us that Dorothy had written the check to Ron and not the other way around. So as mad as I am at Carl for not providing any more of the details that he’d no doubt been hearing on the other end of the phone line, he at least managed to put that into writing. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: thanks, Carl!
When I presented this information for the first time in April 2023, a few of us threw out some possible reasons for the check, and one of the more popular ideas was that perhaps Dorothy had hired Ron and a few of his musician friends for a gig—maybe she’d rented out a hall for a bash she was throwing or perhaps she hired them for a church thing. Because that was something else we’d learned about Dorothy—in addition to her family and her friends and her job at Champion Paper, she was all about her church.
Dorothy and her husband Henry were members of the St. Paul Evangelical and Reformed Church, located on Campbell Avenue, between North 7th and 8th Streets, in Hamilton. (The building’s still there, but it’s now being used by another congregation.) But Dorothy was no “strictly Sundays” kind of congregant. Church was front and center in her life, and she was called upon frequently to serve.
In 1950, Dorothy was president of their adult Bible study group, which also hosted fundraisers to help pay for the church’s Sunday school equipment and building repairs. For one of the fundraisers, she oversaw the publication of a church cookbook, which couldn’t have been easy, what with her needing to corral content providers, dole out tasks, and make sure deadlines were being met—not to mention, after it was in print, having to get out there and sell sell sell. She planned the group’s annual picnic too. In February of 1953, not long before she wrote the check to Ron, she was elected to the church’s Board of Trustees.
The two take-homes from that previous paragraph are: 1) Dorothy Craig helped write a church cookbook in 1950, and if you happen to see it on eBay or anywhere else, could you pulleeeze let me know so that I can buy it and post it on this website?; and 2) People who attended St. Paul would have known Dorothy Craig quite well—so well, in fact, that many probably called her by her nickname…Dot.
If you’re thinking that that might be how Ron would have known Dorothy, alas, no. I’m not sure how much church Ron attended, but when he did attend, he went to the Presbyterian church in Oxford.
But there was someone else who attended St. Paul—someone whom Dorothy would have been far more inclined to contact if she ever needed to book a band. That person was Franz E. Klaber, a German immigrant who’d made a very big name for himself in Hamilton and throughout the region with his eight-piece Franz Klaber Orchestra. Their forte was polkas and other German folk music, but Franz wasn’t afraid to try other genres too.
The Klaber family had been members of St. Paul beginning at least in the late 1930s, and the family remained members after Franz Sr. passed away in 1963. Of course they’d play for church events. In fact, Franz and his family played at the St. Paul Church lawn social in August 1953. Therefore, hiring a band would have been a no-brainer for Dorothy Craig. I’m quite sure that Franz would be the first person she would’ve asked. To be honest, I think he would have been hurt if she hadn’t.
Franz Klaber’s sons, daughter, grandchildren, and now great-grandchildren are active in the band—now known as the Klaberheads. You can listen to them here. https://youtu.be/PTCO3isgPv8
And where does that leave us regarding Ron Tammen? We still don’t know how a middle-aged woman whose life revolved around family, church, and work at a paper mill 12 miles from Oxford would have intersected with a sophomore business major who was about to become one of the biggest Ohio mysteries of the century.
Nevertheless, this helps us narrow our options with regards to how they might have met. Our only problem is that the one explanation that seemed most feasible of all—the explanation that seemed most reasonable and logical—is no longer on the table.
Hi, long time lurker, first time caller. Late to this, but while I find Dorothy and her check interesting, I’m finding your rule out theory not very convincing.
“Franz E. Klaber, a German immigrant who’d made a very big name for himself in Hamilton and throughout the region with his eight-piece Franz Klaber Orchestra. ”
That seems to be a self-evident reason for why Dorothy may have contacted an outside band – if the Klabers were regionally known, then they may have already been booked for a particular date.
I don’t really have a strong opinion one way or the other, but the possibility of a conflicting schedule was the first thing that popped into mind. I wonder if the Klaberheads have records of bookings back then.
Welcome, LTLFTC! Thanks so much for your comment. So…you’re right–Franz Klaber et al might have been already booked if Dorothy happened to be hiring a band around the time Ron disappeared. I’ve checked the two newspaper databases that I subscribe to and couldn’t find anything, but that still doesn’t give us 100% ironclad proof that the Klabers weren’t playing somewhere else on a night that Dorothy *might* have been hiring a band close to the time that Ron disappeared. If the event was important enough, I believe that Dorothy would have booked them well in advance, since she strikes me as that kind of person. But, again, not ironclad proof. To be honest, this was some additional intel about Dorothy that I thought added to the mystery of why she’d written that check. But it’s not the biggest issue, so it’s not at the top of my priority list. The biggest stumper is why Dorothy would have had a checking account with Oxford National Bank in the first place. There was absolutely no reason for her to have that checking account, since Hamilton had all kinds of banks—including Champion Paper’s Chaco Credit Union—that would have been far more convenient for her. It would have been extremely unusual for her to open an account one town over. So yeah, there might have been a perfectly mundane reason for that check—a gig, music lessons, tutoring, etc. But the fact that the check was written on Oxford National Bank makes it that much more inexplicable.
Just pondering……are you assuming Dorothy wrote a personal check? I mean, it’d jack up the intrigue level by magnitudes if she had access to a checking account at Champion Paper, and that was the source of the check, you know? It would be interesting, though less intriguing, if she wrote a check from St. Paul’s account.
So…I try very hard not to assume 😊, but between you, me, the fencepost, and everyone else who’s reading this, my current hypothesis is that the check was either her personal check or perhaps a Champion check that she was authorized to sign. Either way, it’s very weird that it would be drawn on Oxford National Bank, when Hamilton had perfectly nice banks that were much closer, including Champion’s credit union, Chaco. I doubt that it was a check from St. Paul’s, especially now that we know that she wouldn’t have hired him to play at an event. Part 2 of my hypothesis is that the company was using her as a go-between to fund something that Ron was involved with at the university and the use of the Oxford National Bank helped provide additional cover.
Incidentally, today I found another tie between Champion Paper and Miami University. It’s rather jaw-dropping–at least it made my jaw drop. I’m doing more digging, but should be able to report on it relatively soon.
Only you could have me searching online for a circa 1950 church cookbook.
😁
St Paul UCC merged with Faith UCC in the late 1970’s Faith left the UCC denomination and is an active church in the Hamilton community as Faith Church on Hamilton-Milllville Rd., The Klaber family and the Craig family remain close. I know that Dorothy purchased a Valiant from Geo Kyger Auto in Oxford oddly, the window sheet didn’t have any date for the car. The family had the strong impression that Dorothy was the unofficial manager of Knightsbridge, what was the name of Champion offices in Hamilton.
Thank you, Craig! Very, very interesting. I’d never heard about Knightsbridge. Would you be willing to talk by phone? If so, let me know, and I’ll send an email to pin down a day and time. Thanks again 🙏
Does St. Paul’s Church still exist at all, at a different location? Or is there a place their old records would have been archived? Is there any way of tracking down old members? They’d have had to be pretty young at the time. But maybe there is some way of finding out if anything special was going on at the church.
Also, do we know if this was a personal check from Dorothy, with her name at the top, or just one for which she had signing privileges? I’m guessing not. Could Ronald have been selling something to Dorothy, as part of a fundraiser on his end. If we only knew the amount, it might be indicative of…something.
I’m totally spitballing over here.
Great questions. I’ve been wondering about church records too. I’m not sure what happened to St. Paul UCC but maybe I can track that info down, starting with old newspaper articles. As for the check, I have no idea if it was a personal check or something else. I’m definitely open to other ideas of what the check might have been for, and your guess is as good as any. But as Ruth points out (first/bottom comment), Dorothy’s silence, not to mention Carl’s, the bank’s, and whoever else knew about the check, speaks volumes.
This is just an aside, but my mom’s name was Dorothy (later called Dot by most), and growing up she attended a St. Paul Evangelical and Reformed church in Hermann, MO (a little German-American town). In 1957 most of the E&R churches merged with some Congregational churches to become the United Church of Christ, and that’s what my mom’s old church is today. Quite a coincidence!
If that check to Ron was too large to write the amount down, that has me very curious how much it was.
Eliza, you’re exactly right about the Congregational churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Churches becoming UCCs. I wasn’t sure if I should get into that bit of background in my post, so thank you for mentioning it! So yes, Dorothy’s church became St. Paul UCC.
PS. I’m very curious about the amount too. In the documentary The Phantom of Oxford from 1976, Carl Knox is interviewed. He said that he “keenly” felt Ron Tammen was still alive. If Dorothy’s check was for a significant amount, then perhaps that could have contributed to that feeling. Also, even though we don’t have the answer to the question “Where was it cashed,” Carl would have. His bank contacts would have told him. He knew a lot more about the check but he kept it to himself or at least didn’t write anything more down.
The check is intriguing. Either the amount was to much to pay Ron is cash or perhaps she had to pay Ron and keep track of the expenses ( not her money, paying for someone else) it’s just odd that she would write a check for no specific reason.
Agree. I find it so interesting that Carl didn’t write down the amount of the check, as he did for every other check. I get the feeling that it was a larger sum and he didn’t want to put it in writing.
Well at least you can rule something out. I have to admit the fact I find Dorothy interesting
I do too.
I really wasn’t thinking that the check was from some mundane reason. Keep in mind after Ron went missing and his name and face is all over the local press. She doesn’t contact anyone and mention that she had any connection to him.
Thanks, Ruth. I concur. I just need to rule out the potentially mundane reasons just to be sure. 👍