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GUSSIE'S GHOST
The Legend of Mount Madonna Henry Miller — The California Cattle Henry Miller was not an ordinary rancher. Born Heinrich Alfred Kreiser in Württemberg, Germany, in 1827, he came to California in 1850 with only about six dollars in his pocket. He started out in the butcher business in San Francisco and eventually became one of the most powerful cattlemen and landowners in the American West. His partnership with Charles Lux created the enormous Miller & Lux cattle empire, which eventually controlled roughly 1.3 to 1.4 million acres across California, Nevada and Oregon and tens of thousands of cattle. He became known as the “Cattle King of California.” But behind that enormous empire was a family, and one of the places that became especially important to that family was the country around Gilroy and Mount Madonna. Miller acquired part of the former Las Animas Rancho in 1863 and established Bloomfield Farm, just south of Gilroy. It became an important center of his ranching operation. This was not simply a wealthy man's country home. It was a working ranch filled with cattle, horses, ranch hands and the activity that came with running an enormous cattle operation. Miller eventually built a magnificent nineteen-bedroom mansion at Bloomfield in 1888, while also developing his mountain retreat at Mount Madonna. And there is another unusual chapter in Miller's personal life. In 1858, he married Nancy Wilmarth Sheldon, the sister-in-law of his business partner, Charles Lux. Nancy died only thirteen months later in childbirth, along with the child she was carrying. Two years later, Miller married Sarah Elizabeth Wilmarth Sheldon, Nancy's niece. She was only twenty years old; Miller was thirty-two. They would remain married for forty-five years. Together they had four children, although only Henry Jr., Nellie and Sarah Alice survived infancy. Sarah Alice would become the youngest—and, according to historical accounts, the child who held a particularly special place in her father's heart, and this is where the story changes. Sarah Alice “Gussie” MillerSarah Alice Maud Miller was affectionately known as Gussie. She was a little girl growing up in a world most children today could hardly imagine. Her playground wasn't a backyard; it was the ranch. There were cattle moving across the hills, horses in the corrals, ranch hands coming and going and miles of open country surrounding her. Gussie loved it, she loved horses, she loved riding and she loved being outside and being around the cattle. According to the Miller family history, her uncle Perry Robinson, who managed Bloomfield Farm, began teaching her to ride when she was very young. She became an accomplished little rider, her father gave her a horse named Dan, a black thoroughbred. And Gussie loved that horse. She also wasn't particularly interested in behaving like the proper little daughter of one of California's wealthiest men. She preferred the ranch and the company of the cowboys. Family accounts describe her wearing her older brother's discarded clothes and wishing she could be a boy. That speaks something about this little girl, she wasn't afraid of the ranch. She belonged there; she belonged on horseback; and perhaps that is why her story has remained so strongly connected to these mountains. Gussie's Last Ride June 13, 1879, the morning of Sarah's death began like an ordinary day. She had breakfast with her father before Henry left for San Francisco on business. Later, Sarah rode with her older sister Nellie and their aunt, Frederike Pfeifer, toward Gilroy. Sarah was riding ahead; and in a single terrible moment, everything changed. Dan stepped into a gopher hole; the horse lost its footing and went down. Sarah was thrown onto the ground. As the injured horse struggled to regain its footing, it rolled over her. Dan suffered two broken legs. Sarah suffered injuries that would take her life. Her sister Nellie immediately rode back toward Bloomfield Farm for help while another rider went for the doctor. The ranch wrangler eventually had to put Dan down because of his injuries. Sarah was brought back toward the ranch, but there was nothing anyone could do, she was only eight years old. A newspaper published on June 18, 1879, reduced the entire tragedy to only a few words: Sarah Alice, daughter of Henry Miller of Miller & Lux, had been killed at her father's place near Gilroy when her horse fell upon her. She had been killed almost instantly. I think sometimes old newspapers make death sound almost too simple; “Killed almost instantly.” Three little words... Henry Miller had built an empire for himself, a nationally known 'Cattle King'. He had accumulated land, cattle and wealth on a scale few men in California could imagine. But little known to the public, was his unwavering love for his youngest child and none of his wealth could ever bring Gussie back to him. According to surviving accounts, her death devastated him. She was described as the “apple of her father's eye.” The man who had spent his life controlling cattle and land suddenly found himself powerless over the one thing that mattered most. Family accounts say Henry suffered a complete nervous breakdown after her death and eventually left California for an extended trip to Europe. Reportedly he, carried Gussie's photograph on his person for the rest of his life. One story tells of Miller being robbed and pleading with the robber to allow him to remove Gussie's photograph from his watch before surrendering the watch and his money to the thief. Another account says that he kept a small, framed photograph of his daughter on his bureau and kissed it goodnight. Housekeepers reportedly found themselves wiping tears from the glass. Whether every detail of those stories can be independently proven is another question. But the fact that these stories survived tells us something. People remembered how deeply Henry Miller grieved for his little girl. Where Was Gussie Buried? This is where the history becomes particularly interesting; for years, there has been a story that Gussie was buried somewhere on Mount Madonna. Other versions of the lore even suggested that Henry Miller himself was buried on the mountain. However, when Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters began following the historical evidence, we found something different. The trail led us away from Mount Madonna and toward the Millers, Bloomfield Farm near Gilroy, where Sarah's remains were originally associated with the Miller family property; we learned that after Henry Miller died, her remains were eventually moved again; that trail ultimately led us to Colma California, near San Francisco. And this isn't something I, or the team learned simply by reading about it. I went there. We went there...to the city of "The Dead", Colma California. We stood at the Miller family plot, we saw where this enormous California family was laid to rest, and suddenly, the story became much more real. The evidence gave us an answer about where Gussie's remains ultimately ended up, but it didn't answer another question. Why did her story become so strongly attached to Mount Madonna? Gussie and Mount Madonna The historical record places the fatal accident at her father's property near Gilroy rather than at the earlier believed, Mount Madonna estate. Yet over the years, the mountain became part of Gussie's story; and when I think about the little girl we have learned about through these old records, I can understand why. Gussie, loved the open range, the horses, the cattle, the cowboys the open country and most of all, she loved her father. Mount Madonna was part of the world her family knew and loved. So perhaps it isn't surprising that, as the years passed, people began telling stories of a little girl appearing among those same mountain roads. A young girl in white, a child on horseback, a figure moving through the fog. Some accounts say she has been seen riding through the trees, sometimes appearing only for a moment before disappearing. One version of the story says she is still riding Dan, the horse she loved, clearly, we cannot prove that we cannot even prove that the girl people claim to see is Gussie, but we also cannot dismiss, the eyewitness accounts not by paranormal researchers and investigators, but by random individuals themselves, some who have never even heard the tales. The Ghost of Gussie? Over the decades, multiple people have reported hearing the sound of horse hooves moving through the darkness, sometimes around the campground and the old Miller property. Others have described hearing a horse running when there was nothing there to explain the sound. There are also stories of people seeing a young girl walking through the park or along the roads, sometimes described as wearing a white dress. Some say they have seen her riding a horse. And then there are the stories that are a little harder to dismiss. Former Park personnel have reported hearing a female voice calling for help in the fog, only to search the area and find no one. Other visitors have described seeing a girl in white near the ruins or along the mountain roads. Some accounts even describe seeing a female apparition in the back seat of a vehicle, visible only through the rear-view mirror. I experienced something unexplainable myself during an investigation of the mountain. While photographing behind the Mount Madonna Inn one evening, I suddenly heard the sound of heavy horse hooves pounding the ground behind me, coming closer and closer. Then I heard the unmistakable sound of a horse snorting directly behind my neck—and I could actually feel it. I turned around, expecting to see a horse standing there. There was nothing. I have often wondered about that experience. Could it have been Gussie's beloved horse, Dan? That experience is one of the reasons I have always found the stories surrounding Gussie so interesting. The reports aren't all the same, and I don't believe we should automatically assume that every apparition seen on Mount Madonna is Sarah Miller. Some people believe the Lady in White, is Gussie. I, for one, am not convinced. I believe the mountain of Mount Madonna has more than one ghost story to uncover. And, perhaps somewhere in the darkness, Gussie is still riding Dan, somewhere on the mountain of Mount Madonna; a memory of a place she once loved and roamed free. sources: Weird California — “Mount Madonna”www.weirdca.com/location.php?location=582,Visit Gilroy — “Mt. Madonna County Park”,www.visitgilroy.com/blog/post/mt-madonna-county-park-visit-gilroy/ Mount Madonna School — “Ancestral Lands and Living History”,www.mountmadonnaschool.org/ancestral-lands-and-living-history-third-graders-study-californias-indigenous-people/Mutsun Tribal Foundation — “History of the Mutsun Tribe”,www.mutsuntribalfoundation.org/our-history,Amah Mutsun Land Trust — Indigenous history and stewardship of Popeloutchom amlt.org, Visit California — “Amah Mutsun Tribal Band”, www.visitcalifornia.com/experience/amah-mutsun-tribal-band/ Margo Angel Man, “In the Gardens of Popeloutchom,” Journal of American Indian Education, 1978. Morgan Hill Times — October 28, 2005Account of former Mount Madonna park ranger Goodrich reporting hearing a young woman calling “help” in the fog. Some images portraited are digitally enhanced originals or ai interpretational art. |