Ghosts and haunted houses happen more than just once a year on
Halloween as many local citizens, past and present, claim sightings
of not so unfamiliar ghosts every now and again.
One that springs to mind is the haunting of Mt. Madonna, west of
Gilroy along Hecker Pass.
Ghosts and haunted houses happen more than just once a year on Halloween as many local citizens, past and present, claim sightings of not so unfamiliar ghosts every now and again.
One that springs to mind is the haunting of Mt. Madonna, west of Gilroy along Hecker Pass.
Around 1850, Henry Miller came to the area from Missouri in hopes of making a fortune, and eventually he did in the cattle industry.
Miller bought land throughout California, Oregon and Mexico, but made Gilroy his home. He built a summer house near what is now Mt. Madonna County Park. Its ruins still remain inside the park today. The mansion was donated to Santa Clara County after Miller’s death in 1917. Now, however, the park is said to be haunted by Miller and his daughter, Nellie.
For decades, witnesses have claimed to see Nellie’s ghost riding a horse through an open field. According to legend, Nellie was killed on the site while riding a horse. The horse spooked and Nellie fell, breaking her neck.
Another ghost story is spun from the tragic deaths of a Morgan Hill school teacher and her student.
In 1909, Isola Kennedy took her students to Coyote Creek for a picnic where she and 8-year-old student Earl Wilson were mauled by a rabid mountain lion.
Kennedy, it is rumored, tried to fend off the mountain lion with a hairpin, and both she and Wilson survived their wounds. However, some weeks later, both died of rabies. Only 11 people have been killed by mountain lions in the United States during the last 100 years.
Some people believe her house, located on East Dunne Avenue, was haunted. That house was later moved to avoid demolition and then it was discovered that it wasn’t her house – she lived further along the street. Kennedy was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery.
Also, an old doctor’s office and home in San Benito County is said to be haunted.
“The previous owners said they could see and feel things,” said Sharlene Van Rooy, a volunteer with the San Benito County Historical Society. “It might be unfortunate patients. We don’t know.”
The house is still standing and has new owners.
A horrendous crime is attributed to the haunting by two ghosts of the old Gilroy Hotel at 7365 Monterey Road. According to local legend, one is in her 20s while the other is a forlorn little girl.
In the hotel’s heyday, a man entered the hotel and raped and killed the two guests, according to legend. The girl is usually seen standing in the hallway and the woman on top of the stairs.
The child is sometimes seen looking out the window, according to witnesses. An employee in the building said he felt a cold touch on his neck one time. He turned to see who it was, but he was alone. However, he has no doubt he had been touched by one of the ghosts.
There’s also an alleged haunted ranch house in San Benito County. A child moved into the house with her parents when she was 6 weeks old and lived until she was 100. She died in the house and many residents say they can feel her presence every once in a while, according to Janet Brians, a San Benito County Historical Society board member.
The San Juan Bautista Bakery is also allegedly haunted, according to the head baker who said he has been visited by two ghosts.
One ghost is that of a shopkeeper who used to take care of the bakery’s building when it was Abbe Company General Merchandise Store. The second ghost is that of a little girl, about the age of 4 or 5. Many residents believe the ghost belongs to a girl who died in a fire in 1936. The girl’s parents owned the bakery back then.
Another ghost story involves the solving of a murder. Although information is sketchy, a woman fell down some basement stairs in a home on Eigelberry Street in Gilroy and was killed. It’s said that her ghost or something extraterrestrial moved magnetic letters on the refrigerator to spell out “I DIDN’T FALL.”
The woman’s brother was eventually arrested and charged with the murder, said Katherine Tsujimoto, the Gilroy city historian.
Newsrooms also are not above being haunted. The building that houses the Morgan Hill Times on East Third Street was built in 1906. Upstairs from the newsroom is an old, vacant apartment that workers hear noises from every once in a while, it’s claimed.
For more information on the ghost stories, contact the local museums.
