The Enola Mountain Tragedy: The Strange Case of Jeremiah Miller

 

At the turn of the 20th century, a new village sprouted across the Susquehanna River from Harrisburg. Spurred by the growth of the Pennsylvania Railroad, this village-- which came to be known as Enola-- was named for the daughter of a farmer from nearby Summerdale. But long before Enola became the site of the third-largest rail yard in the country (now owned by Norfolk Southern, the Enola Yard currently handles 275,000 tons of freight per day), this region was sparsely populated. The southern slope of Blue Mountain, which divides Cumberland and Perry counties, was dotted with log cabins, primarily occupied by impoverished folks who eked out a living by chopping wood, mending pots and pans, and performing odd jobs around the countryside. 

One such person was Jeremiah Miller, who rose to infamy in the summer of 1890 after slaying his wife and taking his own life. But what makes the tragic tale of Jeremiah Miller truly bizarre is that his father and grandfather both suffered similar fates.

In a lonely cabin which once stood where Tower Road now runs, lived Jeremiah, his wife, Mary Ann, and their nine children, who ranged in age from two months to 17 years. Three other children had died in infancy. The Millers were a very poor family; Jeremiah earned money by chopping pine, which his wife and children sold throughout East Pennsboro Township. Mary Ann, despite her rugged disposition, was said to be a pretty woman-- and it was this physical trait which filled him with jealousy and led to many vicious quarrels, which often culminated with Jeremiah reaching for his shotgun and threatening to kill his entire family.

On Tuesday morning, July 29, 1890, Mary Ann had gone to Camp Hill to sell wood, and when she returned she found herself embroiled in yet another heated argument with her jealous husband. The argument was renewed the following morning, with Jeremiah accusing his wife of infidelity. It was Jeremiah's brothers who had filled the woodsman's head with all sorts of ideas, but whether these accusations were true or not, no one will ever know-- because Jeremiah, in a fit of rage, picked up a double-barreled shotgun and fired a heavy load of buckshot into Mary Ann's left side at close range as she was nursing their youngest child. Upon realizing what he had done, Jeremiah rushed from the cabin, leaned against the fence, and pointed the muzzle of the shotgun to his belly. With the aid of a stick, he condemned himself to death in a deafening instant, though death was slow in arriving.

The gruesome tragedy was witnessed by all nine of the Miller children, and they ran down the mountain screaming and spreading the alarm. But while the shooting had occurred around nine o'clock in the morning, no one appeared on the scene until noon. It was undertaker Jacob Stauffer of Camp Hill, accompanied by Constable Charles Burns, who reached the cabin first. They were joined a short time later by Dr. Heckert of West Fairview, who was astonished to discover that Mary Ann was still clinging to life, though the wound had left her paralyzed from the waist down. Constable Burns attempted to empanel a jury, but Justice of the Peace M.H. Rupley intervened, declaring that he should hold the inquest, which he scheduled for nine o'clock the following morning.

 

The Inquest

A handful of woodsmen from the mountains and farmers from the valley gathered outside the tiny cabin on Thursday, July 31, awaiting the arrival of Squire Rupley. Meanwhile, the unburied body of Jeremiah Miller sweltered outside the cabin in the hot sun. The jury included Constable Burns, Undertaker Stauffer, H.S. Glessner, John Roth, John Bixler, Solomon Seifert and Harvey Gutshall. It was the mortally-wounded Mary Ann Miller who testified first at the inquest. Despite the gaping wound in her side and complete paralysis of her lower extremities, she was able to provide the following testimony:

"My husband quarreled with me at the breakfast table on account of some lies which had been circulated. He threatened to kill me, and jumping from the table, took down a double-barreled muzzle-loader, and walked outside the cabin. Said he would blow us all up with the gun. As I turned from the table he dropped me from the load of buckshot which entered my side and arm. Jere then said, 'Now I have killed Mom. Now Pap will blow his own head off.' It was near dinnertime when anyone came up the mountain. Shot me at nine o'clock. I have worked hard... could not do enough for him. Worked from morning until night."

Martha Miller, the 17-year-old daughter described by the Carlisle Sentinel as a "pretty and modest mountain girl", was the next to testify. "I was at home when the shooting occurred," she said. "Father had been mad at us all on account of some lies some parties had told about us. Accusing us of running around with the boys, and said mom was not to be trusted. Just as he shot mom I came down the road and pop pushed me aside. He stood on a stone in front of the gate when he said he was going to blow his head off and put an end to this berrypicking business." She then described how Jeremiah had used a stick to pull the trigger and shoot himself.

"As soon as he shot he called for us to come. We all came to him. I went to him. He said he wished he hadn't fought with us. I brought him water and he drank it. He said we were to put water on him, as his clothes were burning. He then died. I saw him shoot mother. His brothers made up a lot of lies and said mother and I were running around with other men. Said time and again he would kill us. On Saturday evening he came home from West Fairview and said he would kill us. Two weeks ago he wanted to go and hang himself. He had some notes coming due and did not have the money to meet them. He was troubled about money matters-- amount, about fifty dollars."

The jury retired, and returned a few minutes later with a verdict that Jeremiah Miller "came to his death by a gun shot wound inflicted by his own hand, caused by financial and family trouble."

Horse Pit or Cemetery?

As soon as the inquest was over, the stench from the undressed, unwashed corpse necessitated its prompt burial, though opinion was divided over where and how it ought to be disposed. The leading opinion, as expressed by the local farmers, was that it should be thrown into a pit on the mountain which the locals used for the disposal of deceased horses. It was the dead man's dying victim who finally demanded that her husband be given a proper burial. At her direction, one of the jurors rummaged through the cabin and found a receipt for a burial plot which the deceased had purchased in the Zion Luthern Church cemetery.

 Armed with this certificate, Undertaker Stauffer and Squire Rupley transported the putrid remains down the mountain by wagon. No mourners or relatives followed the wagon to the churchyard, and no service was held at the graveside because the reverend refused to participate. The coffin was taken from the wagon and placed under a tree beneath the blazing July sun until the grave was dug, but there was one tiny problem-- no one wanted to dig it. Squire Rupley begged and pleaded but nobody wanted to have anything to do with the tragic affair. The grave was eventually dug, by Squire Rupley himself and a reporter from a Carlisle newspaper, as they were the only ones who remained at the graveyard, save for a black dog, attracted by the stench, who kept scratching at the coffin as the two men toiled beneath the searing sun, and a drunkard who offered to recite a graveside sermon in exchange for a barrel of beer. Squire Rupley declined the offer. 

Death Claims A Widow

Dr. Heckert and Dr. Basehore, whose examination revealed that Mrs. Miller had suffered a severed spinal column, both knew that the wounded woman would never recover, though they were unable to predict her demise. "Death may come at any hour," Heckert told reporters, "yet she may linger for weeks." Mary Ann Miller finally passed away on August 3, and was laid to rest alongside her husband. While Mary Ann's reputation had been besmirched by the local gossip-hounds, others insisted after her death that she couldn't have been anything less than a faithful wife. After all, hadn't she, in her dying condition with a weak and feeble voice, saved her monstrous husband from the ignominious fate of a pauper's grave? 

Of the nine orphaned Miller children, not much is known, except that one teenage daughter was adopted a short time later by Mr. and Mrs. Francis Fink of Mechanicsburg, and another daughter was adopted by Mary "Aunt Polly" Turns of Rockville. One of the Miller children, Mary (born 1872), married Charles Wiseman of Steelton and died at the age of 32 from complications during childbirth. Another daughter, Margaret, was later adopted by Ellsworth McKinley of Harrisburg.

The Kissel Murder

Today, the cemetery adjoining the red brick Zion Lutheran Church is known as Enola Cemetery. Not far from the graves of Jeremiah and Mary Ann Miller is a weathered tombstone bearing a still-legible inscription: In memory of John Kissel, assassinated on June 29, 1856. A peculiar coincidence in this story is that two men were arrested, tried, and convicted over Kissel's murder. One of them was Abraham Miller-- Jeremiah's father.

John Kissel's grave at Enola Cemetery

 

John Kissel was a farmer from East Pennsboro, and was said to be an eccentric bachelor of peculiar habits. His body was discovered in the yard beside his house on June 30. A physician examined Kissel's body and found one gunshot wound in the heart and another in the left eye. There were no witnesses to the crime but suspicion eventually fell upon a black man named Matthew Willis, who was seen flaunting large sums of cash after Kissel's death. After Willis was arrested, police found $43 in gold coin and $85 in bills in his wallet. Willis admitted that the money had belonged to Kissel, but it had been given to him by Abraham Miller. According to Willis, Miller had murdered the bachelor farmer and had given him the money to hold onto, believing that he would eventually be suspected of killing Kissel.

Miller was soon arrested and lodged in the Carlisle jail. On September 1, 1853, he took his life by tying his handkerchief around a bar in the door of his cell and strangling himself. Willis, who was convicted for his role in the murder, also died in the Cumberland County jail.

Strangely, Abraham Miller's father-- Jeremiah's grandfather-- also committed suicide on the mountain north of Enola, around the same time that Abraham was arrested for the murder of John Kissel. According to newspapers, when his body was found, it had been picked apart by crows and buzzards.

 

Sources:

Carlisle Weekly Herald, Sept. 3, 1856.
Carlisle Weekly Herald, Nov. 19, 1856.
Harrisburg Telegraph, July 31, 1890.
Caslisle Sentinel, Aug. 1, 1890.
Carlisle Weekly Herald, Aug. 7, 1890.
Harrisburg Telegraph, Aug. 22, 1890.
Carlisle Sentinel, Aug. 25, 1890.
Carlisle Sentinel, Jan. 6, 1891.
Harrisburg Daily Independent, Oct. 3, 1910.