On May 14, 1903, Sarah Agnes Cowell, the youngest daughter of Henry Cowell, was killed in a buggy accident at the Cowell Ranch. Sarah and the ranch housekeeper were riding in the family buggy along the upper kiln road on the Cowell ranch (now the campus of University of California at Santa Cruz), when the horse bolted and the two were thrown from the buggy. The housekeeper was injured although not fatally, but Sarah died as a result of her injuries. Her body was borne back to San Francisco, the location of the family home, on a special railroad car. Original reports of the accident can be found in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, and the Santa Cruz Surf of May 15, 1903.

Since the time of Sarah's death, there have been accounts of sightings of Sarah's ghost on the Haunted Meadow, located off a fire trail below Cowell college. A term paper on the subject can be found in Special Collections at UCSC.