Bell Witch - WikiHQ

The Bell Witch or Bell Witch Haunting is a legend from Southern United States folklore, centered on the 19th-century Bell family of northwest Robertson County, Tennessee. Farmer John Bell Sr. resided with his family along the Red River in an area currently near the town of Adams. According to legend, from 1817 to 1821, his family and the local area came under attack by a mostly invisible entity that was able to speak, affect the physical environment, and shapeshift. Some accounts record the spirit also to have been clairvoyant and capable of crossing long distances with superhuman speed (or of being in more than one place at a time).

In 1894, newspaper editor Martin V. Ingram published his Authenticated History of the Bell Witch. The book is widely regarded as the first full-length record of the legend and a primary source for subsequent treatments. The individuals recorded in the work were known historical personalities. In modern times, some skeptics have regarded Ingram's efforts as a work of historical fiction or fraud. Other researchers consider Ingram's work a nascent folklore study and an accurate reflection of belief in the region during the 19th century.

While not a fundamental element of the original recorded legend, the Bell Witch Cave in the 20th century became a source of continuing interest, belief, and generation of lore. Contemporary artistic interpretations such as in film and music have expanded the reach of the legend beyond the regional confines of the Southern United States.

Legend synopsis

right|thumb|200px|An artist's sketching of the Bell home, originally published in 1894

In his book An Authenticated History of the Bell Witch, author Martin V. Ingram published that the invisible entity was called Kate, after her voice claimed at one point to be "Old Kate Batts' witch," and continued to respond favorably to the name. Throughout the haunting, physical activity centered on the Bells' youngest daughter, Betsy, and her father, and Kate expressed particular displeasure when Betsy became engaged to a local named Joshua Gardner.

The haunting began sometime in 1817 when John Bell witnessed the apparition of a strange creature resembling a dog. Bell fired at the animal but it disappeared. John's son Drew Bell approached an unknown bird perched on a fence that flew off and was of "extraordinary size." The daughter Betsy observed a girl in a green dress swinging from the limb of an oak tree. Dean, a slave belonging to the Bell family, reported being followed by a large black dog on evenings he visited his wife. Activity moved to the Bell household with knocking heard along the door and walls. The family heard sounds of gnawing on the beds, invisible dogs fighting, and chains along the floor. About this time John Bell began experiencing paralysis in his mouth. The phenomena grew in intensity as sheets were pulled from beds when the children slept. Soon the entity pulled hair and scratched the children with particular emphasis on Betsy who was slapped, pinched and stuck with pins.

The Bells turned to family friend James Johnston for help. After retiring for the evening at the Bell home, Johnston was awakened that night by the same phenomena. That morning he told John Bell it was a "spirit, just like in the Bible." Soon word of the haunting spread with some traveling great distances to see the witch. The spirit offered diverse explanations of why it had appeared, tying its origin to the disturbance of a Native American burial mound located on the property, and sent Drew Bell and Bennett Porter on an unproductive search for buried treasure. With the emergence of full conversations, the spirit repeated word for word two sermons given 13 miles apart at the same time. The entity was well acquainted with Biblical text and appeared to enjoy religious arguments. As another amusement, the witch shared gossip about activities in other households, and at times appeared to leave for brief moments to visit homes after an inquiry.

At times, the spirit displayed a form of kindness, especially towards Lucy, John Bell's wife, "the most perfect woman to walk the earth." The witch would give Lucy fresh fruit and sing hymns to her, and showed John Bell Jr. a measure of respect.

Referring to John Bell Sr. as "Old Jack," the witch claimed she intended to kill him and signaled this intention through curses, threats, and afflictions. The story climaxes with the Bell patriarch being poisoned by the witch. Afterward the entity interrupted the mourners by singing drinking songs. In 1821, as a result of the witch's entreatment, Betsy Bell called off her engagement to Joshua Gardner. Subsequently, the entity told the family it was going to leave, but return in seven years in 1828. The witch returned on time to Lucy and her sons Richard and Joel with similar activities as before, but they chose not to encourage it, and the witch appeared to leave again.

Several accounts say that during his military career, Andrew Jackson was intrigued with the story and his men were frightened away after traveling to investigate. In an independent oral tradition recorded in the vicinity of Panola County, Mississippi, the witch was the ghost of an unpleasant overseer John Bell murdered in North Carolina. In this tradition, the spirit falls in love with the central character 'Mary', leading to her death. This account is reminiscent of vampire lore. The supernatural powers attributed to the Tennessee spirit have also been compared to that of jinn in mythology.

In the manuscript attributed to Richard Williams Bell, he wrote that the spirit remained a mystery:

J. Allen Bell expressed the belief that his father's manuscript was written when he was 35 years old in 1846. He stated his father gave him the manuscript and family notes shortly before his death in 1857. Richard Williams Bell was roughly 6 to 10 years of age during the initial manifestations of the Bell Witch phenomenon and 17 at the occurrence of the spirit's return in 1828. The reported contributions of Richard Williams Bell, approximately 90 pages in length, are recorded in Chapter 8 of Ingram's work, entitled Our Family Trouble.

According to Brian Dunning no one has ever seen this diary, and there is no evidence that it ever existed: "Conveniently, every person with firsthand knowledge of the Bell Witch hauntings was already dead when Ingram started his book; in fact, every person with secondhand knowledge was even dead." Dunning also concluded that Ingram was guilty of falsifying another statement, that the Saturday Evening Post had published a story in 1849 accusing the Bells' daughter Elizabeth of creating the witch, an article which was not found at the time. Joe Nickell argues the chapter includes the use of Masonic themes and anachronism which impacts credibility.

Keith Cartwright of the University of North Florida compares Ingram's work with Uncle Remus folklore as recorded by Joel Chandler Harris and also as an expression of the psychological shame of slavery and Native American removal. The slaves in the account are regarded as experts on the witch, with Uncle Zeke identifying the witch as, "dat Injun spirit ... the Injuns was here fust, and we white fokes driv em out, all but dem whar wur dead and cudent go, an da's here yit, in der spirit." The figure of "progress" Gen. Andrew Jackson was brought nearly to heel and the master, John Bell, was dead. The role of the trickster not played by the Br'er Rabbit but the witch-rabbit, the spirit's common animal form. The displaced, blacks, widows, and girls, act as witnesses to a force polite society cannot comprehend. The witch, "appears as a catch-all for every remainder of resistant agency."

Among those who were alive during the haunting, Ingram conducted interviews with Ibby Gunn, born in 1806, a daughter of Uncle Zeke and the sister-in-law of Dean, as well as Mahala Byrns Darden, born circa 1807, daughter of James Byrns. Ibby Gunn shared some experiences of Dean including the creation of a witch ball made of hair by her sister Kate for her husband Dean, the use of which appeared to anger the entity. Mahala Darden detailed what she understood family and friends were experiencing at the time of the haunting, expressed her great fear the witch would come to visit her home and also related the spirit sang "Row me up some brandy, O" at the conclusion of John Bell's graveside service.

Andrew Jackson

The account of General Andrew Jackson's visit is confined to Chapter 11 of Ingram's work. The chapter is a letter from Thomas L. Yancey, an attorney in Clarksville, dated January 1894. Yancey explained that his grandfather, Whitmel Fort, was a witness to phenomena at the Bell homestead and Fort had related the story of Jackson's visit which was undated in the letter. Yancey described his grandfather's account as, "quite amusing to me."

Paranormal investigator Benjamin Radford, as well as Brian Dunning, conclude that there is no evidence that Andrew Jackson visited the Bell family home. During the years in question, Jackson's movements were well documented, and nowhere in history or his writings is there evidence of his knowledge of the Bell family. According to Dunning, "The 1824 Presidential election was notoriously malicious, and it seems hard to believe that his opponent would have overlooked the opportunity to drag him through the mud for having lost a fight to a witch." Carl Lindahl, affiliated with the University of Houston, writes that the Andrew Jackson encounter is an example of how belief and history mix together in the formation of legend. Such legends, which may persist in a locale for generations, upon receiving a media treatment can spread far outside of the area where the legend originated.

Legend in the 20th century

John Kendall of Guthrie, Kentucky, recalling memories near his 90th birthday in 1899, had visited the Bell family home during the disturbances as a boy and was asked if he believed in the Bell Witch. Kendall believed it was deceptions of an "old woman who was a member of the household."

right|thumb|200px|Tennessee Historical Commission marker along U.S. Route 41 in Adams, Tennessee.

A prophecy was reported by May 1903 that the witch could return on the centennial of the Bell family arrival in Tennessee. In response to an August 1903 article from Memphis, The Springfield Herald expressed that no one in the local area was concerned with a return of the Bell Witch and made a charge of plagiarism towards the Memphis paper. The Herald also stated the copyright for Ingram's work had passed to his son Tolbert who was working at The Denver Times. By September, the local paper was again incredulous as the spirit was not reported to have returned in August.

Charles Bailey Bell, a grandson of John Bell Jr., and neurologist in Nashville, published a book entitled The Bell Witch: A Mysterious Spirit in 1934. In the work, he recounted stories he stated were told to him by his great-aunt Betsy later in her life. This included another account of Andrew Jackson's visit and of a boy trapped in the Bell Witch Cave and pulled out of the cave feet first by the witch. Bell also detailed a series of prophecies he stated were given to his ancestors in 1828 by the spirit, including a declaration the witch was set to return again in 1935, 107 years after her last visit to the Bell family.

In 1937, there were reports of quirky events. Louis Garrison, owner of the farm that included the Bell Witch Cave, heard unexplained noises coming from inside. Bell descendants described the sound of something rubbing against a house, a paper like object that flew out the door and reentered through a side door, and faint music heard from a piano. A group from the local Epworth League were reported to have attended a wiener roast in a rock quarry near the Bell Witch Cave on July 29, 1937. The group were joking about the legend when they saw a figure of a woman sitting on top of the cliff over the cave causing many to flee. According to the newspaper, a minister in the group later claimed to have investigated and discovered it was moonlight on a rock. The second report concluded with a weather report that the moon was barely noticeable that night. Jim Brooks published in 2015 that his mother was in attendance at the roast, and relates that the minister caught up to the youth on the road to town after discovering no explanation for the figure.

In November 1965, an article was published involving an antique oak rocking chair said to have been previously owned by attorney Charlie Willett, a Bell descendant. The rocking chair was acquired in Willett's estate sale by Mrs. J. C. Adams, owner of an antique store on U.S. 41. A customer sat down in the chair, after learning it was not for sale, and while rocking in the chair asked Mrs. Adams if she believed in the supernatural. Two weeks later, the customer's daughter visited the home of Mrs. Adams and said after her mother had left and visited the Bell cemetery a voice told her to "stand up and look around, you will find something of much value." After some car trouble, the woman walked out into a field and found a black iron kettle turned over. She turned the kettle over and found a pearl buckle in the grass. The woman's daughter reported a jeweler estimated the buckle to be 160 to 200 years old.

Attorney Charles Romaine Willett (1886–1963), son of Sarah Elizabeth Bell, began an interest in the newspaper business at the age of 16. After some time playing professional baseball and working at other newspapers, Willett became the first managing editor of the Nashville Tennessean in 1907 while teaching himself law. A mayor of Adams, and member of the State legislature, Charlie Willett was known for his reliability. Every Sunday, Willett would accompany his sweetheart, Miss Jerry Cullom Gardner, for ice cream in Clarksville and dinner at Richardson's Restaurant on the return home. According to community lore, the couple never married so as not to tempt fate as they descended from the Bell and Gardner families respectively. Jim Brooks relates that a family member detailed familial obligations as the likely explanation. Brooks inquired what the couple thought about the rumor in the early 1960s. Jerry Gardner explained if Charlie Willet ever asked her to marry him, she would assent. When Brooks related this to Charlie Willett, he immediately smiled, pulled his thumbs through his suspenders and said, "Oh, she said that, did she?"

Bonnie Haneline, in 1977, recounted a time during her childhood in 1944 when she was exploring the cave. She left English class, playing 'hooky,' and borrowed a lantern from Mrs. Garrison, the cave owner. She reported to have explored the cave with her friends for several years. While she was inside, her lantern blew out despite no breeze inside the cave. She managed to relight the lantern and it blew out again. Terrified, she crawled along the water path of the cave in the dark until she reached the entrance where she saw an opened can of pork and beans and marshmallows. Later that evening, she learned law enforcement discovered two escaped fugitives in the back of the cave. She credited the witch with helping her avoid them.

A visit in 1977 was reported of five soldiers from nearby Fort Campbell to the Bell Witch Cave. One of the soldiers was sitting on a rock and expressed skepticism of the legend when something invisible grabbed him around the chest.

In 1986, staff writer David Jarrard for The Tennessean and photographer Bill Wilson, the latter also a member of the National Speleological Society, were given permission to sleep in the cave over night. While in the first cave room they heard a noise from deeper in the cave Jarrard estimated at 30 yards. Subsequently, an "unwavering groan" repeated again with greater volume and accompanied by several loud thumps. When it began a third time, the men retreated to the gate entrance. They explored the wiring to the lights looking for a reason for the noises. They went back to the first cave room but heard a rumble near the entrance. Walking back to the entrance they discovered the rumble was noise from a jet. As they reached the gate, a loud, high pitched scream emanated from inside the cave. The journalists left and did not spend the night.

In 1987, H. C. Sanders, owner of a nearby gas station, reported 20 years earlier he ran out of gas at night near the Red River across from the Bell Witch Cave. He began to walk towards town when a rabbit came out of the woods and began to follow him. Sanders walked faster, but the rabbit kept pace even as he broke out into a run. After a mile, Sanders sat down on a log to catch his breath. The rabbit hopped up on the other side of the log looked at him and said, "Hell of a race we had there, wasn't it?"

Skeptical evaluation

According to Ben Radford, the Bell Witch story is an important one for all paranormal researchers: "It shows how easily legend and myth can be mistaken for fact and real events and how easily the lines are blurred" when sources are not checked. Radford reminds readers that "the burden of proof is not on skeptics to disprove anything but rather for the proponents to prove ... claims".

Amy Fluker, a researcher of the Mississippi version of the legend while affiliated with the University of Mississippi, has expressed the Bell Witch legend has other value. "As a historian of collective memory, it matters very little to my research if hauntings are real or not. It does matter that people believe they are. As a result, they can help us understand the perspectives, in this case, of 19th and 20th century Americans."

Bell Witch in culture

right|thumb|200px|Signs at the entrance to the [[Bell Witch Cave promote ghost tourism in Adams, Tennessee.]]

Film

There have been several films based, at least in part, on the Bell Witch legend. Roger Clarke, former film critic for The Independent, argues the legend has also had a measurable influence on cinema such as in the Poltergeist film series, the found footage Paranormal Activity film series, The Witch released in 2015, the trope of burial ground disturbance in The Amityville Horror, and the apport of cherries to the children in Mama released in 2013.

{| class="wikitable sortable"

! Year !! Title !! Genre !! Director !! Citation

| 1999 || The Blair Witch Project || Found footage horror || Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez ||

| 2004 || Bell Witch Haunting || Supernatural horror || Ric White ||

| 2005 || An American Haunting || Supernatural horror || Courtney Solomon ||

| 2007 || Bell Witch: The Movie || Supernatural horror || Shane Marr ||

| 2008 || The Bell Witch Legend || Documentary || Zac Adams ||

| 2013 || The Bell Witch Haunting || Found footage horror || Glenn Miller ||

| 2020 || The Mark of the Bell Witch || Documentary || Seth Breedlove ||

Television

The American paranormal television series Ghost Adventures filmed an episode at the Bell Witch Cave.

Director Sid Zanforlin released a documentary episode on the legend and the town of Adams in 2014 for a series entitled Boogeymen: Monsters Among Us which aired on Destination America and also organized as a collection known as America's Monsters entitled "Forest Monsters: Mothman and the Bell Witch."

An American television series – Cursed: The Bell Witch – based on selected descendants of the Bell family trying to end a curse. The series premiered October 2015 on the A&E Network.

In 2018, the Travel Channel series Haunted Live featured paranormal investigative team, the Tennessee Wraith Chasers visiting the town of Adams, Tennessee, where the descendants of the Bell family take them to the cabin.

Expedition X explored caves of Middle Tennessee and the legend in 2020.

Nashville music group The Shakers released Living In The Shadow Of A Spirit in 1988 on vinyl record EP.

Ann Marie DeAngelo and Conni Ellisor choreographed and composed a ballet entitled The Bell Witch for the Nashville Ballet.

Nashville Children's Theatre premiered Our Family Trouble: The Legend of the Bell Witch in 1976. The play was written by Audrey Campbell.

A play by Ric White, The Bell Witch Story. First performed in 1998 by the Sumner County Players. And performed again in 2008 by the Tennessee Theater Company.

A play by David Alford, Spirit: The Authentic Story of the Bell Witch of Tennessee, performed in Adams, TN during the Bell Witch Fall Festival in late October.

The Danish metal band Mercyful Fate released a song titled "The Bell Witch" on their 1993 album In the Shadows.

Seattle-based doom metal band Bell Witch took their name from this legend.

Merle Kilgore recorded a song titled "The Bell Witch" in 1964.

Madeline recorded a song titled "The Legend of the Bell Witch" in 2014.

Pat Fitzhugh and Mike Richards released an Americana folk song "The Bell Witch (Let the Game Begin)" in October, 2020.

Jimbo Mathus and Andrew Bird released a track entitled "Bell Witch" on their Americana album These 13 in March 2021.

Murfreesboro Little Theatre performed Who Killed John Bell, written by Jess Townsend, at Oaklands Mansion in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in August 2022.

Selected bibliography

{| class="wikitable sortable"

! Year !! Title !! Author !! Publisher !! ASIN/ISBN !! Note

| 1894 || An Authenticated History of the Famous Bell Witch || Ingram, Martin V. || W. P. Titus (1894); Rare Book Reprints (1961) || Variable by reprint || First known full length account.

| 1930 || The Bell Witch of Tennessee || Miller, Harriet Parks || Leaf-Chronicle Publishing || || Local historian from Port Royal, Tennessee.

| 1934 || The Bell Witch: A Mysterious Spirit || Bell, Charles Bailey || Lark Bindery || B000887W6Y || Author a descendant of the Bell family.

| 1969 || The Bell Witch at Adams || Barr, Gladys || David Hutchinson Publishing || B003ZFNLS0 || Children's Literature.

| 1979 || Echoes of the Bell Witch in the Twentieth Century || Brehm, H. C. || Brehm, H. C. || B0006EKRKS || Eden family anecdotes (Bell Witch Cave).

| 1997 || The Bell Witch: An American Haunting || Monahan, Brent || St. Martin's Press || 031215061X || Novel. Basis for the 2005 film, An American Haunting.

| 1999 || Season of the Witch || Taylor, Troy || Whitechapel Productions || 1892523051 || Author founder of the American Ghost Society.

| 2000 || The Bell Witch: The Full Account || Fitzhugh, Pat || Armand Press || 097051560X || Tennessee based paranormal author and historian.

| 2002 || All That Lives: A Novel of the Bell Witch || Sanders-Self, Melissa || Warner Books || 0446526916 || Novel.

| 2008 || Bell Witch: The Truth Exposed || Headley, Camille Moffitt || Bell Witch Truth || 0615222617 || With Kirby family (Bell Witch Cave).

| 2013 || The Bell Witch || Taff, John F. D. || Books of the Dead || 1927112192 || Novel. St. Louis based horror author.

| 2015 || Bell Witch Stories You Never Heard || Brooks, Jim || McClanahan Publishing House || 1934898546 || Native of Adams, Tennessee. Descendant of John Johnston.

| 2015 || Little Sister Death || Gay, William || Dzanc Books || 1938103130 || Novel. Tennessee Author. Published posthumously.

| 2016 || Our Family Trouble: A Domestic Thriller || Winston, Don || Tigerfish || 0692838082 || Novel. Author Nashville native.

| 2023 || The Bell Witch in Myth and Memory || Gregory, Rick || University of Tennessee Press || 1621908372 || Nonfiction. Author resident of Adams.

References

External links

Audio

Episode 62: Witch You Talkin' About? A 2013 MonsterTalk episode on the Bell Witch.
The Bell Witch, a WSM Tall Tales radio broadcast October 6, 1953.
Ep 85: The Bell Witch Part 1; Ep 86: The Bell Witch Part 2 Two episode Astonishing Legends podcast. The second episode includes an interview with David Britton, Tennessee State Park Ranger.

Text

Tennessee Myths and Legends: Bell Witch Tennessee State Library and Archives Exhibition.
The Bell Witch by paranormal author and historian Pat Fitzhugh.
The Historic Bell Witch Cave Proprietary website for recreational and tourist information.
An Authenticated History of the Famous Bell Witch Digital copy, M. V. Ingram, 1894.
"A Witch As Was A Witch" Article by Irvin S. Cobb for McClure's, published in 1922. Includes a family anecdote that his great-grandfather witnessed the haunting and was convinced of the legitimacy.
Bell Witch Fall Festival Destination site for annual Robertson County theater events organized by the non-profit Community Spirit, Inc.