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Tennessee Myths and Legends
The Heroine of Kaintuck, 1840, Illustration from The Crockett Almanac
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Bell Witch

The Bell House

The Bell House as it looked in 1820,

1894, An Authenticated History of the Famous

Bell Witch: The Wonder of the 19th Century,

and Unexplained Phenomenon of the

Christian Era by M. V. Ingram

It has been called America’s greatest ghost story and it happened right here in Tennessee.  In the decades since the “Witch” or “Spirit” first manifested around the Bell family on their farm in Robertson County in the early 19th Century, the Bell Witch has attracted the attention of ghost hunters, skeptics, supernaturalists, religious leaders, story tellers, authors, historians, and curious citizens from all over the world.

Earlier sources of the Bell Witch legend are dubious at best but provide a terrific look into the pervasiveness of the legend and the progression of the Bell Witch story through the years.  The two most famous sources, An Authenticated History of the Famous Bell Witch by M. V. Ingram, published in 1894, and A Mysterious Spirit: The Bell Witch of Tennessee by Charles Bailey Bell are essentially the same narrative differing only in detail and style.  Both these sources tell a fascinating story of the supernatural and provide the basis for much of the Bell Witch folklore.

The Bell Family
John Bell was born in Halifax County, North Carolina in 1750, the son of William Bell and Ann Jones.  In 1782 John Bell married Lucy Williams, daughter of prominent farmer John Williams of Edgecomb County, North Carolina.  The Bells bought a farm in Edgecomb County and began amassing wealth and influence in the area.

Professor Richard Powell

Professor Richard Powell, 1894,

An Authenticated History of the Famous

Bell Witch: The Wonder of the 19th Century,

and Unexplained Phenomenon of the

Christian Era by M. V. Ingram

In 1804, the family, consisting of John and Lucy Bell, and their children Jesse, John Junior, Drewry, Benjamin, Esther, Zadok, Elizabeth, Richard Williams and Joel Egbert, built a house and started a farm on 1000 acres, located on the Red River in Robertson County, Tennessee.

Of their children, Benjamin died as a young child; Zadok became a prominent lawyer and moved to Mississippi where he also died relatively young.  Esther married Bennett Porter in 1817.  Jesse married Martha Gunn, daughter of Rev. Thomas Gunn and later moved to Mississippi.  John Bell Junior married Elizabeth Gunn, also daughter of Rev. Thomas Gunn and became a successful farmer in Robertson County.  Drewry never married and owned a farm on the north side of the Red River.  Elizabeth (Betsy) Bell eventually married her former teacher Richard Powell and moved to Mississippi.  Richard Williams Bell was married three times, to Sallie Gunn, daughter of Rev. Thomas Gunn, Susan Gunn, daughter of Rev. James Gunn, and Eliza Orndorff.  He lived out his life in Robertson County.  The youngest child, Joel Egbert, married twice and moved to Springfield.

Despite the lasting impact of what the Bells termed “Our Family Trouble,” the family continued to flourish and some descendants of the Bells still live in Tennessee and other Southern and Midwestern states.

Disturbances Begin
The origin of the legendary “Bell Witch” is of course a mystery.  In early accounts the Spirit itself provides its origin stating, “I am a Spirit; I once was very happy, but I have been disturbed and made unhappy.  I am the Spirit of a person who was buried in the woods nearby and the grave was disturbed, my bones disinterred and scattered, and one of my teeth was lost under this house.  I am here looking for that tooth.”  Of course this cannot be verified; however, a number of Indian burial mounds could be found in the region.

In another event the Witch claimed to be, “a Spirit from everywhere, Heaven, Hell, the earth; am in the air, the houses, any place at any time; have been created millions of years.”

The first appearance of unusual disturbances surrounding the Bell family is usually reported as an incident on the farm in which John Bell fired a shot at a “dog-like” creature which vanished.  Drewry and Betsy also began to see strange creatures near the property.  These sights are accompanied by strange sounds around the house.  Betsy, Drewry and John begin to hear unaccounted for knocking on the door and windows, the sound of wings flapping against the ceilings, and the sound of rats gnawing on bedposts.  More disturbingly, the sound of choking and strangling could be heard along with chains dragging and heavy objects hitting the floor.  Sounds emanating from the bedroom as if “beds were suddenly and roughly pulled apart, to which was added the sounds of fighting dogs chained together, making the noise deafening.”  In all cases the source of the noise was never found.  No rats were found in the home despite thorough searching and no damage to the furniture was ever discovered.  During these demonstrations the family refused to speak of the events to their neighbors.

The “Spirit” increased its activity, sometimes physically abusing the members of the family.  Joel, Richard Williams and, especially, Betsy were subjected to being struck, pinched and having their hair pulled relentlessly by the Bell Witch.

Lucy Bell and John Junior were left relatively unharmed by the Witch.  Lucy was proclaimed by the “Spirit” to be the “most perfect woman living,” and the witch showed a great deal of compassion toward her, even caring for her and singing to her while she was ill.  John Jr. had long intense conversations with the witch, but he never failed to show his animosity for it declaring it to be the “Spirit of the Damned.”

William Porter

William Porter Attempts to Burn the Witch,

1894, An Authenticated History of the Famous

Bell Witch: The Wonder of the 19th Century,

and Unexplained Phenomenon of the

Christian Era by M. V. Ingram

The Sermons
On one famous occasion the witch recited perfectly the sermon of Reverend James Gunn of Bethel Methodist Church followed by the sermon of Sugg Fort, despite the fact that they had originally been given at the same time more than 12 miles apart.

The Witch and William Porter
Family friend William Porter claimed the witch climbed into bed with him, allowing him the opportunity to seize the “Spirit” in the bed clothes and attempted to throw it into the fire, saying only the immense weight and terrible smell of it prevented him from succeeding.

The Witch and the Bell Family Slaves
The Witch had a dislike for the family’s slaves, tormenting them relentlessly, beating them, and refusing to allow them into the house.  A Bell slave named Dean stated he encountered the Witch several times and that it appeared frequently in the form of a large black dog or wolf, sometimes with two heads, sometimes with no head.  Dean also claimed to be turned into a mule and attacked several times by the witch.  He carried with him at all times his axe and a “witch ball,” made by his wife, as protection from the witch’s influence. 

Dean Turned into a Mule Dean Confronts the Witch  

Dean Turned into a Mule, 1894, An Authenticated History of the Famous Bell Witch: The Wonder of the 19th Century, and Unexplained Phenomenon of the Christian Era by M. V. Ingram

Dean Confronts the Witch, 1894, An Authenticated History of the Famous Bell Witch: The Wonder of the 19th Century, and Unexplained Phenomenon of the Christian Era by M. V. Ingram

 

The Witch Chasing the Shakers

The Witch Chasing the Shakers,

1894, An Authenticated History of the Famous

Bell Witch: The Wonder of the 19th Century,

and Unexplained Phenomenon of the

Christian Era by M. V. Ingram

The Witch and the Shakers
Visitors and neighbors were not immune from the Witch’s performances either.  In one instance, the witch set three dogs (Caesar, Tige, and Bulger) on traveling Shakers, who never traveled by the farm again. 

The Silver Bullet
In another, neighbor and husband of Esther Bell, Bennett Porter fired a shot at a knotty log that had been conjured upon by the witch. She struck the bark and cut into it; but, the conjuration vanished.  Only the bent tree and bullet hole remained.  

Dr. Mize

Dr. Mize, The Wizard, 1894,

An Authenticated History of the Famous

Bell Witch: The Wonder of the 19th Century,

and Unexplained Phenomenon of the

Christian Era by M. V. Ingram

Dr. Mize
In another instance Dr. Mize, a noted conjurer from Simpson, Kentucky, came to exorcize the witch and was mocked and frightened away.

Betsy Bell
John Bell Sr. and Betsy Bell seemed to be the two most frequently abused by the Witch.  For reasons still unclear, the Witch adamantly opposed the union of childhood sweethearts, Betsy Bell and Joshua Gardner, frequently resorting to ruthless taunts and physical abuse.  Joshua and Betsy remained attached but she put off marriage in fear of the Spirit’s reprisal.  The Witch’s attacks on Betsy were not all related to her relationship with Gardner and the constant threat of the Witch began to effect her such that she became prone to fainting spells and smothering sensations, often appearing exhausted and lifeless.  Her experiences were not confined to the Bell property either.  Betsy later described one incident:

When the Spirit became so tantalizing, filling my mind with horror and causing me to become so nervous, my parents often sent me to a neighbor’s to rest for a night.  My first night away from home was spent with Theny Thorn….when we retired there came a loud knocking on our outside door, which seemed to fly open, and a great gust of wind was felt…Theny sprang up at once and lit a candle; to our surprise the door was not open.  Then a voice spoke softly: “Betsy, you should not have come over here; you know I can follow you anywhere. Now get a good night’s sleep.”  A soft hand patted my cheek and the voice again assured us that we would not be disturbed any more that night…

The rest of the family often attempted to give Betsy relief and family friend Frank Miles promised to protect Betsy from any further abuse by the “Spirit.”  Betsy said, “Frank was the most powerful man any of us ever saw, and just as fearless as any living man…one time he said to me, ‘come sit by me little sister…nothing will bother you while I am here.’  The Witch responded, ‘You go home; you can do no good here.’”  The Witch then began abusing Betsy, slapping her, pulling her hair before turning on Miles, knocking him over and enraging him. 

Betsy continued to endure the “Spirit’s” abuse and after calling off the marriage to Gardner, Betsy was eventually courted by and married to her former school teacher, Richard Powell.  Despite the apparent abatement of the Witch’s torments, in 1820, she left the area with her husband and settled in Mississippi.

Joshua Gardner Betsy Bell Frank Miles  

Joshua Gardner, 1894, An Authenticated History of the Famous Bell Witch: The Wonder of the 19th Century, and Unexplained Phenomenon of the Christian Era by M. V. Ingram

Elizabeth “Betsy” Bell, 1894, An Authenticated History of the Famous Bell Witch: The Wonder of the 19th Century, and Unexplained Phenomenon of the Christian Era by M. V. Ingram

Frank Miles, 1894, An Authenticated History of the Famous Bell Witch: The Wonder of the 19th Century, and Unexplained Phenomenon of the Christian Era by M. V. Ingram  

Death of John Bell
One of the central goals of the Bell Witch seemed to be the death of John Bell Sr.  “Old Jack Bell” as the spirit called him, was blasted with curses, heinous threats, and serious physical torments.  As the abuse continued to impact his psyche, Bell took to his bed and was cared for by John Jr.  On December 19, 1820, John Bell failed to leave his bed and John Jr. went to the cupboard to retrieve the medicine for his care.  Instead of the three medicine vials, he found only one vial.  It was one third full of a dark, smoky liquid of unknown origin.  The voice of the Witch gloated, “It’s useless for you to try to relieve Old Jack – I have got him this time; he will never get up from that bed again!”  She claimed of the vial that she “gave Old Jack a big dose of it last night while he was fast asleep, which fixed him.”  The contents of the vial were thrown into the fire and erupted into a blue blaze.  John Bell died December 20, 1820.  The Bell Witch crashed the funeral disrupting the service and singing bawdy drinking songs.

Death of John Bell Grave of John Bell  

The Death of John Bell, 1894, An Authenticated History of the Famous Bell Witch: The Wonder of the 19th Century, and Unexplained Phenomenon of the Christian Era by M. V. Ingram

The Grave of John Bell, 1894, An Authenticated History of the Famous Bell Witch: The Wonder of the 19th Century, and Unexplained Phenomenon of the Christian Era by M. V. Ingram

 

Andrew Jackson

Equestrian print of General Andrew Jackson

from the War of 1812, undated,

Library Photograph Collection

Andrew Jackson
Legend has it that the Bell Witch even had an encounter with then future President Andrew Jackson.  Jackson owned property on the Red River and desired to visit the Bell farm after hearing the stories.  One of his wagons became stuck by an unseen force and could not be moved, despite whipping the horses, examining the wheels, and having it pushed by the men in his party.  He exclaimed, “By the eternal boys, this is the witch.”  To which the Witch replied, “All right, General, let the wagon move on, I will see you again tonight.”  The wagon started of its own accord and they continued on their journey.  That evening at camp, a self-proclaimed “witch layer” or “witch hunter” said he had a silver bullet and regaled the men with tales of hunting witches.  Jackson whispered to a colleague, “I’ll bet this fellow is an errant coward.  By the eternals, I do wish the thing would come, I want to see him run.”  After which silence followed.  Suddenly there was the sound of light footsteps prancing on the floor and the voice stated, “Alright General, I am on hand and ready for business.”  The Witch bade the witch hunter to shoot but the gun did not fire.  The hunter was struck by an unseen force, claimed to feel the pain of being stuck by needles, exclaimed he had been grabbed by the nose, and fled from the tent.  The witch exclaimed, “How the devil did run and beg; I’ll bet he won’t come through here again with his old horse pistol to shoot me.  I guess that’s fun enough for tonight general, and you can go to bed now.  I will come tomorrow night and show you another rascal in this crowd.”  Jackson was eager to stay but his party had enough and Jackson returned to Nashville shortly thereafter.

Kate Batts
Mary Catherine “Kate” Batts (d. after 1847), the wife of Frederick Batts was believed by many to have been the culprit behind the disturbances known as the "Bell Witch."  Although not a poor woman, she was often mocked by others throughout the Red River Settlement in Robertson County. Her improper usage of words, along with her sometimes strange ways, led many to think she was practicing Black Magic or other forms of the occult. 

Kate Batts' Troop

Kate Batts’ Troop, 1894,

An Authenticated History of the Famous

Bell Witch: The Wonder of the 19th Century,

and Unexplained Phenomenon of the

Christian Era by M. V. Ingram

In the early years of the century, Benjamin Batts (the brother of Frederick Batts) had a dispute with John Bell over the sale of a slave.  Facts of the dispute were later "tangled," and became the source of a rumor to the effect that John Bell and Kate Batts had the quarrel, and that the Bell Witch was created by Kate Batts to get revenge on Bell. While there are plenty of stories connecting the Bell Witch to Kate Batts, and some sort of disagreement that existed between her and John Bell, recent evidence suggests that she had nothing to do with it. In fact, contrary to reports of her claiming that she would get even with John Bell on her deathbed, Kate Batts actually outlived John Bell by many years. Today there are many descendents of the Batts family living in Cheatham, Montgomery and Robertson County.

The Bell Witch Cave
Though it played a relatively minor role in the original Bell Witch legend of the early 19th Century, the cave on John Bell’s property has since become a focal point for visitors hoping to experience a bit of the haunting themselves.

Added to the National Historical Registry in 2008, the cave is the only original feature from the legend that can still be seen today largely unchanged from the way the Bell Family would have seen it in 1817. 

Though numerous eerie events have been reported by visitors to the cave (including the renowned difficulty in taking photographs around the site in the pre-digital age) nothing on the scale of the original haunting centered around the Bell House, long-since torn down, has been reported since the early 1800s.

Modern Myth Persists
Following the death of John Bell, the Witch’s activity dropped off sharply.  The spirit was still active through the winter and spring of 1821 but it soon bade the family farewell telling them it would be gone for seven years.  True to its word the family remaining on the property, Lucy, Richard Williams, and Joel, claimed the Witch did return in February 1828, reappearing in much the same way it appeared the first time with shaking beds and unexplained noises.  It soon vanished again, claimed it would return to haunt the Bell descendents once again in 1935 but no other specific hauntings of the Bell family or their property, on the level experienced in the early 19th Century, have been reported.  Despite this, unexplained activity in and around the Bell farm in Adams, Tennessee, continues.  Various encounters near the property, along the Old Nashville-Clarksville Road, and in the famous Bell Witch Cave still draw tourists and ghost hunters to Adams.  The Bell Witch has been the subject of countless modern books, analyses, documentaries and movies, including the 2006 wide-release motion picture An American Haunting, very loosely based on the Bell Witch legend.  Though the haunting of the Bell family apparently ended nearly 200 years ago, tales of the Bell Witch are as compelling in 2009 as they were in the 1819.