The Story of the Bell Witch
The Story of the Bell Witch
This is the story of a "spirit" that haunted and terrorized an early pioneer family - driving a man to his death and inflicting a malevolent reign of terror on an entire community. The disturbances took place in Robertson County, Tennessee during the early 1800s, near the present-day town of Adams.
The "spirit’s" character was enigmatic - assuming many different forms, speaking with disembodied voices, and physically torturing John Bell and his family. Although the "spirit" twice claimed to have been a "witch," it actually meant different things to different people. At times, the "spirit" would manifest itself as a poltergeist, while at other times it would carry a deeper, more spiritual connotation.
Over the years, the many written and eyewitness accounts of this "spirit" became known collectively as the legend of the "Bell Witch." The legend’s credibility has been established in many ways, including but not limited to sworn affidavits, verbal accounts by members of the clergy, and detailed manuscripts penned by those who experienced direct encounters with the "spirit."
In the early 1800s, John Bell moved his family from North Carolina to the Red River bottomland in Robertson County, Tennessee, settling in a community that later became known as Adams. Bell purchased some land and a large, log house for his family to live in. The Bells quickly made many friends and gained prominence in the community. Over the course of several years, Bell acquired additional land and cleared a number of fields.
One day in 1817, John Bell was walking in his corn field when he encountered a strange-looking animal sitting in the middle of a corn row. Shocked by the appearance of this animal which possessed the body of a dog and the head of a rabbit, Bell shot several times but to no avail. The animal vanished, and Bell thought nothing more about it. That evening, the Bells began to hear what sounded like "beating" on the outside walls of their house.
These beating sounds continued for several nights, and the force and frequency seemed to increase each night. Bell and his sons would often hurry outside with hopes of finding the culprit, but always returned empty-handed. These nightly noises continued, and were followed by more problems when the Bell children began waking up in the middle of the night frightened and complaining of noises that sounded like rats gnawing at the bottoms of their bedposts. The children also complained of having their bed covers pulled, and that their pillows were tossed onto the floor.
As time went on, the Bells began to hear faint, whispering voices when encounters with this mysterious "spirit" took place. The voices were too weak to understand, but sometimes sounded as if they were a feeble, old woman crying or singing hymns. The encounters escalated in frequency and intensity, and the Bells’ daughter, Betsey, experienced a series of brutal encounters with the "spirit." The "spirit" pulled her hair and slapped her face repeatedly, leaving handprints on her face and body for days at a time. The experiences escalated to the point that the Bells had all they could take. It was time to share this "family trouble," as they called it, with people outside the family.
The Bells decided to tell their neighbor, James Johnston, about the encounters and seek his guidance. Johnson and his wife spent the night at the Bell home, where they were subjected to terrifying noises, their bed covers being pulled, and several episodes of being physically beaten and slapped. Johnston finally sprang out of bed and exclaimed, "I ask you in the name of the Lord God, who are you and what do you want?" The "spirit" did not respond, and the remainder of the night was peaceful.
As word of the encounters spread throughout the community, so did the "spirit’s" antics. Over time, the "spirit’s" voice strengthened to the point that it was loud and understandable. The "spirit" was known to have sung hymns, quoted scripture, carried on intelligent conversations, and once even quoted word-for-word two ministers’ sermons that took place at exactly the same time but some thirteen miles apart.
In the 1815 Battle of New Orleans, both John Bell, Jr. and Jesse Bell fought under then General Andrew Jackson, and had developed a good rapport with him. In 1819, Jackson got word of the disturbances at the Bell home and decided to pay a personal visit. Jackson and his entourage, consisting of several men and a large wagon, traveled from Nashville to the Bell home. As Jackson’s entourage approached the Bell property, the wagon suddenly stopped. The horses tried to pull as hard as they could, but the wagon still would not move.
After several minutes of cursing and trying to get the wagon to move, Jackson exclaimed that it must have been the "witch." As soon as Jackson uttered these words, an unidentified female voice spoke, telling Jackson and his men that they could proceed, and that "she" would see them again later that evening. The men were finally allowed to continue.
Jackson and John Bell had a long discussion about the Indians and other topics while Jackson’s men patiently waited to see if the "spirit" was going to manifest itself. One of the men in Jackson’s entourage claimed to be a "witch tamer." After several uneventful hours, this man decided to "call" the "spirit." He pulled out a shiny pistol and made his intent to kill the "spirit" known to all that were present. Almost immediately, the man began screaming and moving his body in many different directions. He said he was being stuck with pins and being severely beaten. The man quickly ran out the door, and the "spirit" announced that there was yet one more "fraud" in Jackson’s party, and that he would be identified on the following evening.
Terrified, Jackson’s men begged to leave the Bell farm. However, Jackson insisted on staying so that he could find out who the other "fraud" was. Jackson and his men eventually went out to the field to sleep in their tents, and the men continued to beg and plead with Jackson to leave.
Jackson maintained the position that he wanted to know whom the other "fraud" in his party was. However, by mid-day the next day, Jackson and his men had already left the Bell farm and were seen going through Springfield.
Jackson, a hero in the Battle of New Orleans four years earlier, was quoted as having said later, "I’d rather fight the entire British Army than to deal with the Bell Witch." Jackson went on to later become the President of the United States.
Over a period of time, Betsy Bell became interested in Joshua Gardner, a young man who lived not far from her. With the blessings of their parents, they agreed to engagement. Nevertheless, despite their evident happiness, the "spirit" repeatedly told Betsy not to marry Joshua Gardner. It is interesting to note that their schoolteacher, Richard Powell, was noticeably interested in Betsy and wanted to marry her when she became older. Powell was believed to have been a student of the occult, and had been secretly married to a woman in nearby Nashville for some time. Betsy and Joshua could not go to the river, the field, or the cave to play, without the "spirit" following along and persistently taunting them. Betsy and Joshua’s patience finally reached critical mass, and on Easter Monday of 1821, Betsy met Joshua at the river and broke off their engagement.
The encounters decreased after that heartbreaking Easter Monday, although the "spirit" continued to express its dislike for "ol Jack Bell," and relentlessly vowed to kill him. As Bell’s health grew worse, the "spirit" would torture him more severely, sometimes removing his shoes from his feet and relentlessly slapping his face while he was experiencing seizures.
On the cold morning of December 20, 1820, after a long battle with a crippling nervous system disorder, John Bell breathed his last breath. Immediately after Bell’s death, the family found a small vial of unidentified liquid that Bell had partaken of the evening before his death. John Bell, Jr. gave some of the liquid to the family’s cat, and the cat died almost instantly. The "spirit" suddenly spoke up exclaiming, "I gave Ol' Jack a big dose of that last night, and that fixed him." John, Jr. quickly threw the vial into the fireplace, where it shot up the chimney in the form of a bright, blue flame. As family and friends began to leave John Bell’s burial site, the "spirit" laughed loudly and sang a cheerful song about a bottle of brandy.
In April of 1821, the "spirit" visited Lucy Bell and told her that "it" would return in seven years for a visit. Seven years later, in 1828, the "spirit" returned as promised. Most of this visit centered on John Bell, Jr. The "spirit" discussed with him such things as the origin of life, Christianity, the need for a mass spiritual reawakening, and other in-depth topics. Of particular significance were the "spirit’s" predictions of the Civil War, World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II. John Bell, Jr., noted these conversations in meticulous detail in his manuscript, which the author of this article has had the privilege of reading.
After three weeks, the "spirit" bade farewell, promising to visit John Bell’s most direct descendant in 107 years. The year would have been 1935, and the closest direct living descendant of John Bell was Charles Bailey Bell, a physician in Nashville. Charles Bailey Bell himself wrote a book about the "Bell Witch," but it had been published prior 1935. No follow-up was published, and Bell died a few years later.
Today, the "spirit" which haunted the Bell family nearly 200 years ago is believed by many to be the source of numerous manifestations in the area where the story took place. Some believe that when the "spirit" returned in 1935, it took residence in a cave on the old Bell property where John Bell’s children once played, and which was the site of many encounters with the "spirit." Sometimes, the faint sounds of people talking and children playing can be heard near the back of the cave. A picture recently taken of a sinkhole near the cave revealed rising ectoplasm in the shape of a face exhibiting pain.
Several years ago, one of John Bell’s descendants was rabbit hunting and shot a rabbit, which wandered into some dense brush. While searching, he felt a large rock underneath the brush where the rabbit had entered. The rock turned out to be a part of Joel Egbert Bell’s tombstone, and the rabbit was never found. In the mid 1990’s, a picture was taken of a girl sitting on a rock outside the cave’s entrance. When the picture was developed, there appeared to be a man standing behind her. Upon expert examination, it was determined that the man-like image was not a double-exposure, but an entirely separate entity. It has been said that if you visit the fields of the old Bell farm on dark, cold and rainy nights, you can sometimes see small lights gliding over the fields and dancing in the dell.
The cause of the Bells’ torments nearly 200 years ago, and the periodic manifestations at present, has remained a mystery for generations. Numerous versions of the story, along with theories that purportedly explain the evil root cause of the manifestations, abound everywhere and vary from person to person. The only constant is that there was something "wrong" on the Bell farm in the early 1800s, and there is still something wrong at the old Bell farm today, nearly 200 years later.
