Featured Photo: Photo in Public domain, found in Ingram’s book, Authenticated History of the Bell Witch.
The Bell Witch was an alleged malevolent entity that terrorized the Bell family at their farm in the US state of Tennessee, the entity apparently also troubled surrounding locals as well in the Red River area between 1817 and 1821 near to the town of Adams which is where the Bell’s farm was located. The case of the spirit that was brought to wider attention by author Martin V. Ingram in his book titled ‘Authenticated History of the Bell Witch’, is described as one of the most well documented and violent spirits to have been documented, even going as far as allegedly killing a victim, using poison.
The Bell Witch entity was often not visible to its victims and also had the ability to affect the physical environment, shapeshift into animals and even had the ability to speak clearly, considering many supposed spirits require an EVP recorder to be heard properly, if at all, it is quite a significant claim. The entity apparently was also able to travel at super human speeds across great distances or even being in several places at the same time and also possessed clairvoyant abilities, meaning it was able to gain information from objects, people or things, kind of like a psychic.
The author Ingram in his book recorded that the entity was named ‘Kate’, claiming to be ‘Old Kate Batts’ witch’ which the entity would respond favorably too. Ingram claimed in his book and so you can get an idea of where the name ‘Bell Witch’ also came from. In the book it is also said that the physical activity from the entity often centered around the youngest daughter at the Bell Farm, called Betsy, which is often a common theme with these sort of hauntings that include poltergeist-like entities, where they attach themselves to a young person, often one that may be going through hormonal changes, such as that of puberty, I also talked a bit about that in my previous blogpost about the Enfield Haunting, although it is not known if this is exactly the case here. It was also recorded in the book that the entity became displeasured about Betsy’s engagement to a local, which she later called off due to the entity’s disapproval, perhaps to avoid further confrontation.
Photo in public domain, from Ingram’s book – Authenticated History of the Bell Witch. A picture of Betsy Bell, who the entity is said to take a particular interest in.
The first signs of a haunting begun some time in 1817, starting with John Bell witnessing an apparition of an unusual looking dog, for some reason it is said that John Bell fired at the animal where then it disappeared, I don’t know about you guys, but that seemed to me like a bad move. After that, strange signs continued in intensity around the Bell’s farm. These included Drew Bell, who was John’s son, witnessing an extraordinarily sized bird fly off of a fence it was perched on, clearly by his description of it, it was not anything native to the area. Betsy claimed to see a stranger, a girl dressed in green, swinging from an Oak tree. A slave of the Bell family, called Dean, also claimed to be followed by a large black dog on nights that he went to visit his wife. After a number of these documented signs seen by the Bell family and their slave, things begun getting more serious as the activity entered the Bell’s house on the farm.
Knocking along doors and walls begun to be heard throughout the house, of which the source could not be determined (again similar to how it first begun in the Enfield Haunting case). The family also begun to hear gnawing sounds on their beds, the sounds of dogs fighting… of which could not be located and also the sound of chains clinking and clanking along the floors of the house. But as is often the case with these poltergeist-like entities the worst was yet to come, the activity to little surprise continued to grow in intensity. Bed sheets begun to get yanked off beds by invisible forces, particularly from the children’s beds and the entity also became physical, again mostly against the children, that included scratching. Betsy became a particular focus of this physical aggression that also allegedly included slapping, pinching and getting stuck by pins.
After a while of living with the terror the family eventually reached out to a close family friend, called James Johnston, who after staying the night, claimed it was a spirit just like that described in the Bible. Sometime after this, word begun to spread of the strange goings on at the Bell Farm and soon people even travelled there, sometimes from long distances, to try and witness it for themselves. And this is where the tale of the Bell Witch really begins to get strange and almost humorous. It is around this time the Bell Witch entity allegedly begun to speak, including to the travelers coming to see it, getting to the point of having full blown and even intellectual conversations. The entity seemed to be well versed in biblical text and would also enjoy having religious arguments and also talking about the areas gossip, which it somehow managed to get knowledge of. At one point it was reported that the entity managed to repeat two sermons at the same time, that were happening at two different places.
Photo in Public Domain, from Ingram’s book – Authenticated History of the Bell Witch. An illustration of the Bell’s house.
The Bell Witch also explained why it had appeared of which it said was due to a Native American burial ground being disturbed on the Bell’s property. For a time, the Bell Witch even seemed to become friendly with the Bell’s, including towards John Bell’s wife which it apparently said she was, “the most perfect woman to walk the Earth”. The Bell Witch was also visited often by skeptics who didn’t believe the stories, but each one going away well convinced, in one case the Bell Witch visited the parents of a skeptic all the way back in England, mimicking his voice to them, the Bell Witch often mimicked voices of others to exact detail.
But in the end, it was not such a good ending as it all climaxed with John Bell apparently getting poisoned by the Bell Witch and dying, which the Bell Witch had claimed as her intention the whole time. After this in 1821 the Bell Witch said it was going to leave but return again in 1828, which it apparently did to Lucy Bell and her sons, but this time they mostly ignored it, choosing not to encourage it and it thereafter soon left again.
And that in general is the main story or legend of the Bell Witch haunting. Some say that the Bell Witch now resides, dormant, in a cave, called the Bell Witch Cave located near to the Bell Farm and that one day the entity will return again, although so far apparently that has not yet happened, although there have been a few instances of confrontations in and around the cave, including one where a rabbit chased a man down the road, after his car broke down near to the cave, the rabbit after catching up to the terrified man, apparently and humorously said, “Hell of a race we had there, wasn’t it?”.
The legend of the Bell Witch reads very much like a folklore story and some claim that that is simply all it actually is, while others maintain that the story has bits of truths to it, although parts may have been exaggerated, which can still put it into the realm of simple folklore. Whatever it is, something clearly influenced these series of events to be documented in the way they were, could it have been something that actually happened? Or was it only the archaic way of explaining and viewing things during the time?
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