The Bell Witch

The Bell Witch is the haunting of the Bell family centering on John Bell the patriarch of the family, and they endured from 1817 to 1821.

This legend begins in the early 1800s when John Bell moved his family from North Carolina to Red River bottomland Tennessee what is now known as Adams Tennessee. Bell bought some land and a large house for his family in the next few years he ended up owning up to 328 acres of land. He also became an Elder on the Red River Baptist Church; Red River was a nice change for the Bell family so much, so they had 3 more children.

In 1817 John Bell shot several times a strange looking animal that has the body of a dog and the head of a rabbit, the middle of a corn field. Later on, that same night the family started to hear what the family described as "beating" sounds.

The strange sounds increased in frequency, John and his sons would often hurry outside to watch whoever was making these sounds.

In the following weeks the Bells children would wake up scared and claiming that rats were gnawing their bed post, no long after that the children complained that their bed sheets and pillows will be tossed onto the floor.

Then the Bells began to hear whispering voices; it sounded like an old woman singing hymns.

The disturbances escalated so much that the entity started to attack Betsy Bell, her hair would be pulled, and she would be slapped relentlessly often leaving red marks and welts on her face and body.

Finally, John Bell told a close family friend James Johnson, skeptical Johnson and his wife spend the night at the Bells house where they were so frightened that Johnson told the Bells, " This is an evil spirit the kind that the Bible talks about."

The voice gained strength over time, it sang hymns, quoted scripture, carried conversations with the members of the family, word of the evens in the Bells house reached Nashville, where then Major General Andrew Jackson became interested in the Bell witch.

The ties with Andrew Jackson are there because John Bell Jr, Drewly Bell and Jesse Bell fought under Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans.

In 1819 Jackson paid a visit to the Bell house, during his visit one of Jacksons entourage claimed to be a "witch tamer" he pulled out a shiny pistol and claimed that its silver bullets would kill any evil spirits. This was prompted due to the lack of activity upon their arrival, and claimed the entity was "scared" of them. Immediately the man felt like he has been struck by pins and then thrown across the floor by an invisible entity.

No one knows what happened that night between the Bell witch and Jackson and his men but what is known that they were spotted near Springfield early the next morning.

Despite everything the Bell family tried to move on their lives as best as they could, Betsy Bell got engaged to a handsome young man Joshua Gardner. But not everyone was happy for the couple, first was Betsy old schoolteacher 11 years her senior Professor Richard Powell expressed disappointment on Betsy's engagement. And of course, the witch was not happy at all, the witch constantly terrorized the couple so much so that Betsy broke it off on Easter Monday 1821.

Before the breakup of Betsy and Joshua did the entity also focused on John Bell, relentlessly vowing to kill him, for a year John struggled to swallow and episodes of twitches.

By the fall of 1820 Johns health had declined so much he was bound to his house, with the witch where the entity constantly targeted him to taunts and physical abuse, after every seizure the entity would curse and chastise "old Jack Bell".

On December 20, 1820, after a day in a coma John Bell died.

Soon after his death John Bell Jr found a strange vial with black liquid in the cupboard, he then gave the cat two drops, the cat dropped dead almost immediately.

The entity sang during the entire funeral a song about brandy and laughed at the mourners.

Sometime in April 1821 the entity told John's widow Lucy that it will be back in seven years' time, which would be 1935.

The entity returned in 1828 as promised and had deep discussions with John Bell Jr, predicting the civil war and other events, after three weeks the entity left John but promising to return in 107 years to a direct descendent.

in 1934 Dr. Bell published a book about the Bell Witch and the return of this entity; however, he never published a fallow up and no one is sure if this entity ever returned. Dr. Bell died in 1945.

Now dear reader I ask you, do you think the Bell Witch ever came back? what was the entity and if any of this story is true at all?

And with this nice take from the Appalachia I bid you good night.