The Bell Witch haunting is a legend of Southern folklore that concerns events reputed to have taken place in Adams, Tennessee, between the years 1817–1821. A classic poltergeist tale, replete with knocking on walls, hair-pulling, and a variety of other disturbances of the night, it is an unusual story of this type in that the spirit is said to have murdered one of its victims.
John Bell, the ghost’s victim, was an esteemed landowner and gentleman farmer, long tormented by a vengeful spirit later dubbed the Bell Witch. Originally from Edgecombe County, North Carolina, John Bell and his affluent wife Lucy relocated with their family of six children (and their slaves) to Tennessee around the year 1804. Bell and many other prominent families from the southeastern United States ventured to middle Tennessee in the early nineteenth century. Migrants were attracted to the Red River region, considered the land of milk and honey, with fertile, ample lands for livestock, crops, and beekeeping. Tennessean Andrew Jackson was instrumental in removing large populations of Native Americans from tribal territory in the region through warfare and treaty, which allowed families like the Bells to move into Robertson County, Tennessee. Bell settled 1,000 acres around the Red River, setting up barns, orchards, and cornfields. Red River fostered a tight-knit farming and church-going community, and John Bell was one of its leaders, a champion of education, his homestead a place of rest for weary travelers in need of a roof for the night.
Carney Bell, the great-great-great-great grandson of John Bell, is shown by the historic marker that tells the story of the Bell Witch in Adams, Tennessee. A number of films have been inspired by the haunting of the Bell Farm in the early nineteenth century, perhaps most notably The Blair Witch Project. (AP Photo)
There are numerous stories surrounding the motives and possible identity of the Bell Witch, but one common thread that appears in the historical accounts published about the haunting identifies John Bell’s neighbor, Kate Batts, often referred to as “Old Kate,” as the tormenting witch. Reports of supernatural occurrences afflicting John Bell and his family members appear to have started somewhere around the time of a reputed financial dispute between John Bell and Kate Batts. Apparently, Batts’s husband was incapacitated due to an accident, and thus rendered physically unable to provide for his family. Kate was left to care for him and their two children while managing the farm and their slaves, which meant that the Batts family endured great suffering. The dispute between Bell and Batts arose over a sale of either land or slaves to John Bell, and the Batts accused Bell of taking advantage of them. The two parties went to court, which ultimately led to Bell’s excommunication from the Red River Baptist Church on charges of usury.
Even before the Bell Witch haunting began, Kate Batts had a fearsome reputation in middle Tennessee. She was known to be sharp-tongued and assertive, frequently accusing others of cheating her in business transactions. She became the focal point of local suspicions and rumors. According to reports, objects were flying loose in her house, and she begged for spare pins from neighbors, which she was thought to have used for sticking in dolls to cast evil spells. Studiously religious, Kate could quote the Bible inside and out, and rumors circulated that she had been spotted in attendance at two sermons occurring at two different churches simultaneously. She was known as a vicious gossip, her mannerisms were described as vulgar, and her appearance was portly and portentous.
The first sign of trouble at the Bell residence began in 1817, when John Bell and his children started spotting strange-looking animals near their property around dusk. Young Betsy Bell saw a girl dressed in green swinging from a tree branch in the woods near her house, a vision that swiftly disappeared. Next the spirit moved closer to their home. They heard knocking sounds on the doors and the walls of the house, from no apparent source. The Bell children heard the sound of rats gnawing at their bedposts at night, but never saw any rats. The family also heard the sound of chains rattling on the floor, but the source was never found. Around this time, John Bell also began feeling the first symptoms of illness, reporting a paralysis of the tongue that affected his ability to speak and eat.
Such events persisted for about a year before John Bell dared to share his family’s mysterious plight with anyone. Confiding in his closest friend and neighbor, James Johnson, the Methodist minister, Bell invited Reverend Johnson and his wife to his home to see if the spirit would appear with others in the house. Indeed, the hauntings continued. While the Johnsons tried to sleep, bed covers were pulled off their sleeping bodies repeatedly, and all heard the sound of knocking walls, smacking lips, and air being sucked through teeth. Reverend Johnson implored, “In the name of the Lord, what or who are you? What do you want and why are you here?” The sounds died down for a while after this, only to return with even more ferocity. It was rumored that these tales caught the attention of Andrew Jackson, who came once to visit the Bells to see the hauntings for himself. After wheels of his horse-drawn coach came screeching to a halt just outside the entrance to John Bell’s estate, so the story goes, Jackson retreated to Nashville, convinced of the Bell Witch’s power.
The Bell Witch had a particular affinity for harassing Bell’s daughter Betsy. The witch often appeared to poke, prod, and pull Betsy’s hair in the middle of the night. Betsy is said to have been slapped in the face by the spirit, leaving a crimson streak on her cheek. The Bell Witch also seemed to have a beef with her because of her association with Joshua Gardner, a neighbor and suitor, later to become Betsy’s fiancé. The witch whispered taunts and threats in Betsy’s ear, promising imminent doom to the couple if they were to marry. The two could not spend a moment of time together without the Bell Witch following and taunting them. Feeling wary and threatened, Betsy broke off the engagement and eventually married her teacher, Robert Powell, instead. Although eleven years Betsy’s senior, Mr. Powell had made his affections for the girl known for quite some time; Powell was also rumored to have dabbled in the occult.
While Old Kate toyed with poor Betsy Bell and Joshua Gardner, she focused her wrath most fiercely on John Bell. Beginning in 1817, Bell suffered from a mysterious affliction that progressively grew worse. What started with a swelling of the tongue and mouth led to twitching of the face and episodes of violent seizures. These spells would last for a few days, leaving Bell incapacitated, and then symptoms would disappear for months. When he was well enough to go out into the fields to labor, he would soon find himself surrounded by the verbal taunts of the Bell Witch, mocking him, sometimes pulling his shoes off while he tried to work. Exhausted by his battles with the vengeful spirit, John Bell expired on December 20, 1820. A vial of “medicine” was located near his body, and Old Kate bragged about her role in poisoning him.
Many details of the Bell Witch legend have been refuted by skeptics. For example, John Bell’s seizures could very likely have been signs of a neurodegenerative disorder, where patients present only sporadic symptoms. It has even been suggested in Ingram’s Authenticated History that slaves may have been directed by Kate Batts to create noise disturbances at the Bell house at night, and to target Betsy Bell with torments. In fact, Ingram’s work was apparently based almost entirely on diaries written by first- and second-generation members of the Bell family, decades after the original events took place. These original diaries were never actually seen or found outside of Ingram’s claims. There also exist no newspaper articles documenting John Bell’s “murder” by poisoning, nor Andrew Jackson’s visit to the Bell estate in 1819.
The Tennessee Historical Society has erected a road marker in Adams, Tennessee, beside the former Bell farm and family residence to commemorate the site of the Bell Witch haunting. The current owners of the property still maintain an active farm and give tours during the off-season of the cave where “Old Kate” is rumored to have appeared. Several fictional books and films were inspired by the Bell Witch legend, including The Blair Witch Project (1999), An American Haunting (2005) starring Sissy Spacek and Donald Sutherland, and the novel The Bell Witch: An American Haunting (1997) by horror author Brent Monahan. In the book’s preface, Monahan purports that the story is based on a manuscript written by Richard Powell, Betsy Bell’s husband, and given to his daughter upon his death, revealing the relentless attacks on the family’s sanity by the Bell Witch. Whether this tale is based on fact or fiction, we may never know; it is certain, however, that the Bell Witch tale of neighborly vengeance is an American yarn that has captivated imaginations for nearly two centuries.
The Ridley Creek Witch
Nearly a decade before the infamous Salem witch trials, Pennsylvania Quakers held their own witchcraft investigation, the only major one in Keystone State history. William Penn himself oversaw the proceedings, and he may have perceived the intolerance, ignorance, and fear that surrounded the accusations as anathema to the Quaker experiment in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; it is certain, in any case, that Margaret Mattson, the accused witch, a wealthy, Swedish-speaking old woman, may have been more resented than feared by her neighbors. Mattson’s ignorance of English did not endear her to her neighbors nor help her during Penn’s questioning, wherein she seems to have admitted to Penn that she flew on a broomstick. Mattson was acquitted of witchcraft, although she was convicted of “having the common fame of a witch,” a verdict that required her family to post a bond guaranteeing her good behavior.
C. Fee
Sherri Machlin
See also Amityville Hauntings; Bloody Mary or I Believe in Mary Worth; Demonic Possession; Exorcism; Haunted Houses; McPike Mansion; Old Granny Tucker; Stanley Hotel; Whaley House
Further Reading
Fitzhugh, Pat. 2000. The Bell Witch: The Full Account. Ashland City, TN: Armand Press.
Ingram, Martin Van Buren. 2009. An Authenticated History of the Famous Bell Witch. Rockville, MD: Wildside Press.
Monahan, Brent. 1997. The Bell Witch: An American Haunting. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Moretti, Nick. 2008. The Bell Witch Anthology: The Essential Texts of America’s Most Famous Ghost Story. Seattle: BookSurge.
Price, Charles Edwin. 1994. The Infamous Bell Witch of Tennessee. Johnson City, TN: Overmountain Press.