The REAL Bell Witch Legend: Kate Meets General Andrew Jackson

It's difficult to narrow down the field of Kate's best moments--a top ten of terror, as it were. This haunting was so extreme and so beyond just about any other documented paranormal event that even her quieter activities are pretty damn amazing. So,I have to narrow this down a bit. Perhaps the most famous Bell Witch exploit is the story of Kate vs. Old Hickory, and as it's one of the reasons why the Bell case grew to such proportions, it only seems fair to devote a post solely to it. 

Andrew Jackson was, at the time of the haunting, a bona fide American hero. It's generally known that at least the two eldest Bell sons and possibly the third (Jesse, John Jr., and Drew) had served under Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans. They were part of the original Tennessee Volunteers, which gives me a nice warm fuzzy feeling. All that being said, when word of the haunting reached the General's ears, he put together a party of men--including a man who was a 'witch-layer' or 'witch hunter'. Pat Fitzhugh on his Bell Witch website forwards a claim that this individual is Captain James Gordon, a longtime Jackson crony. At any rate, and according to multiple sources including an 1894 letter from Col. Thomas L. Yancey of Clarksville, TN (recollections of his grandfather, Whitmel Fort) to MV Ingram, and Harriet Parks Miller's 1930 account published by the Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle, General Jackson, American hero, met Kate, the Bell Witch. 

For the record, if an account of this encounter exists in Jackson's own writing, I've not heard of it. But Jackson was frequently in and around Robertson County, had an acquaintance with the Bell sons, and the subsequent account is Old Hickory right down to his toenails. 

Yancey's account begins with:

Gen. Jackson's party came from Nashville with a wagon loaded with a tent, provisions, etc., bent on a good time and much fun investigating the witch. The men were riding on horseback, and were following along in the rear of the wagon as they approached near the place. Just then, within a short distance of the house, traveling over a smooth level piece of road, the wagon halted and stuck fast (Ingram).

Miller's account differs slightly:

When within a few hundred yards of the Bell home, some member of the Jackson party spoke slightly of the Witch, when the wagon wheels suddenly refused to move. (Miller)

The men whipped the horses and pushed the wagon, but to no avail. It would not move.

Gen. Jackson, after a few moments' thought, threw up his hands exclaiming, "By the Eternal, boys, it is the Witch!" Then came the sound of a sharp metallic voice from the bushes saying, "All right, General, let the wagon move on. I will see you again tonight."
The men in bewildered astonishment looked in every direction to see if they could discover from whence came the strange voice, but could find no explanation to the mystery. Gen. Jackson exclaimed again, "By the eternal, boys, this is worse than fighting the British!" The horses then started unexpectedly of their own accord...(Ingram)

Thus the score so far was Kate 1, Old Hickory 0, 'by the Eternal' 2. So the party settled in at the Bell's, and here again is a difference between the two accounts. Miller wraps the tale up as follows:

...it kept its promise. The Witch was out in full force, singing, swearing, pulling cover from the beds, slapping and pinching pretty Betsey (sic) Bell till she screamed with the pain. The Jackson party did not sleep a wink, and when morning came they were ready to go home... (Miller)

But Yancey's 1894 account, coming as it did from a man who grew up in Adams and whose grandfather witnessed the haunting, seems to me to more likely be an accurate, unedited relation of events--particularly since the Yancey version is the one that has been handed down in local folklore and is the first story I ever heard of the haunting from my own family's stories, which was already in the area when the Bell haunting occurred.

Gen. Jackson was out with the boys for fun--"witch hunting"--and was one of them for the time. They were expecting Kate to put in an appearance according to promise, and they chose to set (sic) in a room by the light of a tallow candle, waiting for the witch. The witch layer had a big flintlock army or horse pistol...He talked much, entertaining the company with details of his adventures, and exhibitions of undaunted courage and success in overcoming witches. He exhibited the tip of a black cat's tail, about two inches--

Superstition break. A black cat was thought to store a witch's magic in its tail--a superstition that went all the way back to France in the Middle Ages and perpetuated by sailors, who thought black cats could start storms at sea with that magic and Appalachian settlers who believed rubbing a black cat's tail on a stye would make it go away. But probably more to the point in this cat, a black cat is the standard witch's familiar--her consciousness in animal form. Okay, Col. Yancey. You can continue.

--telling how he shot the cat with a silver bullet while sitting on a bewitched woman's coffin, and by stroking that cat's tail on his nose it would flash a light on a witch the darkest night that ever come; the light, however, was not visible to anyone but a magician. (Ingram)

Okay, bulls**t break. Seriously, dude? Logic indicates that said light was static electricity, but still--poor marks on the SPCA and funeral etiquette boards. Which is probably why--

Leaning over, he (Jackson) whispered to the man nearest him, "Sam, I'll bet that fellow is an arrant coward. By the eternals, I do wish the thing would come; I want to see him run."

Ole Hickory was a smart man. 

The General did not have long to wait...a noise like dainty footsteps prancing over the floor and quickly following, the same metallic voice heard in the bushes rang out from one corner of the room, exclaiming, "All right, General, I am on hand ready for business." And then, addressing the witch layer, "Now Mr. Smarty, here I am. Shoot."
The seer stroked his nose with the cat's tail, leveled his pistol, and pulled the trigger, but it did not fire. "Try again!" exclaimed the Witch, which he did with the same result. "Now it's my turn; look out, you old coward, hypocrite, fraud. I'll teach you a lesson." The next thing a sound was heard like that of boxing with the open hand, whack! whack!, and the oracle tumbled over like lightning had struck him, but he quickly recovered his feet and went capering around the room like a frightened steer, running over everyone in his way, yelling, "Oh my nose, my nose, the devil has got me! Oh lordy, he's got me by the nose!"
Suddenly, as if by its own accord, the door flew open and the witch layer dashed out and made a bee line for the lane at full speed, yelling every jump...

Okay, let's be honest. Who wouldn't have wanted to be there to see that? Andrew Jackson shared my opinion, for--

Jackson, they say, dropped down on the ground and rolled over and over, laughing. "By the eternal, boys, I never saw so much fun in all my life. This beats fighting the British!" Presently the witch was on hand and joined in the laugh. "Lord Jesus," it exclaimed, "How the old devil did run and beg; I'll bet he won't come here 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." (Ingram)

Strangely enough, the rest of Jackson's party refused to stay another day, despite the General wanting to hang around for more fun. I get the feeling that Ole Hickory and Kate shared a lot of similar traits, and she obviously had great respect for him. They certainly enjoyed the chastisement of rascals, as the famously vindictive President and the equally malicious entity proved multiple times.

Now, let's stop and take a look at this encounter for a moment, because there are some significant items for us to analyze. First off, I think from my analysis of the sources that the Yancey version of this story is the one that originated in Adams, while the Miller version of the story appears to come from sources involving Andrew Jackson. This would account for the differences in the story, especially if Pat Fitzhugh is correct and John Gordon is the source for the "witch-layer" part of the story. It makes sense that the story from Jackson's camp would gloss over that particular incident, which indicts one of Jackson's close political allies.  

Second, one of the things that strikes me is the resemblance in language between this letter from Yancey and the accounts of Richard Williams Bell and John Bell Jr. Remember Mr. Williams, the detective, who also sat around bragging about what he'd do to the witch? The witch made a point of saying I will satisfy him he is not as smart as he thinks in that instance, while here she said Here I am, Mr. Smarty; shoot. Both men received much the same fate as well, for Kate didn't suffer fools lightly and enjoyed beating the crap out of them. In both cases, she let the men boast--basically set them up for punishment by deliberately staying quiet until just the right moment. And she displays that eerie prescience as well, by knowing not only the intentions of both men but their likely response to getting manhandled by an invisible force. 

For me, seeing as we're discussing two separate incidents related by two different authors--and with a time difference as well--I have to speculate that these events most probably occurred pretty much as they were related, the only difference being the story of the witch hunted. The parallels are just too close--and there are other incidents in the Bell case that are also remarkably analogous to these. These stories create a definite pattern, as well as insight into the entity's developing personality. That personality developed into something so strong, so individual, that witness stories originating from entirely different sources seem like they were written by the same person. Miller's coup de grace ending of the story kind of reaffirms that:

Nashville friends, knowing the intentions of the General's trip and also his previous skepticism as to the existence of the so-called witch, were surprised to see him back so soon and began plying him with questions as to what he saw and heard, at which the General replied, "By the Eternal, I saw nothing but I heard enough to convince me I'd rather fight the British than to deal with this torment they call the Bell Witch." (Miller)

Again, the similarity but not quite exact repetition of Jackson comparing the haunting to fighting the British speaks for the authenticity of these accounts as related by the descendants of witnesses decades later. 

So how certain can we be that this event really happened? The short answer is--we can't. There is no letter, no paragraph, no sentence in Andrew Jackson's handwriting that establishes this encounter between Ole Hickory and the Bell Witch. I tend to think that involves the eighteenth century bad habit of burning personal correspondence after someone's death. All this having been said, however, I think it is probably the event actually did take place. The two primary accounts--and there are other confirmations from other sources, but these are the primary ones--have distinct similarities without any word for word repetition. The sole real difference in the stories, involving the purported witch-layer, makes sense to me if the Ingram account originated with locals and the Miller account with the circle around Andrew Jackson. And considering the fact that the Bell sons served under Jackson in the army, along with the proven frequency of Jackson's travels in and near Robertson County, there is enough motivation, I think, for him to leave the Hermitage for a week of fun camping out on the Bell farm and hunting the witch. 

But I have to admit--if I could go back in time to any moment of the Bell haunting, I'd go back in a flash to watch Andrew Jackson meet the Bell Witch. Not only would it just be simply incredible to witness, but the incident also reveals a side of the entity that, while not benevolent by any stretch, is mischievous and actually pretty darn funny. I have a feeling that these two titans of 1819 Tennessee would have a secret soft spot for each other, creating a moment of accord between them before they moved on to their primary purposes for existence. 

And with Kate, that purpose becomes increasingly powerful--and malicious. 

Next time, you're going to learn some of my paranormal encounters in Adams, including the Bell cemetery, farm, cave, and school. However, you'll also hear my opinion of why the new A&E show Cursed: The Bell Witch is most likely a trumped up exploitation of the Bell Witch legend than what its viewers might expect. 

Why, you ask? 

Well for a couple of reasons. First off, considering the number of prosperous and long-lived landowners, lawyers, doctors and politicians among the Bell descendants, it's hard to consider them cursed. And second?

Because Kate said she wouldn't haunt or curse the Bell descendants--and if there's one thing that's for certain, it is that Kate would do exactly what she said she would do. So, we shall see.

Better buckle up.

The Bell Witch--The REAL Legend Part One: How The Most Infamous Haunting in History Began And What Makes It Unique

All right, let's start off with a little information and a few ground rules. 

I grew up on the outskirts of Clarksville, Tennessee, about 15 miles away from the mega-metropolis of Adams. Adams is TINY. It basically consists of an old-school convenience store, a couple of churches, a railroad crossing and a turn of the century schoolhouse that was once an antique mall and now is a center of all trades. Rural does not even begin to describe that part of Robertson County, and it's that part of Tennessee where farms extend as far as the eye can see on either side of the road.

But there's something else in  Adams--a unique industry that cannot be claimed anywhere else in the world. It consists of two graveyards--one public and one hidden--a cave, a room in the schoolhouse-cum-community center, and all that aforementioned farmland. That industry was launched in 1817, on the farm of the community's most prosperous land owner, John Bell, when his family became the victims of what is arguably the best-documented paranormal event in American history. Of course, I'm talking about the Bell Witch. You already knew that because you're smart and read the title. The Bell haunting is historically significant for a couple of reasons. First, it is the only such episode ever investigated by a state government and deemed to be supernatural. And second, the Bell Witch's most famous encounter was with Old Hickory--Andrew Jackson, before he was elected President. 

As of late, though, the Bell Witch is gaining new notoriety. In fact, the reason you're reading this blog is most likely because you googled the new reality show on A&E Cursed: The Bell Witch, or saw the truly excruciatingly bad and non-researched movie An American Haunting or last year's Ghost Adventures episode where they were the first paranormal television show to investigate the Bell Witch Cave. But I have to tell you--anytime you add film cameras or Hollywood to a story, the 'reality' portrayed isn't always the reality. 

Aside from growing up in the area, I have a couple of other legend advantages. First off, I started researching the Bell Witch legend in the 1980s while I was in college. I knew the longtime owner of the farm where the Bell Witch cave is located for years--he was a farmer, my dad owned a farm store--and so I was able to learn a lot of what happened in the decades his family had been on the land. While I was attending Austin Peay State University, the famous playwright Arthur Kopit was brought in as the first artist-in-residence for the Center of the Creative Arts. While he was at APSU. Kopit wrote a play based on the legend that the theater department produced. I contributed research for that project. And finally, I have had my own paranormal experiences in and around Adams, both when I visited the owner of the Bell farm like a proper young adult (which included a couple of all-night investigations in the Bell Witch Cave) and when I visited the Bell farm like a stupid and lawbreaking young adult in the middle of the night (when I could find the hidden Bell cemetery through corn fields, woods, and even in bad weather. What? It's only a mile or so from the road...) 

Sic transit gloria... Yes. I was one of those kind of kids.

At any rate, there are my bona fides. I plan to write a multiple post blog series that will incorporate the historical facts behind the Bell Witch legend, along with anecdotes regarding paranormal activity in and around Adams from people I interviewed as well as my own paranormal experiences on what was the Bell land. So--ready to get started?

There are three primary source materials for the Bell Witch legend. First is the 1934 book "The Bell Witch of Tennessee" written by the physician and direct descendant of the Bells, Charles Bailey Bell. This source is important because it contains the memories of multiple Bell family members who had experienced the haunting. Second, and probably the more expansive source is M.V. Ingram's 1894 book "Authenticated History of the Bell Witch (and Other Stories of the World's Greatest Unexplained Phenomenon)". These book also include "Our Family Troubles", a previously unpublished journal written by Richard Williams Bell, who was the next-to-the-youngest son, being around seven when the haunting began.(Richard Bell's account was written from memory some forty years after the haunting ended, and is the only known account produced by any of the Bell family who were present during the haunting.) In my opinion, the Ingram book is the better source. His understanding of the haunting was perfectly summed up on the cover page of his book. Ingram billed the story as being about "the mysterious talking goblin that terrorized the west end of Robertson County, Tennessee, tormenting John Bell to his death."

That right there, folks, is a succinct and horrifically accurate description of what this legend entails. The entity talked--in fact, carried on full conversations with whoever happened to be present--and possessed a distinct personality and agenda. And that agenda was simple: the Bell Witch existed to torture and eventually murder the Bell patriarch, John with a secondary mission of forcing his daughter, Betsy, to not marry Joshua Gardiner, a young man with whom she 'had an understanding'.

And that's exactly what happened.

That's the simple, unvarnished truth of the matter--and that's why I'm writing this blog series. There's absolutely no need to exaggerate what occurred on the Bell farm during those years when the entity was torturing the family. In the end, what's the most important thread of this story is very straightforward--the Bell family was haunted by an entity who said from the very first utterance of words that it was there to torture and kill John Bell, Senior. So let's chuck all the BS and relate the legend, simply, as it was originally recorded by witnesses. I'll throw in anecdotal tales from my research in Adams from the 1980's, 90's, and 2000's and my own paranormal experiences. But all the speculation, the hyperbole, the 'dramatic license' crap? We'll leave that to filmmakers.

There's no witchcraft in this story. The experience of the Bell family was a haunting, plain and simple. But this haunting was so spectacular, so incredible, so infamous that for several years people from all over the world traveled to the Bell farm to witness the antics of this entity. Being simple, God-fearing folk, they didn't call the bizarre things going on a 'haunting', and I doubt they even knew what a 'poltergeist' was. They identified it as a witch, and that led to some serious ramifications for one woman who lived in the neighborhood. You know how in every neighborhood there's one woman who's so mean that no one likes her? In 1817 Adams, that neighbor's name was Cate Batts, and the 'witch' claimed to originate from her. And so the entity came to be called--and answer to--the name Kate. Therefore, I'll refer to her the same way, and use the feminine pronouns when referring to her.

I do have one hypothesis to put out there, however. Looking back 200 years, we do have to consider that Kate was a manifestation of some demonic entity. There's no way to prove that theory, unfortunately. There has not been at any time. as far as I know, any formal investigation or acknowledgement of the Bell Witch by a religious organization or representative. I think the ongoing paranormal events in Adams today really are nothing more than a haunting, and that any diabolical influence left with the original entity's well-documented departure. I have no idea who or what is haunting the cave, farm, the old Bell school, or the structures on the original Bell lands now. But if I had to make a guess, I do think the original witch was either a demon or an entity working on behalf of one. The abilities demonstrated by Kate are unmatched to this day, even by the most famous hauntings in the world like Amityville or the Enfield poltergeist, and are in my personal opinion indicative of something much stronger than a regular run of the mill ghost.

If there is such a thing.

So let's begin.

In 1804, John Bell brought his wife, Lucy, and their growing family to settle in Robertson County, Tennessee on the banks of the appropriately named Red River. The Bell family were well-to-do back in North Carolina, and so John Bell was able to carve out an extensive property in what is now the tiny bump in the road named Adams. The Bells had a large family, with two daughters--Esther and Elizabeth--and a horde of sons--John Jr., Jesse, Drewry, Benjamin, Zadok, Richard Williams, and Joel, and became one of the leading families in the region. {They also owned several slaves--which is a historical fact and an important part of the story so I'm not going to gloss that aspect over, okay? Don't blame me--I'm just the writer.}

The two oldest sons served under Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812--a fact that will become important later. The older daughter, Esther, was married and in a home of her own when the haunting began. The younger daughter, Betsy, was thirteen--an age that proponents of the poltergeist theory cite as being significant, especially as she was specifically targeted as the secondary victim of the witch's anger. But what makes the poltergeist theory suspect, in my opinion, is the fact that the inciting incident for the haunting didn't happen in the house, in Betsy's range of potential influence. That first encounter happened literally in the middle of one of John Bell's huge cornfields, in the fall of 1817, followed by a series of other outdoor sightings experienced by various other members of the Bell extended family.

John Bell was walking through the field with his gun--as any smart pioneer would do back in the untamed wilderness that made up the majority of Tennessee--when he suddenly came face-to-face with a bizarre black animal. The creature--which he finally identified (dubiously) as some kind of weird feral dog--was just sitting in the middle of a row of corn, staring at him. The silent confrontation went on for a few moments, until John finally shot at the thing and it ran off.

A few days later, his young son Drewry--we'll call him Drew--ran across a huge black bird that he originally thought was a turkey. He ran into the house for a gun to kill it, and when he came back the 'turkey' was still sitting there, watching him. As he got closer, he realized that this bird wasn't a turkey. For one thing, it was too big and for another it was completely black. As he got close enough to raise his gun, the bird flew off.

Not too long after that, Betsy was walking in the woods with the younger children, when she ran into a pretty little girl dressed in green swinging high up in the branches of an old oak tree. The little girl wouldn't acknowledge their calls, and before long she disappeared. Soon after that, Betsy encountered a strange woman near their house. She spoke to her, and the woman disappeared.

One of the Bell slaves, Dean, was married. His wife, Kate, belonged to one of the Bell's neighbors, so every night Dean went to visit his wife. After the above events, a strange black dog began to show up in the middle of the road at the exact same place every single night. It would go the rest of the way with Dean to his wife's cabin and then disappear.

To this day, there are sightings of strange animals in and around the Adams area--something I experienced for myself during the most significant paranormal encounter I ever had there.

More on that in a later post.

In the winter of 1818, the manifestations moved into the Bell house. Don't fall into the trap of thinking this was some grand Southern plantation, by the way. I've been to the sinkhole where the remnants of the Bell homestead collapsed and we are not talking about some pioneer mansion here. In fact, it was used as a corn crib not too long after the haunting ended, which should give you a pretty good idea of its size. The house was big for its time, most likely, and because the Bells were prosperous may have possessed some finishing work their neighbors couldn't afford--like glass windows, perhaps siding over the original logs or plaster on the inside walls. But that was probably it. The upstairs was divided into at least two rooms--one for the boys and one for the girls that Betsy occupied alone since the marriage of her sister--and perhaps a third bedroom space, which would have been used by guests or if it was the Bells' turn to board the schoolteacher. John and Lucy Bell slept in a room downstairs. Within a few weeks from the commencement of the haunting, every single room in the house experienced some sort of phenomena.

The haunting progressed slowly into a kind of daily torture. At first, the Bells heard scratching and rustling-- Richard Williams Bell described it as a sound like "a rat gnawing on the bedpost". The boys would light a candle so they could kill the rat, but when the candle flared to life the scratching stopped and there was no rat--or gnaw marks--to be found. The scratching noise moved to the walls, and was quickly followed by knocking then beating on the outer walls of the house. The knocking moved to the front door, as if someone was banging loudly to wake the household. But when someone went to the door, there was no one there.  As soon as whoever'd investigated went back to bed, the noise would start right back up and frequently last through most of the night.

The Bells were keeping these disturbing events quiet. At first, they thought they were being tormented by some mischief-maker in the neighborhood, but it soon became clear that no one else in the community was having these types of troubles and that the disturbances were increasing in frequency and severity. The entity was now making sounds like a person about to speak--sounds like the smacking of someone's lips, gulps, choking sounds, or someone clearing their throat. Richard reported that now blankets were being pulled from the beds, that sounds like big stones rolling down the roof overhead, chains dragging on the floor or chairs being knocked over were now keeping the family awake night after night.

And then, finally, the entity began to physically abuse people in the family. Richard wrote that he 'felt my hair beginning to twist, and then a sudden jerk, which raised me. It felt like the top of my head had been taken off.' (Our Family Trouble, Richard Williams Bell) The entity began to systematically terrorize Betsy, who as the only girl at home had the dubious distinction of a room to herself, pulling her hair, slapping her face, and pinching her. Then John Bell Sr. started to display the first symptoms of the spirit's enmity and the strange physical ailment that would eventually lead to his final illness, His tongue would abruptly stiffen--which he described as feeling like a piece of wood was stuck sideways in his mouth--and while it was like that he couldn't eat or talk.

The worsening situation in the Bell home had reached the breaking point. For around a year, the family had kept the phenomena secret, but now the nightly torture had escalated to such a level that they no longer could. They needed answers, but had no idea where to go for them. But being a pioneer family with strong roots within their church, they had an idea who might be able to help.

So, John Bell told the family minister, James Johnson, what was going on, and invited him to spend the night at he Bell farm to witness these goings-on for himself. Rev. Johnson and his wife came, and that night before everyone went to bed he held a service for the Bell family. Through dinner and the rest of the evening, the entity had been quiet--which, if you think about it, is an even more cruelly refined torture than what they'd been experiencing. 1818 is not that far removed from the witch trials in the grand scheme of things. Can you imagine what the Bells were thinking? Here they've finally confessed to their minister what they've been suffering through, and when he gets there the damn ghost doesn't do a damn thing! Imagine them sitting through an early 19th century prayer service, desperately afraid of what's tormenting them but even more afraid that it'll leave them alone that night and not do anything. I mean seriously--which option would you pray for?

But the quiet didn't last any longer than it took for the family and their guests to snuff out the lights and go to bed. The spirit began its nightly rampage, going from room to room and finally landing into the guest bedroom where Rev. and Mrs. Johnson lay, listening to all the noises. The entity jerked the blankets from the bed, shocking the good Reverend, who sat straight up in bed and demanded that the spirit "reveal itself and tell for what purpose it was there". (Ingram, Authenticated History of the Bell Witch) Subsequently, Rev. Johnson, in talking the matter over with the Bell family, became convinced that whatever was lurking in the shadows was some kind of intelligent being. After all, he pointed out, the spirit certainly understood language and when it was spoken to all other activity ceased for a moment, as if it was listening. He thought that the entity could probably talk. He encouraged the Bells to let the news of what was happening to them spread, and bring other people into their home to witness and therefore document their experiences. The Bells took his advice, and they surely didn't have a clue of what would happen to them as a result. The next few years saw the Bell household packed to the rafters, as first their neighbors and then hordes of people--wholly uninvited, unannounced, and unknown--descended upon their farm to see this spectacle for themselves. The Bells housed and fed every single guest, and it must have cost them so much, especially back in those days when every morsel of food on their table was produced through months of back-breaking labor from the entire family. They were basically running a B&B for nonpaying guests.

But there was a bigger consequence of Rev. Johnson's first visit. His belief that the spirit could communicate with them led to what is probably the most fascinating aspect of the haunting. For within a short while, the witch learned how to talk. Not whispers in a sound range above or below the auditory range that is a human's ability to hear. Not EVPs or moving a planchette or knocking once for yes, twice for no. The single-most unique element of the Bell Witch haunting is that Kate learned how to talk, to shout, to sing. She carried on long conversations with guests, she repeated two religious sermons taking place at the same time but seven miles apart word for word, she sang songs to soothe Mrs. Bell when she was ill, and sang bawdy songs at John Bell's funeral.

Let's put that into perspective. There are a lot of paranormal research groups out there, and information is more readily available on the subject now than ever before. I've spent the last couple of days chasing leads, trying to find any haunting that parallels the Bell case solely on the basis of an entity being able to converse with any and all people it chose to, in front of witnesses. I can't find a single one. Oh, sure, there's lots of documented cases where a person hears a disembodied voice once or twice. But Kate, once she began to talk, never shut up. She talked off and on, all day, every day--through Betsy's breaking of her engagement, through John Sr's death in 1820, until she departed over three YEARS after her first words. And when she returned as promised seven years later, she was talking like she'd never left at all--leaving a series of remarkable prophecies in her conversations with John Jr in 1928 that were documented by his son.

And when Kate talked, everyone could hear her. Her conversation with General Jackson occurred in the middle of the forest with scores of witnesses--and they were miles from the Bell farm when it happened. She showed up at other people's houses, at church, during community events--in short, wherever or whenever she pleased. There was no equivocation in any witness testimony either. They all, universally, corroborate the fact that Kate had vocal interactions on a daily basis as if she were, in fact, another person sitting in the room. That fact alone elevates this haunting to a level that is unmatched historically.

But all the source materials agree on one thing. After Rev. Johnson declared that the entity was some kind of intelligent supernatural being, the Bells and visitors began to encourage it to speak. Richard Bell described the process that led finally to a conversant entity:

"...visitors  persisted in urging the Witch to talk and tell what was wanted, and finally it commenced whistling when spoken to, in a low broken sound, as if trying to speak in a whistling voice, and in this way it progressed, developing until the whistling sound was changed to a weak, faltering whisper, uttering indistinct words. The voice, however, gradually gained strength in articulating, and soon the utterances became distinct in a low whisper, so as to be understood in the absence of any other noises. I do not remember the first intelligent utterance, which, however, was of no significance, but the voice soon developed sufficient strength to be distinctly heard by everyone in the room. This new development added to the sensation already created. The news spread, and people came in larger numbers, and the great anxiety concerning the mystery prompted many questions in the effort to induce the Witch to disclose its own identity and purpose..." (Our Family Trouble, Bell)

 This description is, in my opinion, overlooked by paranormal investigators. Ever since Harry Houdini was busting fraudulent mediums who hid their creative husbands behind secret panels in the wall to whisper grieving widows out of their pensions, the paranormal field hasn't given much credence to the concept of spirits verbalizing. The Bell Witch case is unique, and to my mind it begs the question--if simple American pioneers in early 19th century Tennessee can encourage an entity to learn to talk, how hard would it be for paranormal researchers to do the same now, with the advantages technologically that we have--as well as not having to worry about the neighbors using you for firewood if you succeed?

So now, the Bell Witch was talking, and nothing would ever be the same again.

Seems like a good place to end this first installment. So think about it, really consider how this supernatural event began to take shape for John Bell and his family--and next time we'll dive into some ridiculously detailed information of how the Bell household rather quickly turned into the pioneer version of a three ring circus--complete with chaos, tragedy, and the heartbreak of young love denied.

 Gentle Readers--I've linked to source materials that I encourage you to check out. If you have any questions or comments to add, please do so and I'll be happy to answer them as best I can--or point you in the right direction if I don't know the answer. The Bell Witch haunting is a huge case history, coming up on its 200 year anniversary and as long as Adams remains haunted that file will just continue to grow.