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The Bell Witch or Bell Witch Haunting is a legend from Southern United States folklore, centered on the 19th-century Bell family of northwest Robertson County, Tennessee.

Farmer John Bell Sr. resided with his family along the Red River in an area currently near the town of Adams. Ingram published his Authenticated History of the Bell Witch. While not a fundamental element of the original recorded legend, the Bell Witch Cave in the 20th century became a source of continuing interest, belief, and generation of lore.

In his book An Authenticated History of the Bell Witch, author Martin V. In modern times, the Bell Witch is commonly described as a poltergeist. That morning he told John Bell it was a "spirit, just like in the Bible." Soon word of the haunting spread with some traveling great distances to see the witch.

Ingram, in his An Authenticated History Of The Bell Witch, wrote that a Saturday Evening Post article regarding the Bell Witch had been retracted:

In the Centennial account, the Bell entity did not explicitly poison John Bell. In the Ingram account, attributed to Richard Williams Bell, John Bell was already suffering from an unknown affliction and bedridden for some time. Hopson, while the Bell Witch exclaimed she had fed the poison to John Bell.

So great was the excitement that people came from hundreds of miles around to witness the manifestations of what was popularly known as the "Bell Witch." This witch was supposed to be some spiritual being having the voice and attributes of a woman.

Ingram subsequently traveled to Chicago in October 1893, while editor of the Progress-Democrat, in an attempt to publish his manuscript, An Authenticated History of the Famous Bell Witch. Bell, a son of Richard Williams Bell and a grandson of John Bell Sr., explained that his father had met with his brother John Bell Jr. before his death and they agreed no material he had collected should be released until the last immediate family member of John Bell Sr. had died. The last immediate member of the family and youngest child of John Bell Sr., Joel Egbert Bell died in 1890 at the age of 76. Richard Williams Bell was roughly 6 to 10 years of age during the initial manifestations of the Bell Witch phenomenon and 17 at the occurrence of the spirit's return in 1828. Jim Brooks, a native of Adams, writes in his work Bell Witch Stories You Never Heard, that Bell family descendants report that Ingram did not return the manuscript to the family.

John Kendall of Guthrie, Kentucky, recalling memories near his 90th birthday in 1899, had visited the Bell family home during the disturbances as a boy and was asked if he believed in the Bell Witch. Charles Bailey Bell, a grandson of John Bell Jr., and neurologist in Nashville, published a book entitled The Bell Witch: A Mysterious Spirit in 1934. This included another account of Andrew Jackson's visit and of a boy trapped in the Bell Witch Cave and pulled out of the cave feet first by the witch. Bell also detailed a series of prophecies he stated were given to his ancestors in 1828 by the spirit, including a declaration the witch was set to return again in 1935, 107 years after her last visit to the Bell family.

An American television series – Cursed: The Bell Witch – based on selected descendants of the Bell family trying to end a curse.

A play by David Alford, Spirit: The Authentic Story of the Bell Witch of Tennessee, performed in Adams, TN during the Bell Witch Fall Festival in late October.

Ep 85: The Bell Witch Part 1; Ep 86: The Bell Witch Part 2 Two episode Astonishing Legends podcast.

"A Witch As Was A Witch" Article by Irvin S.

Quick Facts

• Ingram published his Authenticated History of the Bell Witch.
• Ingram, in his An Authenticated History Of The Bell Witch, wrote that a Saturday Evening Post article regarding the Bell Witch had been retracted:
• Ep 85: The Bell Witch Part 1; Ep 86: The Bell Witch Part 2 Two episode Astonishing Legends podcast.
• Jim Brooks, a native of Adams, writes in his work Bell Witch Stories You Never Heard, that Bell family descendants report that Ingram did not return the manuscript to the family.
• A play by David Alford, Spirit: The Authentic Story of the Bell Witch of Tennessee, performed in Adams, TN during the Bell Witch Fall Festival in late October.

Source material: Wikipedia - "Bell Witch". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.