The Legend of the Bell Witch

With Halloween quickly approaching, the nation's need for those spine-tingling scares is slowing increasing. And, the hunger for the next big horror fiction is everywhere we turn. However, what most people don’t realize is that the true horror stories are all around us. One such story dates all the way back to the 1800s. It takes place in 1817, in a small sleepy town in Tennessee and involves the Bell family, which consisted of John Bell, his wife Lucy and his six children: Betsy, Richard, John Jr, Drewry, Benjamin and Jesse. The family lived a relatively normal life. So, when John and his family started to have strange sightings around their home, it was more than just a bit alarming.

One day, as John Bell was working in his fields, he came across a strange-looking creature. The creature had the body of a dog and the head of a rabbit. Shocked by the bizarre animal, Bell fired several shots. Soon after, the animal vanished. Spooked by the strange event, and assuming the appearance of the beast was nothing more than a trick of the light, he pushed the event to the back of his mind until later that night. As he sat around the dinner table with his family, they began hearing strange thudding and beating sounds emanating from outside the house. John and his sons ran outside to catch what they assumed were some kids from town. However, when they went outside, they found nothing but the cool night air. They went back into their home, assuming the trespasser had simply run off.

However, this would not be the end of the pounding noises. Every night after this, the racket continued, each time with more force. However, no matter how many times the Bell boys and their father went outside to catch the culprit, they always came back empty-handed. However, this was not the only strange event to plague the Bell family. Soon after, the children started waking up in the dead of night crying out that rats were attacking their bedposts. The Bell children gave reports of an unseen presence that would pull the covers off them at night.

John urged his family to keep their experiences to themselves. But the strange being that was haunting the Bells only increased its attacks on the family. They started hearing the voice of a woman singing hymns echoing around the farm. Bells youngest daughter, Betsy, started to experience physical attacks. She would experience hair pulling and violent slapping by the unseen force. Sometimes, the force of the attacks was so strong that they would leave welts and marks on the young girls’ face. Finally, one day, after a particularly violent attack, John decided to confide in the family’s good friend and neighbor, James Johnson.

Johnson and his wife wanted to see for themselves what was happening in the Bell house. So, they decided to spend the night in the old log cabin. They were soon subjected to the same torment that had been plaguing the Bell family. Word of the family’s hunting had spread as far out as Nashville. However, despite all of this, young Betsy managed to find love in the heart of a young boy named Joshua Gardner. Unfortunately, their happiness was short-lived because for reasons unknown, the entity disapproved of the match. It would harass the couple no matter where they went 'til finally Betsy called off the engagement to Joshua.

But this was not the end for the Bell family's torment, because the entity seemed to have turned its attention on John Bell himself. John, who had been experiencing strange twitches in the face and difficulty swallowing for almost a year, started to see his health take an ever-increasing downward spiral. The entity that had vowed to kill John finally got her way on December 20, 1820.

It is said, that as the grieving friends and family members of John Bell started to leave the funeral, the sounds of the spirit that had haunted the Bell family for all those years could be heard laughing and singing. It continued to celebrate the death of John until the last person left the cemetery. The entity continued to visit various members of the Bell family for almost 100 years.

It is said that if you visit the old Bell farm today, you might just hear people talking or children playing. And if you listen closely, you may just hear the old Bell Witch singing hymns across the grounds.