The Bell Witch: The Full Account (24 page)

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time it was the sound of beautiful music, and not the

melancholy voice blowing through the trees.

Beautiful Music at the Enchanted Spring

One day in the spring of 1866, John Gunn and

A.L. Bartlett crossed the Red River near the

Enchanted Spring on their way home to Adams

Station after having spent the day with their lady

friends in nearby Guthrie, Kentucky. Hot and

exhausted from the trip, they partook of the

Enchanted Spring’s cool and flowing water once they

crossed the river.

As they finished guzzling the refreshing water, they

began climbing the long and gradual slope next to

the spring where they would soon reach Johnston

Springs Road.
Having gotten no more than a few

yards, they began hearing loud, ear-piercing tones

that evolved into a musical score they later described

as being the sweetest music they had ever heard.

The music filled the entire forest with a loud and

sweet melody like none ever heard before. Neither of

the men could move while they listened to the music;

the loud tones and sweet melody had a paralyzing

effect on them. They listened to this beautiful music

until it stopped some thirty minutes later. The men

tried desperately to find the source of the music but

found nothing. Neither man crossed the Red River in

this area again, nor married on the north side of the

river. r

One of the more frequent happenings in the

Nineteenth Century was the machinery’s

mysteriously running at Clark’s Mill, just down the

Red River from the Bell farm. Many times, someone

could go by there at night and either see mysterious

lights glowing or hear the sound of the machinery

grinding.

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CHAPTER TWENTY

Early Published Accounts

T HE THREE NINETEENTH CENTURY

accounts published above are but a few of

many reported encounters with Kate after her

supposed departure. Such accounts were even taken

under oath on some occasions. The following are

among the earliest published accounts of the “Bell

Witch.”

The Goodpasture Account

One of the earliest published accounts of Kate was

a paragraph written in a history book by Tennessee

Historian Albert Virgil Goodpasture, in 1886:

“A remarkable occurrence, which attracted wide-

spread interest, was connected with the family of

John Bell, who settled near what is now Adams

Station about 1804. So great was the excitement

that people came from hundreds of miles around

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179

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.

It was invisible to the eye, yet it would hold

conversation and even shake hands with certain

individuals. The freaks it performed were

wonderful, and seemingly designed to annoy the

family. It would take the sugar from the bowls,

spill the milk, take the quilts from the beds, slap

and pinch the children, and then laugh at the

discomfiture of its victims.

At first it was supposed to be a good Spirit, but its

subsequent acts, together with the curses with

which it supplemented its remarks, proved the

contrary. A volume might be written concerning

the performances of this wonderful being, as they

are now described by contemporaries and their

descendants.

That all this actually occurred will not be

disputed, nor will a rational explanation be

attempted. It is merely introduced as an example

of superstition, strong in the minds of all but a

few in those times, and not yet wholly extinct.” 44

The Ingram Account

Few encounters with Kate were reported in the late

1880s and early 1890s, partially because of the long-

awaited publication, “Authenticated History of the

Bell Witch,” by Martin V. Ingram of Clarksville,

Tennessee. Ingram’s efforts in researching the

legend over a period of many years and publishing a

comprehensive account of it were well-known, and

many people kept silent about any encounters they

44 Albert Virgil Goodpasture,
Goodspeed History of Tennessee – Robertson County
, 1886, p. 833.

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F I T Z H U G H

experienced which might have been the work of Kate

so as to avoid being labeled as “fools” by those who

would read Ingram’s book. They expected Ingram to

solve the mystery of the “Bell Witch” using conclusive

evidence.

Published in 1894, Ingram’s work was the first

book written exclusively about Kate and was the

culmination of his efforts over several years to obtain

eyewitness interviews and testimonial letters, collect

stories passed down from eyewitnesses to their

descendants, and to publish Richard Williams Bell’s

manuscript,
Our Family Trouble.

One of Ingram’s closest friends was Joel Egbert

Bell. Although very young at the time of Kate’s

apparitions and demonstrations, he remembered a

great deal and shared lots of this information with

Ingram. Ingram had discussed the idea of a book

with both Joel Bell and Allen Bell, who discussed the

matter with their relatives and decided it best for

Ingram not to publish his book until all of John

Bell’s immediate family had died. Joel Egbert Bell,

who was the last surviving child of John Bell, died in

1890.

At that time, Ingram obtained Richard Williams

Bell’s manuscript from Allen Bell and resumed his

work, finishing it in late 1893 and publishing in

1894. Originally published with a white cover and

gold lettering, the book was printed by Donnelly

Printing in Chicago, and Sanders Engraving

Company in St. Louis the picture plates. A small

number of copies were printed, and most were sold

by mail order.

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181

This abandoned building near McCormick Place

in Chicago, Illinois was the site of Donnelly’s

printing operations during the 1890’s when

Ingram’s book was printed. It was replaced by

a parking lot shortly after this picture was

taken.

The “Red Book”

Charles Elder of Nashville first reprinted Ingram’s

book in 1961; and then later, in 1971, a company in

east Tennessee also made reprints. The first few

reprints featured a white cover and gold lettering just

as the original copies did, but were later replaced by

a red cover and black lettering — thereby earning the

book its popular name, “The Red Book.”

Because Ingram’s book was written a relatively

short time after Kate’s disturbances, and contains

Richard Williams Bell’s 1846 manuscript and other

eyewitness accounts, it serves as the basis of most

later publications that pertain to the “Bell Witch.”

Despite the small number of copies printed, 2,000

or so, Ingram’s book did a lot to increase public

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interest in the legend of the “Bell Witch.” By 1909,

postcards were printed showing the cave and other

parts of the old Bell farm.

The FGWPA Account

Several years later, in 1933, the Federal

Government’s Works Project Administration

published the following paragraph:

“Sure enough, tradition says, the Bells were

tormented for years by the malicious Spirit of Old

Kate Batts. John Bell and his favorite daughter

Betsy were the principal targets. Toward
the

other members of the family the witch was either

indifferent or, as in the case of Mrs. Bell, friendly.

No one ever saw her, but every visitor to the Bell

home heard her all too well. Her voice, according

to one person who heard it, ‘spoke at a nerve-

racking pitch when displeased, while at other

times it sang and spoke in low musical tones.’

The Spirit of Old Kate led John and Betsy Bell a

merry chase. She threw furniture and dishes at

them. She pulled their noses, yanked their hair,

and poked needles into them. She yelled all night

to keep them from sleeping, and snatched food

from their mouths at mealtime.” 45

Encounters with Kate have been reported in the

Twentieth Century just as they were in the

Nineteenth Century. Most Twentieth Century

encounters with Kate were reported after 1935, the

year in which she promised John Bell, Jr. and Frank

Miles that she would return to visit John Bell’s

closest direct descendant.

45 Federal Government Works Project Administration,
Guidebook for Tennessee
, 1933.

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183

The Charles Bailey Bell Account

John Bell’s most direct descendant in 1935 was

Dr. Charles Bailey Bell, a neurologist in Nashville,

Tennessee. He was the son of Dr. Joel Thomas Bell,

son of John Bell, Jr. and grandson of John Bell. Dr.

Bell wrote his own book about Kate, “The Bell Witch

– A Mysterious Spirit,” in 1934 — one year before

Kate’s promised return.

In addition to many of the same stories published

in Martin Ingram’s earlier book, Bell’s book presents

a comprehensive account of several private

conversations that allegedly took place between John

Bell, Jr. and Kate during her 1828 visit. It is said

that many members of the Bell family were outraged

when Dr. Bell’s book was published.

Even to this day, some people believe that Dr. Bell

or his father fabricated the story of conversations

between John Jr. and Kate as a means of expressing

their own religious and philosophical views —

essentially, using Kate as their mouthpiece. Whether

the conversations between John Bell, Jr. and Kate

really took place, nobody knows. The notes allegedly

taken by Dr. Bell’s father, Dr. Joel Thomas Bell,

under the direction of his father, John Bell, Jr., have

never been found. Even if such notes were found

and proved to be the handwriting of Dr. Joel Thomas

Bell, there remains no way to prove that he penned

them under the direction of his father, John Bell, Jr.

The “Black Book”

Originally red in color, Dr. Charles Bailey Bell’s

book was first reprinted by Charles Elder, Bookseller,

of Nashville in 1972 under the title, “The Bell Witch

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of Tennessee.” 46 The reprints feature a black cover

with white lettering, which earned the book its

popular name, “The Black Book.” The “Black Book”

contains not only Dr. Charles Bailey Bell’s original

book, “The Bell Witch – A Mysterious Spirit,” but also

a book written by Harriet Parks Miller, a Montgomery

County school teacher, which is entitled, “The Bell

Witch of Middle Tennessee.” 47

Dr. Bell never published a follow-up to his 1934

book, and there are no documented reports of Kate’s

visiting any of John Bell’s direct descendants in 1935

as she had promised. However, if Kate did in fact

revisit any of John Bell’s descendants, the likelihood

of such a visit being made publicly known is slim to

none. Dr. Charles Bailey Bell died in 1945, and is

buried in Bellwood Cemetery on Highway 41 just east

of Adams, Tennessee.

46 Charles Bailey Bell, M.D., Harriet Parks Miller,
The Bell Witch of Tennessee
(n.p., 1930, 1934; facsimile reproduction by Charles Elder, Bookseller: Nashville, 1972).

47 Harriet Parks Miller,
The Bell Witch of Middle Tennessee
, Leaf-Chronicle Publishing Co., Clarksville, 1930.