The Bell Witch: The Full Account (31 page)
THE BELL WITCH: THE FULL ACCOUNT
231
This is the old well used by John Bell and his
family. The
concrete
square is a modern
addition.
Located on a cedar-covered knoll about 300 yards
due north of the old Bell home is the final resting
place of John and Lucy Bell, Richard Williams Bell,
and a number of the slaves who worked on the Bell
farm during its heyday. y Despite the many graves in
the old Bell cemetery, the only one remaining with an
inscription is that of John and Lucy Bell, placed in
1957, six years after the original was taken. Other
headstones in the old Bell cemetery were either never
inscribed to begin with or have since become worn or
stolen. z
232 P A T
F I T Z H U G H
The thicket in the picture above is all that
remains of the old Bell cemetery. The only
gravestone in the cemetery is the replacement
stone for John Bell.
As a result of John Bell’s estate settlement, John
Jr. inherited the tract of land adjoining the
homestead tract. 50 About a half mile due south of
the old Bell cemetery, at the edge of a large cornfield,
is a small cemetery that contains the graves of John
Bell, Jr., his wife Elizabeth Gunn Bell, and several of
their children. aa Across a dirt road from this
cemetery is an inscribed stone that marks where
John Bell, Jr’s house stood. The house burned
sometime after his death. bb
50
Robertson County, TN, Will Book 3
, pp. 267-268.
THE BELL WITCH: THE FULL ACCOUNT
233
John Bell, Jr’s house stood where the clump of
trees is. A marker placed by descendants is all
that remains.
A lot has changed since the days Kate terrorized
the western end of Robertson County, torturing John
Bell to his death and breaking the hearts of his
daughter and the young man she loved so dearly.
While some land has been cleared, the forests have
reclaimed much of the land that was farmed during
the days of John Bell.
Let us put all of this into perspective. One
hundred and ten years, including the sinking of the
Titanic, World Wars I and II, The Great Depression,
the Holocaust, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and
scandals at the highest levels of government, have
elapsed since the death of the
last
eyewitness to
Kate’s disturbances. 180 years, inclusive of the
events listed above and in addition to the Civil War,
the Industrial Revolution, and the first American
railroad, have elapsed since John Bell breathed his
final breath.
234 P A T
F I T Z H U G H
In the John Bell era, a horse was the only mode of
transportation other than the foot. Now, we fly
thousands of feet above the ground at speeds greater
than 700 miles per hour, and have sent people on
expeditions through space and to the moon. When a
person misbehaved in the days of John Bell, they
were tied to a tree, stripped, and beaten. Doors
remained unlocked, people went wherever they
chose, and people worked together for the common
good.
T
oday, we have a judicial system that
declares the
misbehaved among us as the victims, and the more
behaved and protection-conscious among us, the
enemy. In the John Bell era, one human being could
“own” another human being. Today, we are all of one
people and everyone receives compensation for his or
her work.
The graves of many of those who were very
educated, wise and prominent during the John Bell
era, and whose social etiquette far surpassed that
which is commonplace today, lie beneath the earth
unmarked and forgotten in fields of tobacco and
corn, the forest, highways, and fenced-in areas on
private property. cc
The way of life in the days of John Bell was much
different than it is today, as incomprehensible to us
today as life today was to those who lived then. The
future always has the advantage of hindsight by its
very nature, that being in the form of history;
however, history provides us with little more than
legal documents from the past and scattered patches
of undergrowth upon which me can base our
perception life in that long-past era. The rest is
entirely up to our own, unique imaginations.
Aside from the Red River, the Red River Baptist
Church, and the dirt that John Bell’s family and
slaves once farmed, the only remnant we have from
THE BELL WITCH: THE FULL ACCOUNT
235
that forgotten era is the Spirit that drove John Bell to
his grave.
236 P A T
F I T Z H U G H
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Is Kate Always to Blame?
E ACH WEEK, THE AUTHOR RECEIVES many
written accounts of purported encounters
with Kate in and around Adams, Tennessee.
He also receives a number of letters from people who
became disappointed because they did not
experience anything unusual while visiting Adams.
While the notion that one will experience an
encounter with the supernatural just by visiting
Adams, the old Bell farm, or Bell Witch Cave is an
easy one to accept, it must be understood that non-
eventful visits far outnumber those in which
something unexplainable and possibly of the
supernatural occurs. There is no guarantee that one
will experience a supernatural encounter just by
visiting Adams, Tennessee.
One must take into consideration that many
people have lived near the old Bell farm all their lives
and never experienced anything unusual. Moreover,
these same people pass the old Bell farm twice a day
on their way to and from work. On the other hand,
THE BELL WITCH: THE FULL ACCOUNT
237
however, one might visit the old Bell farm on several
different occasions and experience something
unusual during each visit.
While the written accounts of supernatural
encounters the author has received have been
believable for the most part, he feels that only a
small number of these encounters –might- the work
of Kate. As was mentioned earlier, there are many
supernatural entities, and Kate is not the only
supernatural entity in Adams, Tennessee – there are
probably thousands, as is the case with any other
place. Although many of the entities encountered
have reportedly possessed some of Kate’s
characteristics, conclusive evidence supporting
claims that these encounters were in fact the work of
Kate is lacking – mainly because human nature
forces us to hasty conclusions when we are
frightened.
The Power of Suggestion
To illustrate this point, let us return to the early
Nineteenth Century in Robertson County and review
the observations of one person who figured
prominently into the legend.
John Johnston, who was one of the Bell family’s
neighbors and closest friends, saw the shadow of
what looked like a long, sharp knife behind him
while walking home from the Bell farm one morning.
He thought to himself, “If the Lord wants me to
die, then I will die; I will not run.” He stood still in
his tracks to see what fate would deal him. The
“knife” never disappeared, and after taking the time
to analyze his surroundings, Johnston finally
realized that the “knife” was actually the shadow of a
cornstalk blade blowing in the wind.
After this incident, Johnston concluded that many
238 P A T
F I T Z H U G H
alleged encounters with “Kate” were most likely
manifestations material things such as the cornstalk,
but people jumped to hasty conclusions and ran for
their lives without taking the time to adequately
observe their surroundings.
Because stories of Kate’s disturbances were so
prevalent during that era, it was easy for a person to
succumb to “the power of suggestion.” This is not to
say that Kate never existed or still doesn’t exist; but
only that the human mind is highly vulnerable to the
power of suggestion, which can get the best of us if
we don’t stop for a reality check. When analyzing an
experience believed to have been a manifestation of
Kate, one must show that no logical basis and
explanation for the encounter exists, and that based
upon Kate’s known characteristics, the entity
encountered was in fact Kate.
Can the Encounter be Validated?
Any suspected encounter with the supernatural
begins with an unexplainable incident, one for which
no logical explanation exists after a reasonable effort
has been made to analyze one’s surroundings when
the incident took place. What John Johnston did
nearly two centuries ago is one of the most
reasonable efforts one can put forth. Stop, look, and
think before you decide to run. What you really see
might be the shadow of a leaf blowing in the wind; or,
it might be a Spiritual entity sapping away your
energy until you faint helplessly.
Mechanics of Argument and Persuasion
Let us suppose that you have experienced an
incident and found it “unexplainable.” At this point,
there is a subtle hint that you had an encounter with
the supernatural. Although you have succeeded in
THE BELL WITCH: THE FULL ACCOUNT
239
establishing
possibility
, your case will remain weak
until you establish
probability,
at which time your
case will
strengthen somewhat.
Establishing
probability
with regard to suspected
supernatural encounters requires successfully
matching the details of the incident to known
characteristics of supernatural entities after making
a detailed comparison between the two. One must
understand not only the characteristics of the many
different supernatural entities, but also which
entities possess the powers to do certain things.
The differences among various supernatural
entities are more than subtle, and a comprehensive
discussion of the most significant differences is
presented in a later chapter. For the purpose of our
discussion, the important thing to understand at this
point is that an incident’s being deemed
“unexplainable” does not, in and of itself, mean that
an encounter with the supernatural has taken place.
For now, let us suppose that the details of the
incident you experienced match closely with the
characteristics of some supernatural entity.
Congratulations are now in order: you have
successfully established a
compelling
argument
based on
probability
, which carries more weight than
possibility
.
While the author now feels
compelled
to accept
your argument, you have yet to
persuade
him to
accept it. A
persuasive
argument is based upon
reasonable
certainty
; i.e., information that would lead
a reasonable person to believe, with a high level of
confidence, that something is certain – no questions
about it.
Building a persuasive argument with regard to a