The Bell Witch: The Full Account (41 page)

Bell was born in Edgecombe County, North Carolina,

where he spent his early childhood before moving to

Tennessee with his family. He joined the Tennessee

Militia in 1814 and fought in the Creek Indian War

and the battles of Horseshoe Bend and New Orleans

under the indirect command of Major General

Andrew Jackson. 66

He married Martha Gunn, daughter of the

Reverend Thomas Gunn, in September of 1817.

Jesse and Martha Bell’s family, which ultimately

consisted of nine children, lived in Robertson

66
Tennessee Military Service Records
, State Library and Archives, Nashville.

THE BELL WITCH: THE FULL ACCOUNT

305

County, Tennessee up until the 1837-1842 period

when they moved to Panola County, Mississippi. 67

They settled and developed farmland in the

present-day community
of Eureka, about seven miles

east of Batesville, Mississippi. Jesse and Martha

Bell’s first child, John Thomas Bell, was the

patriarch of the Mississippi Bell Witch legend

discussed in Appendix I. Their third child, Sarah

Elizabeth Bell, married her first cousin, Jesse Bell

Porter, a son of Alex and Esther Porter.

Jesse Bell died in 1843 while visiting friends in

Christian County, Kentucky near the present-day

town of Hopkinsville. His place of burial is unknown;

however, there exists a gravestone in a Hopkinsville,

Kentucky cemetery bearing the faint inscription of

the name “Bell,” and listing 1843 as the date of

death. 68

One of Jesse Bell’s direct descendants has pointed

out the possibility that he could have been buried in

the Bell family cemetery at Red River because of its

close proximity to Hopkinsville. Although no visible

markers exist suggesting this was the case, it is

nevertheless a very strong possibility.

Martha Gunn Bell died in 1881, and is buried

along with several of her children in Long Creek

Cemetery in Panola County, Mississippi. It remains

unknown to this day whether she was buried in the

black stockings as Kate requested.

67 Time frame arrived at by examining real estate, tax, and census records.

68 Riverside Cemetery, Hopkinsville, KY.

306 P A T

F I T Z H U G H

Located in Panola County, Mississippi, Long

Creek Cemetery is where a number of Jesse

Bell’s descendants are buried, including the

woman asked by “Kate” to be buried in black

stockings, Martha Gunn Bell. Long Creek

Cemetery is also where much of the Mississippi

version of the legend allegedly took place.

Esther Porter (1800-1859)

It was Esther Bell Porter who witnessed the

terrifying apparition of the “witch family” bouncing

on saplings in the field across from her home.

Born in Halifax County, North Carolina, Esther

Bell was the eldest of John and Lucy Bell’s two

daughters. After arriving in Tennessee with her

family in 1804, she spent her childhood at the Bell

farm on Red River. Esther was the first of John

Bell’s children to wed, marrying Alexander Bennett

(Alex) Porter in July of 1817.

During the 1836-1840 period, the Porters moved

to Panola County, Mississippi, settling near the

THE BELL WITCH: THE FULL ACCOUNT

307

present-day town of Oakland. 69 They had 12

children, several of whom died at birth or at very

young ages. Esther Bell Porter died in 1859, and is

allegedly buried in Union Hill Cemetery near

Oakland, Mississippi. ii

John Bell, Jr. (1793-1862)

John Bell, Jr. was Kate’s harshest critic by far.

While others around the community and in the Bell

household seemed terrified by Kate’s presence, John

Jr. was never at a loss for words. He yelled, cursed,

challenged her, and consistently maintained that he

knew what she was and was not afraid of her in any

way. Kate took notice of his boldness, often stating

that he was a very smart man and that she had

considerable respect for him.

It was with John Bell, Jr. whom Kate intelligently

debated and shared her predictions of major world

events during her 1828 return-visit to the Bell farm.

It is also believed that John Jr. was the first person

Kate visited upon her return-visit, and that it was he

and his best friend, Frank Miles, whom she bade her

last farewell.

In his later years, John Bell, Jr. spent two days

describing in meticulous detail his private

conversations with Kate as his son, Dr. Joel Thomas

Bell, listened and took notes. The younger Bell later

shared this information his son, Dr. Charles Bailey

Bell, who included much of it in his book, “The Bell

Witch – A Mysterious Spirit,” published in 1934. jj

Recent findings indicate that these conversations

might have been a hoax, the reasons for which will

be discussed in a future edition of the book you are

reading.

69 Time frame was arrived at by comparing tax and real estate records in both states.

308 P A T

F I T Z H U G H

John Bell, Jr. spent his early childhood in Halifax

County, North Carolina and moved to Tennessee with

his family in the winter of 1803-1804. He later

joined the Tennessee Militia and fought in the battles

of Horseshoe Bend and New Orleans along with his

brother, Jesse, under the indirect command of Major

General Andrew Jackson. 70

In 1815, John Jr. and his brother Drewry, along

with Alex Gunn, used flatboats to carry goods from

nearby Port Royal to the southern markets of

Natchez and New Orleans. They sold scrap wood

from their boats to finance their trip home along the

Natchez Trace.

In November of 1828, John Bell, Jr. married

Elizabeth Gunn and built a house just south of the

original Bell home. They raised six children and

amassed over 600 acres. He also served as a

magistrate for several years.

The flat gravestone in the foreground marks

the grave of John Bell, Jr.

He died from pneumonia on April 8, 1862, and is

buried along with his wife and several of their

70
Tennessee Military Service Records
, State Library and Archives, Nashville.

THE BELL WITCH: THE FULL ACCOUNT

309

children in a small cemetery near where their house

once stood. kk The house burned sometime after

Bell’s death, but its remnants are still evident today

in the form of charred bricks and stones.

Drewry Bell (1796-1865)

Drewry Bell was one of the first people to

experience an apparition of Kate, which came in the

form of a giant, mysterious bird sitting on the fence

by the lane leading from the main road to the Bell

home. As he began shooting at the creature, it

vanished and was never seen again. This apparition

occurred only a short time after his father, John Bell,

encountered the mysterious, “dog-rabbit” in a corn

row – which is widely believed to have been the first

known apparition of Kate.

It is said that Drewry Bell lived his entire life in

constant fear of Kate, and harbored very bitter

feelings toward her because of his younger sister’s

trials and tribulations. Although he seldom spoke of

Kate, he often referenced the physical and emotional

torment his sister experienced and the evil,

demented force responsible for it.

The third son of John and Lucy Bell, Drewry was

born in Halifax County, North Carolina and spent his

early childhood there before moving to Tennessee

with his family. A lifelong bachelor, Drewry Bell

made his home across the Red River from the Bell

farm in the years following Kate’s visit. He became a

successful farmer and amassed six slaves to help

him. It is not clear whether he owned the land he

lived on, as the 1830 Federal Census lists him as

owning no land, but six slaves.

Drewry Bell’s slaves built their own place of

worship near his home, and named it “Bell’s Chapel.”

310 P A T

F I T Z H U G H

After Bell’s death, the church was physically moved

across the Red River and put on land situated just

across Keysburg Road from the present-day driveway

of the Kirbys and Bell Witch Cave. A new building

has long since been erected, however the frame and

boarding of the original building still stands in a

thicket adjacent to the modern building.

Drewry Bell died on New Year’s Day of 1865, and

is presumably buried along with his parents and

several siblings in the old Bell cemetery near Adams,

Tennessee. In his will, he left Elizabeth twenty-five

dollars — five times the money he left each of his

other siblings. It is interesting to note that four of

the six siblings Drewry Bell left money to were

already deceased at the time his will was written and

dated, September 2, 1864. 71

Zadok Bell (1803-1826)

Zadok Bell had no known encounters with Kate.

Born in North Carolina just before his family’s

emigration to Tennessee, he would have been

fourteen years old at the time the disturbances

began. Given that he was being educated to become

a lawyer, it is possible that he spent some of his

adolescent years in a boarding school; however, the

author has no proof of this.

Zadok completed his advanced education and

became a bright lawyer, marrying Katherine

Lawrence in Rutherford County, Tennessee in July of

1821 and moving to the “Montgomery Settlement” in

southern Alabama soon thereafter. Aware that the

Apalachee Indians had relinquished most Florida

panhandle territories, he moved to Florida with

hopes of setting up a successful law practice. He

71
Robertson County TN Will Book 17
, pp. 644-645.

THE BELL WITCH: THE FULL ACCOUNT

311

settled in an area known as the Tallahassee

Settlement, which was established in April of 1824

when seven men camped near the present-day

capital. 72

After spending less than a year in the Tallahassee

Settlement, Zadok Bell moved back to Alabama

where he died of Yellow Fever in a sweeping epidemic

that struck the region in 1826. It is widely believed

that Zadok Bell is buried in the old Bell cemetery

near Adams, Tennessee; however, a small amount of

research performed by the author indicates that he is

actually buried near Montgomery, Alabama.

Richard Williams Bell (1811-1857)

Although only six years old when Kate’s

disturbances began, Richard Williams Bell vividly

remembered the many terrible encounters that he,

his parents, and siblings had with Kate. He is

credited with authoring the only known eyewitness

account of the disturbances.

In 1846, Bell journalized the disturbances in a

comprehensive manuscript that he later passed on to

his son, Allen Bell, who later circulated it among his

closest family members. In the late nineteenth

century, Martin Ingram incorporated Richard

Williams Bell’s manuscript into his book,

“Authenticated History of the Bell Witch,” where it

appears as a single chapter entitled, “Our Family

Trouble.” Both the inclusion of Bell’s manuscript