The Bell Witch: The Full Account (44 page)

specimens of all wild plants and flowers in the area

and pressed them in a book,

listing both the Latin and

common name of each.

Vanderbilt University in

nearby Nashville learned of

Johnston’s book and asked

that it be donated because of

its stunning accuracy and

potential as a learning tool.

His descendants decided to

retain the book, and it is still

in their possession today.

Calvin Johnston’s interest in

horticulture is still evident

today, not only in the form of

his book, but also in the

flowers he planted many years ago. He loved

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325

buttercups and liberally planted them around the

site of his home and the grave of his nephew.

Although the buttercups around his home site are

long gone, the ones he planted on his nephew’s grave

still bloom each year. The variety
growing
on the

grave is very old and no longer obtainable, which

leads many to believe that these are the same

buttercups planted by Johnston many years ago.

The variety contains some green, but mostly “butter

and egg” colors.

Both Calvin and John Johnston were subscribers to

The Scientific American
, one of the earliest scientific

magazines to be published in this country, all the

way back to the early 1830’s. The family still has

some very early copies of the magazine, which

belonged to the Johnston brothers of long ago.

Calvin Johnston died in 1859, and is buried near

Adams, Tennessee. 82

His gravestone reads, “
Remember mortal man, as

you pass by. As you are now, so once was I. As I am

now, so you must be. Prepare for death and follow

me
.”

82 Correspondence with Mr. Jim Brooks, a direct descendant of the Johnston family.

326 P A T

F I T Z H U G H

Many of those who figured prominently into

the legend of the “Bell Witch” rest in this

cemetery located in rural Robertson County.

Those buried here include the Johnstons,

David and Parthenia “Theny Thorn” Gooch,

William Porter, and many others.

THE BELL WITCH: THE FULL ACCOUNT

327

Appendix B:

Richard Powell’s Petition to the

Tennessee State Legislature for

Financial Relief

31 October 1837

Petition Number 54-1837-01

To the Legislature of the State of Tennessee now

in session:

Your petitioner Richard R. P. Powell a citizen of

the County of Robertson and state aforesaid begs

leave humbly to state to your honorable body that

tho he has enjoyed the advantages of health and

body vigor and the helpings of prosperity, yet he is

now struggling against chill adversity. He would

further represent that by his own virtuous

industry and economy he so far succeeded in life

as to raise himself from the shades of poverty to

the sunshine of a reasonable affluence supporting

and rearing at the same time a wife and a

numerous offspring and flattered himself that he

had so far gained the advantages of the world that

he could close the evening of life in quiet and

ease. But at a moment when those fond

anticipations were freshest and fairest, promising

the fruition of all earthly happenings, the

destroyer came - that monsterful disease overtook

328 P A T

F I T Z H U G H

him - that blight and mildew came upon him. He

fell a victim to a paralysis of the right side of his

whole frame and while the physical man was

thrown from its lofty heights, the intellectual

throne was likewise sapped til altogether have

decayed and are crumbling.

Your petitioner thinks that his acquaintances and

countrymen will bear witness that he, when he

was himself, possessed some humble merit and

he is the more inclined to this belief from the

circumstances of the past testimonials beyond

that of words that he was repeatedly in his county

for years elected sheriff and also as their member

to the Legislative body, that responsible station

which you now fill.

Your humble petitioner will no further trouble you

with a preface but will come to the catastrophe.

Your petitioner fell not only a victim to disease but

likewise to his own unskillfullness and want of

judgment and the artifices of the cunning and

uncharitable. He is now desolate, disrobed of his

estate and left penniless with a wife and many

children dependent upon the poor effects of your

humble petitioner.

Your petitioner will endeavor not to fatigue you

with the details of his woes - suffice to say they

are not the offspring of crime but the calamity of

disease and affliction. Having thus addressed

myself to your charity and discretion allows your

humble petitioner to ask at your hands the

humble privilege of retailing such small quantities

of merchandise, as his limited circumstances

assisted by his wife may enable him through the

kindness of friends may procure free of taxation

that the small profit rising there from may be the

means of supporting the family of your humble

petitioner which he is desirous to rear up in a

THE BELL WITCH: THE FULL ACCOUNT

329

respectable circle of life. That could your

honorable body consistent with good feelings and

the constitution of the government make to your

humble petitioner some small donation to aid him

in a small commencement. Your petitioner having

some knowledge of merchandise. You would incur

all the good feelings of your humble petitioner and

family with a sincere hope that your charity will

ever be remembered by an all wise who is able to

add to the blessings of the charitable.

Your humble petitioner would trouble your

honorable body with short history of one of his

calamities that in order to enable him to

circumvent the embarrassments incurred in

consequence of this affliction he purchased a keel

boat and loaded the same with the most valuable

products of our country to the amount of $10,000

and had her launched at the landing at Clarksville

nearly ready to set sail to the southern market

where your petitioner had every
reason to believe

he would from the profits arising there from be

fully enabled to relieve himself from every

embarrassment and leave him in affluent

circumstances. But to the sad misfortune of your

petitioner, before he had set sail a steam boat

came along in the night time and ran afoul of the

boat of your petitioner and sunk her with his

loading which was destroyed and lost which

proved the destroyer of the remaining estate of

your humble petitioner to the amount of $6000.

The premises considered your humble petitioner

submits his case to the mercy of your honorable

body. 83

83 From Tennessee Legislative Records; provided electronically by Mr. Phillip C. Norfleet, webmaster of The Bell Witch Folklore Center, http://members.zoom.com/bellwitch001

330 P A T

F I T Z H U G H

Appendix C:

Biographical Sketch of Richard

Powell from the Tennessee

Legislative Encyclopedia

HOUSE, 20th General Assembly, 1833-35;

representing Robertson County. Born in Halifax

County, North Carolina, December 8, 1795; son of

Richard Rowell Ptolemy and Parthenia Powell;

grandson of John Powell. He was married (1st) on

December 7, 1815, to Esther Scott; no further

record of her. Powell removed to Robertson

County. Schoolmaster; was teacher to his second

wife. Married (2nd) on March 21, 1824, to

Elizabeth Bell (1806-1888), daughter of John and

Lucy (Williams) Bell, of Robertson County (with

whose family the “Bell Witch” legend is

concerned). Their children are variously identified

as Susan Amanda, Emily Caroline, Permelia

Adeline (Mrs. W. M. Gardner), Eliza Jane (Mrs.

Zadock R. Bell), DeWitt Williams, Virginia

Reynolds, Tennessee Bell, and Leftrick Reynolds

Powell. One source states that a son, Sam Powell,

was killed in the Civil War, but the reference is

probably to Reynolds Powell, who was killed

during the Civil War. Representative Powell was

sheriff of Robertson County, 1830-33; census

enumerator, justice of the peace, and captain in

the state militia, he died January 13, 1848, and is

THE BELL WITCH: THE FULL ACCOUNT

331

buried near Cedar Hill, Robertson County. His

widow was living with her two younger children in

Robertson County in 1850; she later removed to

Panola County, Mississippi; died near Water

Valley, Yalobusha County, on July 10, 1888;

buried near that place. Richard Powell was a

brother of Mathew Powell, sometime member

Tennessee General Assembly.

Sources:
Springfield Record
, March 1, 22, August 16, 1886;

Albert Virgil Goodpasture,
Goodspeed History of Tennessee -

Robertson County
, p. 837; M.V. Ingram,
Authenticated

History of the Bell Witch
; Charles Bailey Bell, M.D.,
The Bell

Witch - A Mysterious Spirit
;
Robertson County Deed Book 3
,

p. 150; Information furnished by Ralph L. Winters,

Historian – Clarksville, TN; Mrs. A. E. Clement, Nashville,

TN; and Mrs. Clyde Herring, great-granddaughter;
U.S.

Census
, 1830, 1850, Robertson County, TN; Hoffman,

Genealogical Abstracts of Wills -
1758-1824, Halifax County,

North Carolina
, pp. 70-71, 155. 84

84 From Tennessee Legislative Encyclopedia; provided electronically by Mr. Phillip C.

Norfleet, webmaster of The Bell Witch Folklore Center,

http://members.zoom.com/bellwitch001

332 P A T

F I T Z H U G H

Appendix D:

Early History of Robertson

County, Tennessee

T

HE EARLIEST INHABITANTS of Tennessee

that we know much about were the Mound

Builders. Archaeologists recognize two major

mound-building cultures – the Woodland and the

Mississippian.

The Mississippian culture came into existence

around 750 AD. Although most Mississippian

groups buried their dead in cemeteries, the

Woodland-type burial mounds were sometimes used.

At larger Mississippian settlements, the elite families

were sometimes buried in special mounds along with

their elaborate possessions that represented their

status in society. These burials took place from

about 1000 to 1500 AD, when the Mississippian

culture was at its peak.

The Mississippian culture was still flourishing

when early Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto

visited the area in the 1540-1541 period. By the

middle of the seventeenth century, mound building

had ceased and the Mound Builders (as we knew

them) became extinct. Other nations, such as the

Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek and Choctaw, were

descended from the Mound Builders.

Most of Tennessee was hunting ground for these

groups many years before the white settlers arrived.

Most permanent Cherokee settlements were in

THE BELL WITCH: THE FULL ACCOUNT

333

eastern Tennessee near the Tennessee and Holston

Rivers. Permanent Chickasaw settlements were in

northern Mississippi and western Tennessee, the

Choctaws had permanent settlements in

northeastern Mississippi and southwestern

Tennessee, and the Creeks lived primarily in

Alabama. By 1776, most Native American tribes in

the area had decided to reclaim their land – now

occupied by white settlers.

The first known white settler in Robertson County

was Thomas Kilgore, who in 1778 built a fort on the

banks of the Red River near Cross Plains. It is

also believed that Ezekiel Polk, grandfather of

President James Knox Polk, settled on Sulphur Fork

Creek near the Red River about two years later;