Laura Wright 
Bell Witch
efore the Bell Witch became one of America’s most enduring supernatural legends, the Bell family appeared to be prosperous, respectable, and remarkably ordinary.
John Bell was already a successful planter in North Carolina when, in 1804, he moved his wife, Lucy, and their six children to Robertson County, Tennessee.
The family settled near what is now Adams, Tennessee, where Bell eventually became the owner of a 1,000-acre farm.
The Bells prospered financially, and their family continued to grow. Eventually, John and Lucy had seven sons and two daughters. Their sons were Jesse, John Jr., Drew, Benjamin, Zadok, Richard Williams, and Joel. Their daughters were Esther and Elizabeth, better known as Betsy.
For years, there was apparently little to suggest that the Bell family would eventually become the center of one of the strangest stories in Tennessee folklore.
Then, around 1818, unusual things began to happen.
Something Strange on the Bell Farm
John Bell experienced one of the earliest incidents while hunting.
He noticed a strange dog.
For a farmer, an unfamiliar dog wandering around the property was not necessarily a welcome sight. Stray dogs could kill young livestock and poultry, so Bell fired at the animal in an attempt to scare it away.
But as the creature moved, something about it appeared wrong.
It seemed to change shape.
Before Bell could obtain a clear look at the animal, it disappeared.
The incident was peculiar, but Bell didn’t give it much thought.
It was easy enough to dismiss one strange encounter.
Then other things began happening.
John and Lucy Notice the Activity
John and Lucy Bell were apparently the first members of the family to realize that something unusual might be occurring around their home.
Even then, they didn’t immediately suspect anything supernatural.
Their initial explanation was considerably more ordinary.
They thought local children might be playing pranks on them.
In fact, John and Lucy were so confident that the disturbances would eventually stop that they didn’t bother telling their older children what they suspected.
That explanation became increasingly difficult to maintain.
The strange activity began spreading to other members of the family.
When Animals Attack
One of the Bell sons eventually encountered what appeared to be a strange wild turkey.
He shot at the bird, intending to bring it home for the family to eat.
But this animal also disappeared.
As it escaped, the boy caught a glimpse of something impossible.
Like the strange dog his father had encountered, the turkey appeared to transform.
He knew such a thing couldn’t happen.
So he decided that he must simply have seen an ordinary turkey and dismissed the incident.
The Bell family was still attempting to explain the increasingly strange events in perfectly ordinary ways.
Then Betsy saw something very different.
Betsy Bell and the Girl in Green
Betsy Bell was approximately 14 years old when she experienced her first encounter with the mysterious presence.
She did not see a dog.
She did not see a turkey.
Instead, Betsy saw a strange little girl wearing a light green dress.
The child appeared to be swinging from a low branch of a large tree.
It was one of the earliest humanlike manifestations associated with the strange events surrounding the Bell family.
Betsy herself would soon become one of the principal figures in the developing mystery.
Betsy Bell and Joshua Gardner
Despite her young age, Betsy was already informally betrothed.
The young man was Joshua Gardner, a schoolmate approximately the same age as Betsy.
Joshua came from a respected local family with close ties to the Bells.
The relationship apparently pleased both families, and the possibility that Betsy and Joshua would eventually marry was welcomed rather than opposed.
At that point, there was little reason to believe their relationship would become important to the strange activity occurring around the Bell household.
That would change.
John and Betsy Become Targets
As the disturbances continued, John Bell and Betsy Bell both became particular targets of the mysterious presence.
The reasons appeared to be different.
Whatever was happening also became increasingly difficult to explain as the work of mischievous children.
The activity continued.
The Bell family could find no ordinary culprit.
And it gradually became apparent that the neighbors were not responsible.
What had begun with a strange animal encountered during a hunting trip was becoming something considerably harder to dismiss.
A dog seemed to change shape and disappear.
A strange turkey apparently did the same.
Betsy saw a mysterious little girl in green swinging from a tree.
And an unseen presence was beginning to concentrate its attention upon both Betsy and her father.
The Bell family’s prosperous and relatively ordinary life was about to become something else entirely.
It was becoming the story of the Bell Witch.
About the Author
