Clarion-Ledger from Jackson, Mississippi • Page 75

Sunday, October 26, 1906 The CUiion4edgerJcfcn Daily Newt 5F Witch Witch, from IF the floor, chairs falling over, and chains dragging. There was a sound like someone smacking their lips, and gulping sounds as if someone were choking or strangling. Covers began sliding off the foot of the beds as if being pulled by some unseen hand. And then things took a really ugly turn. Some invisible thing began pulling at their hair, twisting and jerking it viciously until all of the Bell children were screaming in pain and fright.

At first the Bell family said nothing about the strange happenings in their house, but eventually John Bell told his nearest neighbor and closest friend, James Johnson, what was happening. Johnson and his wife came to spend the night and see for themselves. As soon as everyone had retired for the night, the gnawing, scratching, knocking, smacking, gulping sounds began. Chairs began overturning. Bed covers flew off the beds.

Invisible hands began slapping Elizabeth Bell across the face until her cheeks turned red. After that nicht the stranpp hannpn- "I turned on the television set in the living room, but all I could get on Channel 5 was "I tried a couple of other television sets in the house, but I couldn't get a picture on any of them, just sound except for the commercials. They came in beautifully, but every time the station went back to the story, the picture went out completely." One landmark from the heyday of the Bell Witch still remains on the old Bell farm. There is a cave near the bank of the Red River which was used as a storage place in John Bell's day. Many of the 20th century phenomena have taken place in or around this cave.

Many visitors to the cave have reported seeing the figure of a dark haired woman floating through the cave's passageways. Several people have reported being touched by something. In 1977, five soldiers from nearby Fort Campbell, were visiting the cave. One of them was sitting on a rock and telling the others he didn't believe in such things when something none of the others could see grabbed him and pinned him down. He began calling for help, saying it was as if some thing was sitting on his chest and squeezing the breath out of him.

W.W. "Bims" Eden, the longtime owner of the part of the old Bell farm which contains the cave, has witnessed many of the 20th century encounters with the Witch. "I can't say for a fact exactly what it is," Eden says. "AH I know is what I've seen. There was a winter day eight or 10 years ago, for instance, when we had had about three-quarters of an inch of new snow.

I heard somebody knocking at my front door. I looked through the window and saw the image of a figure I didn't recognize walking away from the house. I saw it walk behind a tree, but it didn't come out on the other side of the tree. "I got my shotgun and went out the back door, but when I got to the tree, there was no one there. There were no footprints in that fresh snow either." Strange floating lights are also still occasionally seen in the fields of the old Bell farm.

There is also the figure of a little girl which occasionally materializes along U.S. Highway 41 which borders the old Bell farm. The story of the Bell Witch has reached the status of folklore in Tennessee and much of the South, but around Adams, the Witch is much more than just a musty old legend. Kate is still an almost tangible presence, Don Wick writes for the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development in Nashville. Bell, don't have Joshua Gardner." When the voice died away, Elizabeth Bell removed her engagement ring and gave it back to Joshua Gardner, convinced at last that the Witch would never leave them in peace.

Gardner apparently knew it too. He accepted the return of his ring and a short time later moved away from Robertson County to Obion County in west Tennessee. He and Elizabeth never saw each other again. Elizabeth eventually married a man named Richard Powell who was several years older than she and had once been her schoolteacher. The Witch apparently approved of him because it did not oppose the marriage and so far as anyone knows, Kate never bothered them.

Elizabeth Bell died in 1890 at the age of 86. With Gardner's departure, the Witch's appearances became fewer. Later in the spring of 1821, the Witch suddenly announced that it was leaving, but promised to return in seven years. In 1828, things had changed radically at the Bell farm. Most of the children had married and moved away.

Only Richard, his younger brother Joel, and Lucy Bell still lived in the big house. Kate's return in February of 1828 was marked by the same knockings and scratchings on the outside walls of the house, followed by the gnawing on the bed post and the pulling of the bed covers from the beds. This time, though, the Witch stayed for only a short time, and when Lucy Bell died later that year the Witch became quiet again. The old Bell farm was divided among the children after Lucy's death, but for obvious reasons, no one wanted to live in the old house. It was used for storage for several years, and eventually it was torn down.

The Bell Witch in the 20th century After Lucy Bell's death in 1828, the Witch seemed to lose much of its interest in the Bell family. Joel Bell had a brief encounter with the Witch in 1852, and his son, Allen, had one in 1861. Two more incidents were reported in 1872 and other periodic reports of strange, unaccountable occurrences continue into present times. Carney Bell, one of the modern des-cendents of John and Lucy Bell and currently a partner in the Austin and Bell Funeral Home at Springfield, has had several odd occurences in recent years which might be attributed to Kate. Carney Bell related the story of the night he was house-sitting at his mother's home at Springfield some 15 miles from Adams.

"I was sitting in a chair reading a book when one of the neighbors called to tell me that Channel 5 television from Nashville was broadcasting a story about the Bell Witch," Carney says. He grabbed the form, covers and all, and began carrying it toward the fireplace with the intention of throwing the whole thing into the fire, but the weight got heavier and heavier as he approached the fireplace and what he described as "an awful stench" began rising from the covers. He had to drop the load and run from the house to get his breath. By 1820 the Witch's terror tactics had taken a heavy toll on the Bells. John Bell's mysterious affictions grew more frequent and terrible.

On the morning of Dec. 19, 1820, he was found in bed in an unnaturally deep sleep. The family could not arouse him. John Jr. went to the cupboard to get the medicine prescribed for his father, but the bottle was missing.

In its place was a small smoky looking vial containing a strange dark liquid. The family sent for the doctor in nearby Port Royal, but Kate told them it was useless. "I've got him this time," Kate crowed. "He'll never get up from that bed again." The family asked Kate about the mysterious vial in the cupboard and Kate said, "I put it there. I gave Old Jack a big dose of it last night while he was asleep, which fixed him." The family withdrew some of the dark liquid on a straw and drew the straw through a cat's mouth.

The cat went into immediate convulsions and died. John Bell died the next day and Kate came to his funeral, singing drunkenly as they buried him in the family graveyard. After his death, the Witch seemed to lose much of its interest in the Bell family. Kate's appearances became fewer and fewer and Elizabeth began to believe that perhaps she and Joshua Gardner might be able to marry after all. They became engaged, but Kate was not through with them yet.

The engagement came to a sudden end on Easter Monday of 1821. Elizabeth and Joshua and several other young couples from the area had gone fishing. The enjoyment of the day was ruined, however, when a huge fish seized Joshua's line and jerked it, pole and all, into the river. The fish created pandemonium on the river bank as it thrashed its way up river, leaping into the air and then diving to the bottom, carrying Joshua Gardner's fishing pole with it. Those who saw it said the fish was between two and three feet long.

Almost no one thought it was an ordinary fish, especially when it returned a short time later swimming along the surface, still dragging the fishing pole behind it. Then came Kate's familiar voice materializing from thin air and repeating over and over in a horrible voice filled with melancholy, "Please Betsy visitors, and Elizabeth was usually the chief victim when the Witch wanted to demonstrate its powers. She would be prodded, poked and pricked with invisible pins. She was slapped across the face until her cheeks turned red. The combs would fly out of her hair and smash to the floor without breaking.

Her shoes would unlace themselves and sail across the room. Kate tormented Elizabeth to the extent that the Bell family became afraid to leave her alone for fear the Witch would kill her. Elizabeth fell in love with a boy named Joshua Gardner, and while he came from one of the country's best families and was regarded as an excellent young man, the Witch did not like him. It begged Elizabeth not to marry him and it did everything in its power to break up their romance. For some unknown reason, the Witch also had an abiding and passionate hatred for John Bell.

It would never explain why it hated John Bell so much, but the Witch swore it would kill him. John Bell began to suffer mysterious attacks in which his tongue would swell and stiffen in his mouth. He would be unable to eat or talk. He described the feeling like a sharp stick wedged cross-ways in his mouth. The Witch laughed at his suffering and as the spells grew more frequent and worse, Kate repeated the vow to one day kill him.

Andrew Jackson meets the Witch While Elizabeth Bell and her father were the chief victims of the Witch's torments, no member of the Bell family escaped. Kate was not always a vindictive spirit either. The Witch could be helpful when it wished. Once when John Bell Jr. was planning a trip back to North Carolina to settle his father's share of an estate, Kate told him the trip was a waste of time, that the estate had not been settled yet and if he went he would come back with nothing.

John Jr. insisted on going anyway. The Witch told him he was making a mistake. It said that a young lady was on her way to visit relatives in Robertson County. It said that she was very beautiful and very rich, that she owned 40 slaves and a fortune and that he could win her for his wife if he stayed.

But John Jr. went back to North Carolina anyway. He was gone for six months and he came back without a cent. While he was gone a young lady did come to visit relatives in the area. She was very beautiful and very rich.

She did own 40 slaves, but she went home before John Jr. returned. The only member of the Bell family the Witch really seemed to like was Lucy Bell. Kate always spoke to her with respect, gave her helpful advice, and kept her informed of what was happening in her family back in North Carolina. Once when Lucy was seriously ill the Witch became concerned about her.

It would sing to her and when she didn't feel like eating, the Witch brought her treats to try to tempt her appetite. As the fame of the Bell Witch began to spread, more and more pople began showing up at the Bell farm. Some of them came from great distances. One of the visitors to the Bell farm was General Andrew Jackson, who came from Nashville with a company of men, including one who insisted that he could get rid of the Witch. As Jackson's wagon approached the Bell farm the wheels suddenly locked.

The ground was dry and level, but no matter how hard the horses strained and the men pushed, the wagon would not move. Jackson finally threw up his hands and said, "By the eternal, boys, it is the Witch." It was then that they heard a sharp, metallic voice laughing and saying. "All right, General, let the wagon move on. I will see you again tonight." That night Jacksonand his men sat in the Bell parlor waiting for the Witch to appear and listening to the "witch-layer" telling what he would do if it appeared while he cradled a gun loaded with a silver bullet. Finally, they heard the sound of footsteps in the room and the Witch's voice, saying that it was "ready for business." It told the "witch-layer" to go ahead and shoot, but the gun would not fire.

It told him to try again, and again the gun failed to fire. Then they heard a solid slapping sound. The man's chair overturned. He got up off the floor and began dancing around the room screaming that the Witch had him by the nose. He was last seen running down the lane toward Nashville while Jackson and his men collapsed in laughter.

Whatever it was, the Witch was no ethereal will-o-the-wisp. It had tangible mass and sometimes form. Many people, especially those who resisted its efforts to pull away the bedcovers, felt the sting of its slapping hand, but it was apparently not invulnerable. It shook hands with several people, but it chose those people very carefully and always exacted a pledge in advance that the person would not try to grab it. One man who shook hands with the Witch described it as a delicate touch, "like a woman's hand" laid lengthwise in his palm.

Another described it as a "hairy substance." While the Witch spent most of its time in the Bell house, it was by no means confined there and many people throughout the area had experiences with Kate. One of the Bell's neighbors, William Porter, had one of the most memorable. Kate gets in bed with William Porter William Porter was a bachelor who lived alone some distance from the Bell farm. He and Kate talked often and had become friendly enough so that Porter had no fear of the spirit. One cold winter night as he lay in bed, he felt the covers being pulled back and heard Kate's familiar voice saying it had come "to spend the night with him and keep him warm." Porter told the Witch that if it was going to spend the night with him it had to behave itself.

He felt something sliding into bed with him and then felt the covers being pulled off him as Kate rolled up in them and left him exposed. Porter said he suddenly realized that the form in the bed next to him was clearly outlined under the bedcovers and he had an idea. ings in the Bell house became common knowledge in the area and all sorts of people began coming to the Bell farm to investigate and try to help. They tried to communicate with whatever it was by asking it questions that could be answered with a number. How manv neonlp are there in the room? How many horses in the yard? The answers came in quick knocks like rapping on the wall with a fist and the numbers were always correct.

Lights, like candles or lamps, began appearing, flitting through the trees, across the Bell yard and through the fields ot the farm. Some unseen thing began hurling chunks of wood and stone, pieces of tree limbs and even bricks, at family members and visitors. The disembodied voice Attempts by the Bell family and their neighbors to communicate with whatever it was in the Bell house produced an unexpected result. The thing began to talk. At first it was only a low, broken, whistling sound, but the strange, disembodied voice quickly gained strength.

It became a distinct whisper and finally a clear and clearly feminine voice. Naturally, one of the first questions asked was, "What are you?" The disembodied voice said, "I am a spirit. I was once very happy but I have been disturbed." That is all it would say about itself and in all the time it stayed with the Bells it always seemed reluctant to talk about itself. On one occasion it said that it was the spirit of an Indian who had once lived in the area. Another time it said that it was the snirit of an immigrant who had buried a treasure under a large rock by a spring on the banks of the river and that it wanted Elizabeth Bell to have it.

The spirit gave specific instructions for locating the treasure, but after a day of digging at the designated spot, the spirit began laughing at them for their foolishness in believing such a story. Still another time it claimed to be "Old Kate Batts Witch." Kate Batts was a neighbor of the Bell family. She and John Bell had had a violent quarrel shortly after the Bell family arrived in Robertson County. She was also a woman well known for her eccentricities. Many people believed her to be a witch.

She had a habit, for instance, of begging pins from any woman she met. According to the superstition of the day, borrowing a pin from someone gave the borrower witchlike control over the lender. Not everyone believed in witches, but everyone in the neighborhood made a practice of hiding their pins whenever Kate Batts came to call. Whether or not the spirit had any connection with Kate Batts, the name stuck. If the Witch wouldn't talk much about itself, it would talk about almost anything else.

In fact, once it learned to talk, it was hard to shut the darned thing up. It loved to get into religious and philosophical discussions with the many visitors now arriving regularly at the Bell Farm. It would quote biblical chapter and verse to prove its points and it rarely lost a debate. Kate also loved to perform for the tl lie nsh of the day is I New Stage's best production in at lemmaer. least four seasons." -Leslie R.

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