page_title: Bell Witch
section_title: Legend in the 20th Century
hierarchical_section_title: Bell Witch / Legend in the 20th Century
caption_attribution_description: English: Tennessee Historical Commission marker along U.S. Route 41 in Adams, Tennessee, United States, recalling the Bell Witch haunting.
context_page_description: The Bell Witch or Bell Witch Haunting is a legend from Southern United States folklore, centered on the 19th-century Bell family of northwest Robertson County, Tennessee. Farmer John Bell Sr. resided with his family along the Red River in an area currently near the town of Adams. According to legend, from 1817-1821, his family and the local area came under attack by a mostly invisible entity that was able to speak, affect the physical environment, and shapeshift. Some accounts record the spirit also to have been clairvoyant and capable of crossing long distances with superhuman speed.
  In 1894, newspaper editor Martin V. Ingram published his Authenticated History of the Bell Witch. The book is widely regarded as the first full-length record of the legend and a primary source for subsequent treatments. The individuals recorded in the work were known historical personalities. In modern times, some skeptics have regarded Ingram's efforts as a work of historical fiction or fraud. Other researchers consider Ingram's work a nascent folklore study and an accurate reflection of belief in the region during the 19th century.
context_section_description: A prophecy was reported by May 1903 that the witch could return on the centennial of the Bell family arrival in Tennessee. In response to an August 1903 article from Memphis, The Springfield Herald expressed that no one in the local area was concerned with a return of the Bell Witch and made a charge of plagiarism towards the Memphis paper. The Herald also stated the copyright for Ingram's work had passed to his son Tolbert who was working at The Denver Times. By September, the local paper was again incredulous as the spirit was not reported to have returned in August.
  Charles Bailey Bell, a grandson of John Bell Jr., and neurologist in Nashville, published a book entitled The Bell Witch: A Mysterious Spirit in 1934. In the work, he recounted stories he stated were told to him by his great aunt Betsy later in her life. This included another account of Andrew Jackson's visit and of a boy trapped in the Bell Witch Cave and pulled out of the cave feet first by the witch. Bell also detailed a series of prophecies he stated were given to his ancestors in 1828 by the spirit, including a declaration the witch was set to return again in 1935, 107 years after her last visit to the Bell family.
  In 1937, there were reports of quirky events. Louis Garrison, owner of the farm that included the Bell Witch Cave, heard unexplained noises coming from inside. Bell descendants described the sound of something rubbing against a house, a paper like object that flew out the door and reentered through a side door, and faint music heard from a piano. A group from the local Epworth League were reported to have attended a wiener roast in a rock quarry near the Bell Witch Cave on July 29, 1937. The group were joking about the legend when they saw a figure of a woman sitting on top of the cliff over the cave causing many to flee. According to the newspaper, a minister in the group later claimed to have investigated and discovered it was moonlight on a rock. The second report concluded with a weather report that the moon was barely noticeable that night. Jim Brooks published in 2015 that his mother was in attendance at the roast, and relates that the minister caught up to the youth on the road to town after discovering no explanation for the figure.
  In November 1965, an article was published involving an antique oak rocking chair said to have been previously owned by attorney Charlie Willett, a Bell descendant. The rocking chair was acquired in Willett's estate sale by Mrs. J. C. Adams, owner of an antique store on U.S. 41. A customer sat down in the chair, after learning it was not for sale, and while rocking in the chair asked Mrs. Adams if she believed in the supernatural. Two weeks later, the customer's daughter visited the home of Mrs. Adams and said after her mother had left and visited the Bell cemetery a voice told her to "stand up and look around, you will find something of much value." After some car trouble, the woman walked out into a field and found a black iron kettle turned over. She turned the kettle over and found a pearl buckle in the grass. The woman's daughter reported a jeweler estimated the buckle to be 160 to 200 years old.
  Attorney Charles Romaine Willett (1886-1963), son of Sarah Elizabeth Bell, began an interest in the newspaper business at the age of 16. After some time playing professional baseball and working at other newspapers, Willett became the first managing editor of the Nashville Tennessean in 1907 while teaching himself law. A mayor of Adams, and member of the State legislature, Charlie Willett was known for his reliability. Every Sunday, Willett would accompany his sweetheart, Miss Jerry Cullom Gardner, for ice cream in Clarksville and dinner  at Richardson's Restaurant on the return home. According to community lore, the couple never married so as not to tempt fate as they descended from the Bell and Gardner families respectively. Jim Brooks relates that a family member detailed familial obligations as the likely explanation. Brooks inquired what the couple thought about the rumor in the early 1960s. Jerry Gard
caption: Tennessee Historical Commission marker along U.S. Route 41 in Adams, Tennessee.
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