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The following is a local introduction of the “Bell Witch Incident” in Texas.
In the history of the United States, only one supernatural event had been “officially certified.” The event also just happened to involve the seventh President of the United States, Andrew Jackson, whose face was printed on a $20 bill.
The seventh President of the United States also appeared in the “Hardcore Exorcist” image during the Bell Witch incident.
Ghost Shadow, Monster, and Unknown Warning.
This incident could be traced back to the northern suburbs of the northern part of the city of Nashville in 1800.
Towards the end of the 18th century, heading into the 19th century, the ‘Western Advancement Movement’ was taking full effect. Flooding into the Southwest was a large number of immigrants there to stake their fortune in the territory known as the ‘Old West.' During that time, as long as hardship or death didn’t deter you, you could buy a large plot of virgin land and become a big landowner without spending too much.
The main character to emerge from this story was John Bell, an immigrant who went to the rural area of Texas. He would end up becoming the victim of the “vengeful souls," who would torment John and his family for many years.
The records explain that John was a typical early American pioneer. Like the others in his day, he was hardworking, brave, honest, loved his family, and believed in God. His personality was not out of character for a man during these times at all. Toward 1800, John took the initiative to bring his family from Tennessee to the Red River bank of Robertson County, Texas, where they brought 1000 acres of land and prepared to build a large farm to settle down on.
It was known that not long after the Bell family moved to this place, something unusual occurred.
One day, when John’s youngest son was playing in the woods with a few neighborhood kids, they discovered a huge cave. Out of curiosity, the children climbed into this cave. Little did they know that this cave was supernatural and an invisible force would grab hold of one of the children, entrapping them in the cave.
When the others saw this, they were scared out of their minds and ran to call for help. By the time the adults arrived at the scene, the child’s lips had turned pale from fright. He explained to the adults that when he was stuck in the cave, he had heard a woman’s voice whisper in his ear.
“You must tell the Bell family that I will come for them.”
When John heard about this story, he was not that affected. Children were always making up stories and playing pranks, otherwise, they might have become overly frightened and hallucinated in the dark cave. In other words, none of this needed to be taken seriously.
For a long time after that, the Bell family’s lives were peaceful and harmonious. They were hard at work farming and building their home. After more than ten years of toiling the land, John had finally transformed his virgin plot of land into a big, decent farm with roads and ditches nearby. He even hired helpers to raise a large number of slaves. His life became one that was considered very prosperous in the settlement.
In addition, John was generous and warm and treated others with kindness and respect. His devotion to God showed in his day-to-day handlings. Therefore, whenever the Bell's family name was brought up in the villages, everyone's faces would be left in reverential awe over their words.
No one would have thought that in 1817, such evil things could occur to break the peaceful and happy lives of the Bell family.
The following content, even though appearing very strange and other-worldly, did not come straight from word-of-mouth. Most of the content was taken from an official account of Witch Bell (“Authentic History of the Bell Witch”), a book that was published in 1894 by Martin Van Buren Ingram.
“Authentic History of the Bell Witches” was published in 1894.
Early one morning in the fall of 1817, John was tending to his fields, keeping to routine as usual. Suddenly, a rustling sound from the wheat fields in the distance grabbed his attention. A black shadow took that moment to rush at him. He hurried to swing his hoe at the black shadow.
The hoe came into contact with the black shadow and it fell heavily to the ground. John carefully examined it and was quite stunned! On the ground was a monster with a terrifying presence. Its body was that of a hound, but its head had the shape of a rabbit and the face of a human. After it hit the ground, the monster rolled around and then got up and crawled back to the wheat field. Under the veil of the tall grass, it disappeared without another trace.
Also, that morning, John’s third son, was busying himself in another area of the farm. Sightings of another terrifying unknown creature appeared in front of him. This time around it was a strange bird with a human face. The strange sound coming from its mouth was like women’s laughter, and after hearing it, Drury felt quite frightened. Without hesitating any further, he quickly shot the strange bird from out of the tree with his hunting rifle, but when he approached it to give it a better look, he saw that the strange bird had no body - what only remained was a human face.
A few days following, John’s youngest daughter, Betsey, was wandering around the woods near the farm. She came across a strange old woman, and Betsey, unable to alleviate the suspicion in her heart, called out for her to stop. The old woman did not respond, and when Betsey walked closer, she saw the old woman had disappeared. However, some strange black powder was left on the ground.
This was an uninvited guest that could not be seen.
Later, the events started to become more and more terrifying.
Every time just around dinner when everyone would be sitting around the dining table getting ready to say grace, a fierce and urgent knock would sound on the door. But when they opened the door to investigate, there would be nothing outside.
Later on, when the family would get ready for bed, they would always hear disturbances in the night: someone knocking on the window, scratching at the door, moving the furniture around, or pacing back and forth on the porch.
Later on, they began to hear people whispering their names, even whimpering, sobbing, or giggling. Sometimes the ghosts would burp, fart, and smack their lips. The apparitions were displaying some disturbingly human-like characteristics.
If you witnessed this, you might find it a little hilarious. If this were a haunting, why would the ghost be so vulgar?
In fact, it was quite well-known around medieval Europe that demons and witches as a series of “evil forces” would often fall into vulgar and dirty practices such as this. They would often act indecently as a way to provoke the holy believers of God.
These strange occurrences created unrest and uneasiness among the Bell family members. Although John was a God-fearing individual, this belief did not extend to demons.
At first, he made no direct contact with these spiritual forces. Instead, he opted to gather the farmworkers and slaves to clean up the attic, floor storage room, and basement of the house, believing that dirt drew unwanted evil energies to the house. He drove away sparrows, rabbits, field mice, and other wild animals. Then, he arranged for someone to patrol the grounds and stand guard around the house every day.
Even after his preparations, the strange occurrences would keep happening. What John found so disheartening was that the “dirty things” seemed to be targeting the Bell family. As long as an outsider was present, the hauntings would cease and no strange sounds would appear. But once only the family members were present in the house, the strange occurrences would not stop. And they would gradually become more and more intense.
Later on, the glass in the house would be knocked to the ground, shattering upon impact. Chairs and stools would also follow suit. In the end, they would all fall to the ground and there was nothing anybody could do to stop it. This “thing” was growing more and more fearless, unwilling to settle on just knocking on the window or scratching on the door. The spiritual energy in the Bell household was becoming so ferocious, it would toss open the doors and windows of the Bell house.
If the moving around of furniture and blowing open the windows all day weren’t enough to petrify, then what happened next to his youngest daughter, Betsey, would really end up frightening John.
Evil spirits having the ability to possess bodies.
One night, while Betsey was still asleep, her body was suddenly flung in the air. When Betsey woke up, she found herself still floating in the air. She could not help but scream out in shock, waking everyone in the house. When everyone rushed to see what was wrong, they could see her body still drifting in the air.
The family took hold of her clothes and limbs and dragged her down. When Betsy was back on the bed, she had already fainted from shock. When she regained consciousness, she opened her eyes to show a pair of completely red sockets. On her face was a hideous grin. Her teeth were now sharp fangs and it had appeared that she had been possessed by an evil spirit. Then, she shouted in a very shrill voice, “This is only the beginning!” After having said that, she fainted once again.
When she woke up again, she was back to her original appearance and said that she remembered nothing of what just happened.
At this point, if you happen to be a fan of horror movies, you might have realized that this phenomenon is not unusual at all. Isn’t this the demon that appeared in “Exorcist”? In the face of such a thing, what could they do? They could only turn to a master to help him exorcise this demon!
Even if John couldn’t find anyone to help him, his friends were itching to assist. Once the news of the Bell family’s haunted house reached their ears, many enthusiastic friends and neighbors were willing to drop by and help rid them of this evil spirit once and for all.
However, the evil spirit was not a ruffian at all. A band of brothers could not be hired to beat it up. One of the pastors at the local church, James Johnson, heard word of this matter. He decided he would lend a hand by borrowing the power of God to help the Bell family out. He would stay in the Bells’ house and sleep on the couch next to the Bells’ bed. Holding a cross in his hand the entire time, he would lie in wait for the evil spirits to come out and cause trouble.
Would the troublesome wraith be terrified into submission by this Pastor James? Highly unlikely! It would still wreak havoc on the Bells. In the middle of the night, it would run to the couple’s bed and snatch the blanket right from under Pastor James’ nose. Sometimes, the blanket would be thrown in the air, and sometimes it would be thrown to the ground.
At first, James attempted to put a stop to the evil ghost’s pranks by reciting the scriptures, but in the end, this proved useless. After a while, he just gave up on “God’s power” and used his own physical strength to struggle with the evil spirits for possession of the blanket.
After fighting for a while, James eventually felt like the evil spirit was stronger than him, his whole body becoming very haggard and depleted of energy.
The events lead to one day while at dinner, James suddenly fainted in front of the table. Like Betsey before him, he was possessed by evil spirits. His eyes were bloodshot and his mouth full of sharp teeth. On his face was a hideous grin and out of his lips came a woman’s voice singing a very strange song. Then he pointed his finger at John and said, “I’m going to kill you.”
Because their torment by this evil ghost had lasted for so long, the fear of the Bell family had abated and had turned into anger. John’s son stood up and asked the evil ghost angrily, “Who or what are you? Why do you want to make our lives difficult?”
The evil ghost seemed to have calmed down enough to answer. It revealed that it was called “Kate.” It was a woman who had lived here long ago, who, after dying, was reborn into the soul of a witch. Now, she was here to torment the Bell family. She wanted to do all she could to make them suffer. As for the unknown grudge between her and the Bell family, little light came as to why it came to be. Her mere purpose was to make them suffer.
After having said this, Pastor James passed out right in front of them. When he came to, all memories of what happened were wiped clean from his mind. After this, it was like Pastor James had completely given up. That night, he rushed to leave the Bell family in a hurry and put this matter out of his head once and for all.
