When John Bell moved to Tennessee early in the 1800s, he could not have foreseen what would later throw his family into the middle of what has since been called “Americas Greatest Ghost Story.”   By 1817, the Bell family had become prominent in the community and the Bell farms were growing year after year.  As John Bell walked his fields one evening, he noticed a strange looking animal.  At first he thought it was a dog, but it had the head of a rabbit.  As he fired at the animal, it disappeared. 

That evening, the Bells began hearing a pounding, rapping noise that seemed to come from the outside of the house, but when John and his oldest son went outside to see what was making the noise, there was never anything there.  In the ensuing days, the activity went from external pounding to noises being heard inside the house that sounded like rats in the walls or gnawing on furniture.  There were also unseen hands that pulled blankets off the family as they slept, family members being punched, kicked, hit and slapped.  Seemingly at the center of this activity was Betsy Bell, John’s 12 year old daughter, whose hair was pulled, her body mysteriously bruised and stuck with invisible pins.  She was slapped by invisible hands that would leave hand prints on her cheek.  Then the voices began, at first whispers, crying and singing.  John Bell tried to keep quiet about the activity but it was too violent, too horrible and, after a year of dealing with it, he finally broke his silence, telling his best friend and neighbor, James Johnston.  Johnston spent the night with the Bell family and experienced first-hand everything John Bell had told him.   He formed an ‘investigative committee’ and it wasn’t long before the other neighbors heard about the strange goings on at the Bell farm and John’s secret was out
The only known portrait of John Bell.
The inside of the Bell Cabin.
At this point, the activity increased in intensity and the voice that was once indistinct whispers and crying became discernible, communicating with the Bells and quoting scripture.  It also identified itself as the witch of Kate Batts, who was a neighbor of Bell’s and had bad blood with John Bell because of the purchase of some slaves in which the deal went bad.   Eventually, word spread of the witch Kate and she, in turn, began to make ‘appearances’ all around the area. Her antics became so famous that, by 1819, General Andrew Jackson became interested in the story and wanted to come for a visit. 

Jackson was already familiar with the two older Bell boys because they fought under him in the Battle of New Orleans.  En route to the Bell farm, Jackson and his men, traveling in a large wagon, experienced the unseen witch first-hand.  As they got closer to the Bell’s farm, their wagon stopped dead and refused to move.  No matter what they did, no matter how hard the horses pulled, the wagon wheels would not move.  Jackson was said to utter the words “it must be the witch” and immediately, a female voice was said to tell Jackson that he and his men could proceed and that she would see them again later that evening, which she certainly did.  At the Bell house later that night, Betsy screamed continuously from the attacks by the witch while she tried to sleep. General Jackson and his men had their bed covers ripped off them repeatedly.  When one of Jackson’s men claimed to be a witch tamer, he suddenly started distorting his body and screaming, claiming he was being stuck with pins all over his body, then running out the front door.  The witch then proclaimed that there was another ‘fraud’ in the group that Jackson brought with him and that she would identify him the next day.   Though his men begged to leave, Jackson held firm and they all headed out to the field to sleep in their tents; however, they were seen leaving the following afternoon without another visit from the witch.
Over the next year or so,  the invisible entity of Kate continued to terrorize the Bell family, but Betsy again seemed to take the brunt of the viciousness.  For reasons unknown, the witch seemed to take a particular interest in the relationship between Betsy and her friend, Joshua Gardner, a neighbor boy.  Though young, their parents did eventually agreed to their engagement.   Kate, however, did not want this engagement or eventual marriage to take place.  Things got worse for Betsy, at that point.   No matter where Betsy and Joshua tried to go or what they tried to do, Kate followed and taunted them to the point where, in 1820, they broke their engagement.

During this time, when Betsy and Joshua were trying to maintain their relationship despite the relentlessness of the witch, John Bell suddenly fell ill while walking to his pigsty, and he never recovered.  It was believed that he had a stroke because he had problems talking afterward.  As time went on, Kate was relentless in her attacks on him.  As Betsy and Joshua’s engagement ended, Kate’s attacks on Betsy and the rest of the family decreased, but the activity including John Bell only got worse and she also threatened his life.   She seemed determined not to rest until Bell was dead and in his grave.   And she seemed to be succeeding.  He was in and out of bed constantly.  He had problems swallowing.  He began to have seizures, during which Kate would slap his face continuously.  On December 19, 1820, when John failed to wake up at his normal time of the morning, the family checked on him and he was breathing erratically.  When John Jr went to get his medicine, he found another bottle in it’s place.   As the doctor examined him, the witch began to taunt the family, saying she had replaced his bottle of medicine with poison and had given it to him in the night.  The family gave some of this liquid to a cat, who died immediately.  The next morning, John Bell died.   There was no peace, even at the funeral, where the witch cackled and laughed during the service, singing songs over the burial site until the funeral was over and everyone had gone home.  

Four months later, in April of 1821, the witch told Lucy Bell that she would return in seven years for a visit, then she disappeared.   Seven years later, she made good on her promise and returned, only instead of returning to the original Bell home, the activity centered around John Jr where, over the ensuing three weeks, she discussed with John Jr prophecies for the future, predicting the Civil War, WWI, the Great Depression and WWII.  At the end of the three weeks, the entity of “Kate” disappeared, her parting farewell was a promise to return in 107 years to visit the most direct descendent of John Bell living at that time, which was Charles Bailey Bell.  The year would have been 1935, if Kate had held on to her promise, but if she really had made an appearance to him, he took it to his grave when he died in 1945.
Since, people claim that Kate still haunts the property and there have been many reports of apparitions walking the grounds where the Bell home used to be.  There is also a cave on the property that locals claim is haunted.  This cave and the Bell property itself is still a favorite among ghost enthusiasts and paranormal investigators.  There are many claims of lights flickering over what was once the Bell fields, voices and children playing are heard in the area but remain unseen.  There have been images of people appearing in pictures when there was no one there.   Even after nearly 200 years, the mystery of who and what haunted the Bells…and some claim still haunts the property…has never been solved with certainty.
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The woodsy remains of the Bell cemetary.
John Bells gravestone, obviously.