Bell Witch Haunting, Written Decades Later

In July 1891, a man in Adairville, Kentucky, handed an editor a manuscript his father had written in 1846 about a voice in a Tennessee farmhouse. The family had agreed not to print it. Why did they wait forty-five years? This video tells the Bell Witch legend the way the family's account and the 1894 book tell it, from the first sights in a cornfield to John Bell's death and the voice's promise to return. There is no verified evidence for any of the haunting, and the video says so. It then follows the paper trail: who wrote the manuscript, why the family held it back, who finally released it, and why skeptics doubt it. What this covers: How the Bell family came to the Red River in 1804 and what the legend says began in 1817 The first sights and sounds in the book, and why the family told nobody for a year or more Kate, the voice, and how it treated Lucy, Betsy and John Bell The vial, the cat, and John Bell's death on 20 December 1820, with one 1880 sketch that tells it differently The 1846 manuscript, the 1891 letter, and the agreement to wait that it describes Why skeptics say the 90 manuscript pages in the book cannot be checked The story behind the thing. Narration is computer-generated (text-to-speech); research, script and drawings are original. Wren S O U R C E S THE BOOK AND THE LETTER Martin V. Ingram, An Authenticated History of the Famous Bell Witch (Clarksville, 1894), full text on archive.org: the 1 July 1891 letter from J. A. Bell of Adairville, Kentucky (including "Uncle John Bell"; the letter does not say how he was related), Ingram's 5 July 1891 reply and preface, the 1817 sights and sounds, Dean and the black dog, Kate Batts, Betsy's trials, the "Poisonous Vial" chapter and the voice's words at the bedside, the return after seven years, a later letter citing an 1849 newspaper article, and Richard Williams Bell's list of explanations and his hope for a wiser generation. https://archive.org/stream/per_witchc... Custom House Museum, Clarksville: the 1894 book as the first time the whole story was printed and sold. https://customshousemuseum.org/news/t... THE LEGEND AND THE DOUBTS Wikipedia, "Bell witch": the voice and the two sermons 13 miles apart, "Old Jack", the 1880 sketch, Andrew Jackson and the lack of evidence for his visit, Ingram's career, the Hopkinsville review, and the views of Brian Dunning, Joe Nickell and Keith Cartwright. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_witch Tennessee Encyclopedia, "Bell Witch" (William T. Turner): the 1804 migration, the quiet years, the family's silence at first, and the 20 December 1820 death date. https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/?p=368 CAVEATS AND OWN ARITHMETIC Everything about the haunting is told as the family's account and the book's account; none of it is verified. Sources differ on the first year (1816 or 1817); the script gives the book's 1817. 1891 minus 1846 is 45 years; 1894 minus 1891 is three years; 5 July minus 1 July is four days. The order of Richard's hope and his "unable to decide" in the manuscript is not known, so the script does not give one. #BellWitch #BellWitchHaunting #TennesseeLegend #FolkloreHistory #History