Bell Witch (1894)

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 to 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 (or of being in more than one place at a time). In 1894, newspaper editor Martin V. Ingram published his Authenticated History of the Bell Witch.

Source Title

Wikipedia: Bell Witch

Source URL

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Witch

Source Notes

Imported from Wikipedia REST, MediaWiki, and Wikidata sources on 2026-07-13. Review article citations and edit details before saving. Wikimedia image source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/WmPorterBurnWitch.jpg. Coordinates inferred from location context using OpenStreetMap Nominatim query: United States. Date note: Only a year was found; the event date defaults to January 1 at 12:00.

1. Occurred Jan 1, 1894 12:00 PM UTC
2. Submitted Jul 12, 2026 11:53 PM Historical Archive created
3. Approved Jul 12, 2026 11:53 PM Moderator reviewed
4. Media Uploaded Jul 12, 2026 11:53 PM 1 media file