The Bell Witch…Tennessee’s Most Infamous Haunting

John Bell was a farmer who moved his family from North Carolina to Robertson County, Tennessee in the early 1800s.

He and his wife Lucy raised their children on a substantial piece of farmland along the Red River in an area that was still largely rural.

The family settled into their new home, worked the land, and became part of the surrounding community.

Their farm was near what is now Adams, Tennessee, although the landscape and the community would have looked very different in those days, of course.

There were no roads and electricity at this time.

Gosh, this is so cool to me.

I really like this story because there's so many layers to it.

For years, the Bell family reportedly lived without any extraordinary trouble.

That changed in the summer of 1817 when John Bell was said to have encountered a strange animal on his property.

The descriptions vary, but the creature is often portrayed in historical tellings of this.

Oh, okay.

The creature is often portrayed as something that looked like a dog with the head of a rabbit.

Oh, wait, is that Jackrabbit? No, Jackrabbits have horns.

Jackalope? Jackalope, yeah.

Is what you were trying to say?

Yeah.

So he supposedly raised his gun at it, shot, and when he looked, it was gone.

Like it just disappeared.

Huh, I don't know.

So obviously that's not enough to start this legend, but it's the first weird thing that happened to this family.

Not long afterward, the family reportedly began hearing strange knocking sounds around the house.

At first, they thought somebody might be playing tricks on them.

There were knocks on doors and walls, scratching noises, and sounds that seemed to come from places where no one was there.

Like they went and looked and no one was there.

That's creepy.

John Bell was a farmer who moved his family from North Carolina to Robertson County, Tennessee in the early 1800s.

He and his wife Lucy raised their children on a substantial piece of farmland along the Red River in an area that was still largely rural.

The family settled into their new home, worked the land, and became part of the surrounding community.

Their farm was near what is now Adams, Tennessee, although the landscape and the community would have looked very different in those days, of course.

There were no roads and electricity at this time.

Gosh, this is so cool to me.

I really like this story because there's so many layers to it.

For years, the Bell family reportedly lived without any extraordinary trouble.

That changed in the summer of 1817 when John Bell was said to have encountered a strange animal on his property.

The descriptions vary, but the creature is often portrayed in historical tellings of this.

Oh, okay.

The creature is often portrayed as something that looked like a dog with the head of a rabbit.

Oh, wait, is that Jackrabbit? No, Jackrabbits have horns.

Jackalope? Jackalope, yeah.

Is what you were trying to say?

Yeah.

So he supposedly raised his gun at it, shot, and when he looked, it was gone.

Like it just disappeared.

Huh, I don't know.

So obviously that's not enough to start this legend, but it's the first weird thing that happened to this family.

Not long afterward, the family reportedly began hearing strange knocking sounds around the house.

At first, they thought somebody might be playing tricks on them.

There were knocks on doors and walls, scratching noises, and sounds that seemed to come from places where no one was there.

Like they went and looked and no one was there.

That's creepy.