December 1, 2025: Urban Legends: The Bell Witch

[On December 5^th, 1945, five naval jets disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle, helping establish an urban legend that has endured to this day. So this week I’ll AmericanStudy five such urban legends, leading up to a crowd-sourced weekend post!]

On three telling stages in the development of a local legend.

1)      Word of mouth: The basic outline of the Bell Witch legend is that between 1817 and 1821, in Robertson County, Tennessee, the family of farmer John Bell Sr. was repeatedly haunted by a female spirit who came to be known as Kate, and who seemed to be particularly obsessed with Bell’s teenage daughter Betsy. Meanwhile, a young military officer named John R. Bell (apparently not related to the farmer, which is cray cray but might also explain why the name “Bell Witch” caught on for this legend) was part of Stephen H. Long’s 1820 expedition to the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains, and recorded in his detailed journal that during a stop in Robertson County he was told the story of a young woman who was haunted by a ghostly voice. Sometimes that’s all it takes to get an urban legend going, some oral history storytelling and a figure and text that can help pass the word of mouth along.   

2)      Media Investigations: One explorer’s journal wouldn’t likely be enough to perpetuate a legend for generations, though—for that, it takes the kinds of repeated rediscoveries and reports that media outlets can provide. One of the main such outlets for the Bell Witch legend was none other than my public scholarly home The Saturday Evening Post, which supposedly reported on the legend sometime around 1850 (the details are, appropriately, sketchy). Those reports were then picked up later in the 1850s by two New England periodicals, the New England Farmer and Green Mountain Freeman, both of which credited the Post. A few decades later, we see another example of this trend, as a pamphlet associated with the 1880 Nashville Centennial Exposition included a new account of the Bell Witch legend, presumably based on one or more of these earlier versions. The legend continues!

3)      An obsessed author: Those various versions would likely have ensured that the Bell Witch legend didn’t die out completely, but they seem sufficiently isolated in both time and place that they would likely not have been enough to lead to tons of 20^th and early 21^st century pop culture representations. For that, it took what it often takes, an obsessive individual willing to do a very, very deep dive. In this case, that individual was the strikingly named Martin Van Buren Ingram, a Kentucky Civil War veteran turned journalist who became interested in the legend around 1890 and in 1894 published a book with a title I am obligated to repeat in full: An Authenticated History of the Famous Bell Witch. The Wonder of the 19th Century, and Unexplained Phenomenon of the Christian Era. The Mysterious Talking Goblin that Terrorized the West End of Robertson County, Tennessee, Tormenting John Bell to His Death. The Story of Betsy Bell, Her Lover and the Haunting Sphinx. If I told you that its publisher, Clarksville’s W.P. Titus, reported a delay due to the witch herself haunting the premises—well, what’s more urban legend than that?

Next urban legend tomorrow,

Ben

PS. What do you think? Urban legends you’d highlight for the weekend post?