The Bell Witch

Betsy was just 6 years old and living with her family in Tennessee when it happened the first time all those years ago. As her mamma stood at the large kitchen table rolling out biscuit dough for supper, she heard Betsy who was right behind her call out, "Mamma! Help me, Mamma! It's got me!"

When Betsy's mom turned to look, she saw her youngest daughter being held up by her long, brown hair, floating 2 feet above the dirt floor of the kitchen. She was a small child, but still, lifted as she was, her face was pulled taught by the weight. She should have been screaming in pain, but she didn't appear to be hurting. Frightened, yes, but not hurting.

As soon as Betsy's mom got her wits about her, she grabbed her little girl around the waist and pulled her down to the floor out of the grasp of those invisible hands. As they lay there crying, Betsy's father, Will, came rushing in to see what the commotion was about. He was afraid an Indian had snuck into the house and was trying to make off with his family. "Oh Will," his wife cried, "something evil got ahold of Betsy! We couldn't see it, but it was evil indeed!" Just then, the heavy wooden table lifted up on one side and as they watched in astonishment, it lifted higher and higher until the flour, the rolling pin and even the sticky biscuit dough slid to the floor. The table then gently and slowly eased back down.

The Bell family, Will, his wife, their three sons and the baby of the family, little Betsy, had moved to Tennessee from Illinois a few months previously. Nobody knows for sure whether the evil followed them from Illinois, but most agree it was either an old Indian graveyard Will had unknowingly disturbed when he built their home on top of it, or it could have been the spirit of the woman the Bells bought their land from - an evil, spiteful widow woman who claimed Will had cheated her on the deal. When she died just a few weeks after the Bell's moved into their newly built home, the woman passed away while cursing the Bell family from her death bed. 

For whatever strange reason, the spirit seemed to focus most of its evilness upon poor, innocent Betsy. It seemed to follow her wherever she went, pulling her hair and tripping her as she walked around the yard. When she went to bed at night, she couldn't sleep as the spirit pinched her, poked her, and made horrible noises in her ears whenever her poor eyes grew so weary they began to droop in spite of her determination to stay awake. Then the spirit seemed to leave, giving welcome respite to Betsy and the other members of her family. But just about the time their hopes were raised that the evilness had finally left them in peace, it would start up again. Several times Betsy's screams in the middle of the night would wake her parents who slept in the room next to hers. They would rush in to find Betsy lying in bed, drenched in cold well water and an empty wet pail laying on the floor across the room.

Betsy never knew when she ate her food whether the witch had strongly salted or peppered it or even poisoned it. Though she ate the same food from the same bowl as everyone else, she learned to take small test bites. Several times she became violently ill and almost died after eating. She was naturally thin, but she soon looked like death itself.

Every morning before dressing, she had to carefully shake out her clothes before putting them on. Not every day, but on most, her clothing would be concealing scorpions or ants or even small snakes.

When Betsy walked by animals, they seemed to sense the evilness that surrounded her - pigs snorted and ran to the other side of the pen, cows wouldn't let her milk them, horses spooked, dogs growled, cats raised their backs and hissed at her.

The family tried a number of times to move away, but a calamity always struck which prevented it. Their wagon broke an axle as they left once. Another time one of the horses that was pulling their wagon dropped dead just 1 mile from the house. The next time they tried to leave, a sudden rainstorm hit and turned the road into a bed of mud so deep nothing could travel on it for weeks. The Bells grew resigned to their sad plight.

Twelve long years passed in the same horrible fashion with Betsy barely clinging to life on many occasions, but she endured and grew to be a pretty and engaging young woman. While attending church, as the family did every Sunday, she caught the eye of a young man, the son of a neighbor. Soon they were betrothed and set a date for their wedding. The young man knew all about what had become known as the Bell Witch, but he loved Betsy and swore to do whatever it took to keep her safe.

The day of the wedding arrived and even though the knife which was used to cut the cake flew through the air by itself to stick in the front door of the church and the table holding the punch bowl tilted up spilling the liquid all over several people, the pair were married. Betsy's father gave them the gift of a brand-new wagon and 2 strong horses to pull it. The couple took the hint and hit the road with the intention of making their life together far away in Texas.

The land in Texas where, according to some
people, the Bell Witch lives.

Strangely, as they entered Texas, the witch that had been deviling them all along on their journey began to settle down. Several days into their travel across the state, it wasn't playing tricks as much and it felt like the meanness wasn't as evident. Texas was a mean country in those days and only the hardy and tough could survive in such a place. Perhaps the witch was getting tired of competing with all the meanness of the country they were traveling in. By the time the young lovers made it to the Big Bend area where they homesteaded a parcel of land, the spirit was no longer with them. Betsy and her husband lived to have a hard, but good life, raising 5 out of 7 children to adulthood and enjoying many grandchildren in their later years. They never experienced the Bell Witch again.

The old ones say the witch found a home here
with the cactus and rattlesnakes.

They didn't experience the witch again, you see, because that horrible spirit had found a spot in central Texas which didn't yet have a full compliment of evil. It stopped right there and made a home for itself. It's there still in the part of Texas where everything either bites, stings, or sticks. In that rocky hill country when horses spook for no reason, when snakes appear in flour bins, when babies scream at night, the old wise ones know the Bell Witch is the cause, still playing mean tricks and bullying the weak.

So when you come upon a sweet innocent child like little Betsy, a child with fear and hunger in her eyes, give all you can. A smile, a touch, a friendly nod. And say a prayer for those like little Betsy, that the evil witches of the world will let them be.