5. Personal communication between Fred Rolater and Robert Bartholomew dated December 20, 2013. He is a retired professor of history from Middle Tennessee State University.
6. Claudette Stager, National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet, United States Department of Interior, Supplementary Listing Record (NRIS Reference Number: 08000237, 2007), at p. 3 of section 8. This is the official document granting the Bell Witch Cave its legal historical status. It was submitted by Stager in December 2007 and was approved and enacted on March 21, 2008. Stager was representing the Tennessee Historical Commission, 2941 Lebanon Road, Nashville, Tennessee (forty pages).
7. Workers of the Writer’s Program (compilers), Tennessee: A Guide to the State. Produced by the Works Progress Administration (during the Great Depression) by the State of Tennessee, Department of Conservation, Division of Information (American Book-Stratford Press, 1939), p. 392.
8. See, for example, Carol Gist, Is It Really Haunted? A Concise Resource for Ghost Enthusiasts (Lincoln, Nebraska: iUniverse, 2009), pp. 89–95.
9. Martin Van Buren Ingram, Authenticated History of the Bell Witch and Other Stories of the World’s Greatest Unexplained Phenomenon (1894, reprinted, Adams, Tennessee: Historic Bell Witch Cave, Inc., 2005). The legend’s most vocal proponent, Ingram, claims that it even surpasses the disturbances of the Epworth rectory poltergeist, an early eighteenth-century case involving the Wesley family, among the children of which was the future founder of Methodism, John Wesley. For a description of the Wesley case, refer to Rosemary Ellen Guiley, The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits, second edition (New York: Checkmark Books, 2000), pp. 122–124.
10. “Story of Witchcraft: In the South—Old Kate Batts’ Awful Spell.” The Hartford Herald (Kentucky), July 25, 1984, p. 1.
11. Earl Shaub, “Worry over Scheduled Return of Legendary Witch,” Hamilton Daily News Journal (Hamilton, Ohio), April 14, 1937, p. 12.
12. Robert Talley, “America’s No. 1 Ghost Breaks a Date Made 110 Years Ago,” Arizona Independent Republican, December 19, 1937, p. 6. This story appeared in many American papers near this date.
13. William T. Brannon, “The Mystery of the Bell Witch,” Family Weekly Magazine, October 30, 1955, pp. 8–9. See p. 9 for quote.
14. Alan Spraggett, “The Unexplained: Andrew Jackson Heard the Witch’s Voice,” The Robesonian (Lumberton, North Carolina), October 17, 1973, p. 11.
15. Pat Fitzhugh, The Bell Witch: The Full Account (Ashland City, TN: Armand Press, 2009), p. 14.
16. Stephen Wagner, “The Bell Witch,” accessed November 17, 2013, at http://paranormal.about.com/od/trueghoststories/a/aa041706.htm.
17. Charles A. Stansfield Jr., Haunted Presidents: Ghosts in the Lives of the Chief Executives (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2010), p. 41.
18. Michael Schmicker, Best Evidence (Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, Inc., 2002), p. 229.
19. Ted Olson and Anthony Cavender, Tennessee Folklore Sampler: Selections from the Tennessee Folklore Society (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2009), p. 236. This composition places the witch in North Carolina, not Tennessee.
20. See Olson and Cavender 2009, p. 236, citing Gladys Barr, “Witchcraft in Tennessee,” Tennessee Valley Historical Review II (Fall 1983): 29. The article took a romantic angle. The writer suggested that the “spirit” was a male ventriloquist who was infatuated with Betsy Bell and wanted to scare off her suitor, Josh Gardner.
21. “Tennessee Witch Now the Star of a Play.” United Press International report appearing in the Pharos-Tribune (Logansport, Indiana), October 31, 1976, p. 36.
22. See http://www.clarksvilleonline.com/2008/10/29/last-weekend-for-david-alfords-play-spirit/, accessed November 20, 2013; Fiona Soltes, “Bell Witch Tales Possesses Spirit: Performer’s Love for Bell Witch Play Never Dwindles Despite Strange Occurrences,” The Tennessean, October 17, 2013.
23. Film trailer for The Bell Witch Haunting. Accessed November 17, 2013, at http://www.thebellwitchhaunting.com/trailerpage.html.
24. S. Shane Marr (director), Bell Witch: The Movie (Big River Pictures and Cinemarr Entertainment, 2005); Robert Maughon, Bell Witch: The Movie Novel (Sugarlands Publishing, 2005).
25. Press release, “Seven Tennessee Sites Added to National Register of Historic Places,” United States Federal News Service, Including US State News (Washington, D.C., May 6, 2008).
26. Stager 2007, op. cit., section 8, p. 8.
27. http://www.bellwitchfallfestival.com/index.php/tickets/events-listing/2012-08-09-00-07-03, accessed November 20, 2013.
28. http://www.bellwitchfansite.com/our_bell_witch_story.html, accessed November 20, 2013.
29. Richard Williams Bell, Chapter 8, “‘Our Family Trouble’: The Story of the Bell Witch as Detailed by Richard Williams Bell” (allegedly 1846). The authenticity of the manuscript, which is supposedly cited verbatim by Richard Bell in Ingram’s book, is almost certainly a hoax. Alleged authorship and date given in Ingram 1894, op. cit., pp. 101–186.
30. Ingram 1894 (2009), op. cit., p. 7. The references to Ingram 2009 refer to a different reprinted edition of Ingram’s original book. Joe Nickell worked with the 2005 reprint, while Robert Bartholomew used the 2009 edition. The books are identical, except for slightly different titles, but the page numbers do not sync. Therefore, anywhere “Ingram, 1894 (2009)” appears, it refers to the following edition: Martin Van Buren Ingram, An Authenticated History of the Famous Bell Witch (1894, reprinted, Rockville, MD: Wildside Press, 2009).
31. Ingram 1894 (2009), op. cit., p. 2.
32. Both Jesse Glass and Jack Cook have researched the story over the years and searched for historical documents to corroborate it in everything from diaries to letters and church documents. They found nothing predating 1886. Glass observes that it is beyond belief to think that detailed records of the Red River Primitive Baptist Church, which excommunicated Bell in 1818, would have failed to mention something as significant as the Witch, given that these events took place when the Great Revival was sweeping through the region, given the emphasis at the time on repudiating the Devil (Glass, personal communication dated December 31, 2013).
33. Ingram 1894 (2009), op. cit., p. 55.
34. Ingram 1894 (2009), op. cit., p. 55.
35. Ingram 1894 (2009), op. cit., p. 56.
36. Ingram 1894 (2009), op. cit., p. 56.
37. Ingram 1894 (2009), op. cit., p. 56.
38. This is not an unheard-of practice in poltergeist cases. For a prominent example where such acts were uncovered, see the case of the Enfield Poltergeist, in which such deception was effectively discovered. See Joe Nickell, “Enfield Poltergeist,” Skeptical Inquirer 36: 4 (July/August 2012a), pp. 12–14.
39. “Bell” 1846 (2009), op. cit., p. 58.
40. “Bell” 1846 (2009), op. cit., p. 59–60.
41. “Bell” 1846 (2009), op. cit., p. 87.
42. Arthur Edward Waite, A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry (New York: Weathervane Books, 1970), volume 1, p. 366.
43. Waite 1970, op. cit., Volume 1, p. 367.
44. Waite 1970, op. cit., Volume 1, p. 174.
45. Ralph P. Lester, Look to the East! A Ritual of the First Three Degrees of Masonry (Chicago: Ezra A. Cook Publications, 1977), p. 181.
46. Albert G. Mackey, The Symbolism of Freemasonry (Chicago: Charles T. Posner Co., 1975), p. 320.
47. Mackey 1975, op. cit., p. 339.
48. Lester 1977, op. cit., p. 91.
49. Ingram 1894 (2009), op. cit., p. 87.
50. Mackey 1975, op. cit., pp. 125–129; Lester 1977, op. cit., pp. 40–41.
51. Capt. William Morgan, Illustrations of Masonry (reprinted, Chicago: Ezra A. Cook Publications, 1827), pp. 105–110.
52. These include allusions in the Bell narrative to “signs,” knocks at the door, and “mauls,” which also have their counterparts in the secret symbols, rituals, and language of Masonry. See Lester 1977, op. cit., pp. 22, 47, 143.
53. Ingram 1894 (2009), op. cit., pp. 116–120.
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54. Ingram 1894 (2009), op. cit., pp. 116–117.
55. Ingram 1894 (2009), op. cit., p. 118.
56. Michael Norman and Beth Scott, Historic Haunted America (New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2007), p. 324.
57. Don Wick, “The Strange True Story of the Bell Witch of Tennessee.” Parts 1–5 (February–June 2007), The Mountain Laurel: The Journal of Mountain Life, accessed November 23, 2013, at http://mtnlaurel.com/ghost-stories/1166-the-strange-true-story-of-the-bell-witch-of-tennessee-part-1.html.
58. See Sue Hamilton, Ghosts and Goblins (Edina, MN: ABDO Publishing, 2005), p. 5; Hans Holzer, Poltergeists: True Encounters with the World Beyond (New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2010).
59. Donald B. Cole, Vindicating Andrew Jackson: The 1828 Election and the Rise of the Two-Party System (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2009).
60. Michael Franz, Paul Freedman, Kenneth Goldstein, and Travis Ridout, Campaign Advertising and American Democracy (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2007), p. 7; Thomas Ayres, That’s Not in My American History Book (Lanham, MD: Taylor Trade, 2004) p. 106. The allegation of mass murder was for Jackson ordering the execution of deserters in the War of 1812.
61. Charles Albert Snodgrass, The History of Freemasonry in Tennessee, 1789–1943: Its Founders, Its Pioneer Lodges and Chapters, Grand Lodge and Grand Chapter, the Cryptic Rite, the Templars the Order of High Priesthood, and the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite (Nashville: Ambrose Printing Company, 1944), inside cover page and pp. 390–394. The local lodge for Adams was the Western Star Lodge No. 9, which was first organized in 1812 at Port Royal, about five miles away. It was also known as the Rhea Lodge. Coincidentally, in 1817, the year that the strange happenings were first reported at the Bell home, this lodge was moved to Springfield. “The History of Robertson County,” pp. 827–867. See p. 844. Jackson was the head of the Tennessee Masons between 1822 and 1823.
62. Obituary of M. V. Ingram, Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle, October 5, 1909; reproduced at http://bellwitch02.tripod.com/martin_van_buren_ingram.htm; accessed October 31, 2014.
63. “Bell” 1846, op. cit., pp. 143–144.
64. Spartacus Educational, “Pinkerton Detective Agency,” accessed November 22, 2013, at http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USApinkertonD.htm.
65. See Joe Nickell, Literary Investigation: Texts, Sources, and “Factual” Substructs of Literature and Interpretation (doctoral dissertation, University of Kentucky, 1987). For other textual analyses conducted by Nickell, refer to “Did Shakespeare Write Shakespeare? Much Ado About Nothing,” Skeptical Inquirer 35(6): 38–43.
66. “Bell” 1846, op. cit., p. 132; Ingram 1894, op. cit., p. 34.
67. “Bell” 1846, op. cit., pp. 130–131, 185.
68. Ingram 1894, op. cit., p. 6, 315.
69. “Bell” 1846, op. cit., p. 102.
70. Ingram 1894, op. cit., p. 37.
71. For example, see “Bell” 1846, op. cit., pp. 104–112; Ingram 1894, pp. 38–43.
72. “Bell” 1846, op. cit., pp. 143–144; Ingram 1894, op. cit., p. 206.
73. “Bell” 1846, op. cit., pp. 122, 126, 127.
74. Ingram 1894, op. cit., pp. 4, 10, 35, 189, 213.
75. “Bell” 1846, op. cit., pp. 121–123, 126, 173, 178.
76. Ingram 1894, op. cit., pp. 19, 33–34, 36, 43, 86–87.
77. “Bell” 1846, op. cit., p. 171.
78. Ingram 1894, op. cit., p. 67.
79. “Bell” 1846, op. cit., p. 173.
80. Ingram 1894, op. cit., p. 101.
81. See Courtland L. Bovée and John V. Thill, Business Communication Today, second edition (New York: Random House, 1989), p. 126. This formula is based on the average length of independent clauses together with the number of words of three or more syllables.
82. “Bell” 1846, op. cit., p. 149, 150; Ingram 1894, op. cit., p. 14.
83. “Bell” 1846, op. cit., p. 117; Ingram 1894, op. cit., p. 82.
84. “Bell” 1846, op. cit., p. 139, 145; Ingram 1894, op. cit., pp. 193, 196.
85. “Bell” 1846, op. cit., p. 126; Ingram 1894, op. cit., p. 32.
86. “Bell” 1846, op. cit., p. 144, 171; Ingram 1894, op. cit., pp. 37, 187.
87. “Bell” 1846, op. cit., p. 156; Ingram 1894, op. cit., pp. 189–190.
88. Personal communication with Dr. Glass, December 31, 2013, and January 7, 2014, citing various issues of the Tobacco Leaf.
89. Joe Nickell, “Uncovered: The Fabulous Silver Mines of Swift and Filson,” Filson Club History Quarterly 54(4) (1980): 325–345; Joe Nickell, “Discovered: The Secret of Beale’s Treasure,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 90(3) (1982): 310–324; Joe Nickell, “The Secrets of Oak Island,” Skeptical Inquirer 24(2) (2000): 14–19.
90. “The History of Robertson County,” pp. 827–867 in Goodspeed’s History of Tennessee, originally published in 1886 by the Goodspeed Publishing Company (Columbia, Tennessee: Woodward & Stinson Printing Company). See p. 833 for the specific quotation. The original text can be viewed at http://www.tngenweb.org/goodspeed/robertson/robtco.pdf (accessed November 26, 2013).
91. The Library of Congress’s “Chronicling America” provides access to 42 digitized Tennessee newspapers published prior to 1893. From 1894 onward, references appear, but none of them includes the names of witnesses or letters from relatives of witnesses. These are The Columbia Herald (1850–1873); Daily Nashville Patriot (1857–1858, 1860–1862); The Daily Nashville True Whig (1851–1855); Daily Nashville Union (1862); Daily Union and American (1865–1866); Fayetteville Observer (1850–1893); Herald and Tribune (Jonesborough, 1869–1893); Knoxville Whig and Chronicle (1875–1882); Knoxville Daily Chronicle (1870–1882); Knoxville Tri-Weekly Whig and Rebel Ventilator (1864–1866); Knoxville Weekly Chronicle (1870–1875); Loudon Free Press (1852–1855); Maryville Republican (1867, 1877); Memphis Daily Appeal (1847–1886); The Milan Exchange (Gibson County, 1874–1978); Nashville Daily Patriot (1855–1857); Nashville Daily Union (1862–1866); Nashville Patriot (1858–1860); Nashville Union and American (1853–1862, 1868–1875); Nashville Union and Dispatch (1866–1868); Nashville Union (1851–1853); Nashville Weekly Union (1862–1866); Public Ledger (Memphis, 1865–1893); The Pulaski Citizen (1866–1893); The Sweetwater Enterprise (1869); The Sweetwater Forerunner (1867–1869); Tri-Weekly Whig (1859–1861); Tri-Weekly Union and American (1866); Union and American (Greenville, 1875–1877); The Union Flag (Jonesborough, 1865); Weekly Clarksville Chronicle (1857); Whig and Tribune (1870–1877); Winchester Appeal (1856); Winchester Army Bulletin (1863); Winchester Daily Bulletin (1863); The Winchester Home Journal (1857–1858); The Winchester Weekly Appeal (1856); The Daily Bulletin (1862–1863); The Home Journal (Winchester, 1857–1880); The News (Bristol, 1865–1867); The Union (Greeneville, 1877); The Weekly Herald (1876–1888). See http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ (accessed November 22, 2013).
92. See, for example, A. W. Putnam, History of Middle Tennessee, or Life and Times of Gen. James Robertson (Nashville: Southern Methodist Publishing House, 1859).
93. Personal communication between Jack Cook and Robert Bartholomew, December 2013.
94. A search of 130 million newspaper pages from Newspaperarchive.com and an additional 6 million pages from the Library of Congress “Chronicling America” project failed to turn up any mention of the Bell Witch prior to 1893.
95. Ingram 1894 (2009), op. cit., p. 107.
96. Harold E. Way, A White Paper: American County Histories: Their Uses, Usability, Sources and Problems with Access (Malvern, PA: Accessible Archives, 2010).
97. Way 2010, op. cit., p. 2.
98. Way 2010, op. cit., p. 13.
99. Personal communication between Robert Bartholomew and Jack Cook dated November 22, 2013.
100. Fred S. Rolater, “Goodspeed Histories,” The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, Version 2.0 (Nashville: Tennessee Historical Society, 2012), accessed November 25, 2013, at http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=558.
101. “
The History of Robertson County,” op. cit., p. 843.
102. Personal communication from Fred Rolater to Robert Bartholomew dated December 20, 2013.
103. Ingram 1894, op. cit., pp. 292–293.
104. Ingram 1894, op. cit., pp. 251–308.
105. Glass holds a PhD in American literature.
106. The papers examined were Clarksville Gazette, the Jeffersonian, Clarksville Chronicle, Clarksville Weekly Chronicle, the Tobacco Leaf, Clarksville Semi-Weekly Tobacco Leaf, and the Clarksville Daily Leaf Chronicle.
107. Personal communication between Jesse Glass and Robert Bartholomew, January 31, 2013.
108. Glass to Bartholomew, op. cit., December 31, 2013.
109. Glass to Bartholomew, op. cit., December 31, 2013.
110. “The Spirit of Mud Alley.” Tobacco Leaf, September 30, 1874.
111. As evidence, Glass cites the following item published in the Tobacco Leaf on June 26, 1894, entitled “Honor Well Bestowed: Ross Bourne the Champion Liar of the County”: “An unsolicited honor has come to Ross Bourne, Mayor of Port Royal. He has received a certificate of membership in ‘The Ancient, Reckless and Independent Order of prevaricators.’ This certificate bears the following inscription: ‘Liars License. This is to certify that Ross Bourne is entitled to lie from the first day of January to the 31st of December, he being a duly qualified liar, and having satisfied the license committee of the A. R. & I. O. of P. that he is a fit and proper person to hold license.’ Mr. Bourne prizes the license very highly and it is an honor well merited. If there is a man in the county who can wear the honor more worthily the Leaf-Chronicle does not know him.” See also the Tobacco Leaf, August 23, 1894, as an example of a practical joke making front-page news.
112. For an analysis of this event as a social delusion, see Robert E. Bartholomew, “The Airship Hysteria of 1896–97,” Skeptical Inquirer 14:2 (1990): 171–181; Thomas E. Bullard, Mysteries in the Eye of the Beholder: UFOs and Their Correlates as a Folkloric Theme Past and Present (PhD dissertation, Indiana University, 1982); Daniel Cohen, The Great Airship Mystery: A UFO of the 1890s (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1981). The calf-napping story first appeared in the Farmer’s Advocate of Yates Center, Kansas, on Friday, April 23, 1897, and was reprinted in various papers around the state. It stated that Alex Hamilton of Vernon claimed to have seen “an air ship slowly descending over my cow lot about forty rods from the house … (and) occupied by six of the strangest beings I ever saw. … When about 300 feet above us it seemed to pause and hover directly over a 3-year-old heifer, which was bawling and jumping, apparently fast in the fence. Going to her we found a cable about half an inch in thickness … fastened in a slip knot around her neck, one end passing up to the vessel and tangled in the wire. We tried to get it off, but could not, so we cut the wire loose and stood in amazement to see ship, cow and all rise slowly and sail off, disappearing in the northwest. … We, the undersigned, do hereby make the following affidavit: That we have known Alex Hamilton from fifteen to thirty years, and that for truth and veracity we have never heard his word questioned, and that we do verily believe his statement to be true and correct.” It was signed by E. V. Wharton, state oil inspector; M. E. Hunt, sheriff; W. Lauber, deputy sheriff; H. H. Winter, banker; E. K. Kellenberser, MD; H. S. Johnson, pharmacist; J. H. Stitcher, attorney; Alex Stewart, justice of the peace; H. Waymire, druggist; F. W. Butler, druggist; James L. Martin, register of deeds; and H. C. Rollins, postmaster. “Subscribed and sworn to before me this 21st day of April, 1897” (W. C. Wille, notary public).
American Hauntings: The True Stories behind Hollywood's Scariest Movies—from The Exorcist to The Conjuring: The True Stories behind Hollywood’s Scariest Movies—from The Exorcist to The Conjuring Page 20