COOK
The
following analysis of the Bell Witch Legend is provided by Jack Cook of
Nashville, TN in October 2006 and updated in January 2008. You can find
his entire report at http://bellwitchlegend.blogspot.com/
"It
is not the purpose of this writer to present a romance for the
entertainment of lovers of fiction, nor to establish a theory to please
the fancy of adherents of so-called theosophy, but simply to record
events of historical fact, sustained by a powerful array of
incontrovertible evidence, as it comes to hand, testifying to the most
wonderful phenomenon the world has any account of: a visitation known as
the "Bell Witch" …….
And, thus begins the novel by Martin Van Buren Ingram
in the preface of the "Authenticated History of the Bell Witch"
published in 1894. Yet, in all those years since Mr. Ingram released his
publication, the story itself has generated mostly the opposite appeal,
namely that of being a "romance for entertainment." Despite serious
attempts at explaining the story at hand, most of the published attempts
at analyzing the content of the story have ended up without a complete
or scholarly basis. My admission is that I also presented some data in
my original paper as if it were self-evident fact. Let's face it;
historical facts are not self-evident. They have to be backed up.
Before it can be taught as history, there must be some actual
historical or documented basis by which an event can be traced to its
origins. In the academic world this one rule has given us much of the
truth behind history that was either wrongly publicized or reported
erroneously by newspapers or magazines. The purpose of popular media is
to report, but it is also to sell papers and advertisements and to
support the mandates of a community. Unfortunately, the truth is not
always forthcoming, but when events happen that sell papers, you can
generally find mention of the event during the period in which it
occurred.
As of this notation on The Spirit of Red River
it has been over twenty-five years since I decided to tackle the
formidable job of researching the real and verifiable history of the
legend of the "Bell Witch." After collecting thousands of documents and
visiting all of the known locations where the family, and supposedly,
the story happened, my research slowed significantly.
As of this date I actually have enough data to draw many reasonable
conclusions about the reality (or unreality as-it-were) of the Bell
Witch story. Generally speaking, people do not want to hear about what
issues scholarly research leads to. That's OK. The details are
exhausting, and even the most serious researchers on the subject do not
seem to have access to the data that would make this legend a reality.
At this point, I seriously doubt that they ever will. However, in the
spirit of the serious researcher, I continue to keep an open mind. In
the face of so many other more important distractions of the world,
legends are intellectual entertainment that are fun to play with, but
rarely significant in a broader sense. So, every once in awhile I put
some time into the Bell Spirit project to see what new information comes
up.
At this point in our research the facts have spoken for themselves
many times. Several university researchers have contacted me over the
years with some very well thought out and professionally researched
data. They were especially kind in sharing their insights and
tremendously familiar with newspapers and journalism of the 1800's. We
traded information that significantly filled in the history of Martin Van Buren Ingram, and thus gave us some very good ideas concerning his reasons for writing the "Authenticated History of the Bell Witch."
So, for the information of those folks who remain interested, here
are some facts that you may or may not want to hear from me. Due to the
nature of distortion on the internet, I will not include a bibliography
here.
The information on Andrew Jackson
given in the "Authenticated History" is incorrect. Simply put, in 1819
Major General Andrew Jackson accompanied President James Monroe on a
tour of the Western Armies of the United States that ended in Lexington
Kentucky. This tour occurred during the period in which Ingram tells of
Jackson's encounter with the Bell Witch. (Ingram never actually revealed
the date, but we must assume by real history that it was in 1819).
Despite his public popularity, Major Jackson almost failed to make the
tour due to a major illness and declining health. He had recently
escaped official censure by the United States Congress for unauthorized
actions he had taken on a military campaign, and was advised not to
accompany the President through the state of Georgia where he was not
welcome. Jackson had also admonished the President to allow him a
peaceful retirement. Monroe declined. Upon returning home, he remained
bed ridden for some time in recovery. At no other documented time from
1814 to 1820 was Jackson in the Springfield area for any reason (even
though records from the clerk reveal that he did indeed own tracts of
land in Robertson County as did many absentee speculators of the
period). Actual letters and documentation freely available from the
Library of Congress and several published histories, especially those of
Congressional Historian, Dr. Robert Remini, verify these events. The
only major event in Robertson County that happened during Jackson's
return to Nashville was the dedication of the new courthouse in
Springfield. There were no newspaper accounts that Jackson was present for that event.
Based on all of my research into so many aspects of the story, and
based upon who M. V. Ingram represented to the area of Robertson and
Montgomery County, I must conclude that there is very strong evidence
that Ingram (and possibly other uncredited authors) put together a very
believable set of characters, and events that were engineered to attract
a specific audience around Middle Tennessee and perhaps beyond. After
in-depth discussions with several serious academic historians, it became
obvious to me that the burden of proof for the haunting of the family
of John Bell, Sr. now resides with any person who is holding actual
written proof concerning para-psychological events in Red River
legitimately recorded prior to 1886.
As in any story based on ONE inclusive work such as the
"Authenticated History of the Bell Witch", I have attempted to discover
newspaper stories or written documents which date prior to 1893 (the
year of the book's printing) in order to discover an angle of thought
beyond that of Ingram, perhaps acting as a possible verification of the
incident. Discounting the advertisements announcing the publication of
the book just prior to its release, as of this update I have only found
one printed reference to the Bell Witch from the year 1886 (and I very
strongly suspect that it was written or dictated by Ingram, though the
source is not listed in Goodspeed's History).
Most of the later related newspaper articles I have seen between
1886 and shortly after the publication of the "Authenticated History"
were composed to incite interest in Ingram's novel.
Searching microfilmed newspapers is very, very time consuming. One
generally has to know the year in which an article appeared to prevent
an endless search. Pages or even whole issues may be missing or
unrecoverable from the file. Sections may also be in such poor condition
as to be unreadable. One instance of this difficulty was a reference
made twice in the "Authenticated History" to an article written in the Saturday Evening Post during the year 1849. This particular article supposedly made certain accusations of such a nature that Elizabeth Bell
threatened to sue the publication. There is no evidence available in
the official record because Ingram states that the Post was never
brought to court. Despite a very thorough search of rare microfilmed
copies of the Post for that and many years on both sides of 1849, I have
so far not been able to find that article. The search is made
particularly difficult due to the destruction by an accidental fire of
all known archival copies of the Saturday Evening Post for
all of the years in question. The only remaining microfilmed copies
were made from poor and sometimes almost unreadable copies of the
publication. Despite claims about a published date from some
researchers, no one has yet come forward with its actual location. I am almost certain the Post article does not exist.
The other researchers with whom I spoke also verified that they had
discovered no articles on the Bell Witch prior to 1886 in any of the
newspapers they had studied. And, this despite Ingram's assurance in his
novel that short newspaper articles had been written and published in
past years. I have personally never come across those articles either.
Another example of Ingram's literary stealth is his mention in the "Authenticated History" of a court case involving Thomas Clinard and Richard Burgess
in the alleged murder of a Mr. Smith near Cedar Hill (just down the
road from Adams). Smith, a strange and bothersome person, was supposed
to have claimed some rapport with the Bell Witch that gave him power
over other people (ie. mesmerism) that he used without permission on
Clinard and Burgess. Playing for sympathy with the jury, the defense
attorney managed to get the case dismissed against both men.
Although it was supposed to have been such a highly publicized case,
there are no mentions of the case at all in local newspapers, and court
records in the Robertson County Archives shed no light on the case
except for the presence of sketchy notes left there concerning the
defendants and their attorney.
I must also point out that much of the information about individuals who are considered central to the story have erroneous or incorrect information attributed to them throughout Ingram's book.
And, finally, one must consider the inaccuracies of the description of John Bell in the so-called "diary" of Richard Williams Bell. Some
of Richard Bell's authoritative comments about his father can be
reasonably refuted by checking official records along with the detailed
accounts included in the Minutes of the Red River Baptist Church. Did
John Bell's son intentionally lie or color the truth about his father?
Did Ingram pen the diary? Did someone other than a Bell family relative
submit the diary? The obvious and truthful answer is that Ingram was responsible for the diary whether it is authentic or not.
So, we are left with this thought: when one approaches such a
challenge with the intent of proof, there are a specific set of rules
that historians must abide by in order to verify the details of our
past.
We
must, for the present, conclude that there is very strong evidence to
indicate that the Legend of the Bell Witch is just that .... a legend.
And, a very strong legend at that! Like the best of writers, the story
fashioned by Ingram contains most of the elements of life that tug at
the emotional heartstrings of the masses. Ingram and his collaborators
have played our tune for more than one hundred years, and a book that
could have easily been forgotten after its introduction has spawned a
modern haunting that continues to intrigue and mystify us to this very
day. And, in like manner, the broadcast media will continue to mold the
legend to fit the evening news. Though it makes poor journalism, a
legend makes wonderful entertainment. Even one that has so few visible
remnants
Items on this page are excerpted from Jack Cook's web page (see the link above)
and contain of materials Mr. Cook has provided. Please consider them
copyrighted materials which you should not reproduce without written
authorization from Jack Cook.
... Thank you, MT Skeptics.
Subject: Change of address , Date: 1 October 2008
Hi Folks!
As you know, I have published my paper concerning the Bell Witch
Legend, "The Spirit of Red River" on the AOL Hometown network system for
many years. Yesterday I received notification that the AOL Hometown
network will be deleted and discontinued as of the end of October.
Since my paper will be deleted along with the network, I have moved
the paper to "e blog" and changed the appearance a bit. I believe it
looks better than the AOL version. I'll be tweaking the appearance
and adding photos or graphics as I get the time.
Therefore, I am requesting that you change my link on your web pages to this new link address:
Sorry for the inconvenience. However, I'm certain I can make the
reader's experience a bit more pleasurable with the formating tools on
"e blog," and it's unlikely that e blog will be dropping its service for
many years to come.
Many of you have written telling me that you found the information on
my web page both interesting and useful. I have also received many
e-mails from folks who found my web page through your sites. Thank you
so much for continuing to carry my link. If you discover any problems,
or if you have any suggestions, please do not hesitate to let me know.
Best regards and Happy Halloween,
Jack Cook, Nashville, TN.