August 22, 2025, entered in Vanya Evangeline's Myth and Memory contest
Note: There are other versions of this legend.
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It's told John Bell, North Carolinian shot dead a brutish scoundrel he employed, got off scot-free, and went his merry way. Life as he knew it soon would be destroyed. His crops all failed, and Bell lost all his wealth. He packed his family off to Tennessee. The place they settled in was then named Bell. This honor wouldn't help him, as he'd see. Strange things occurred--kids tumbling from their beds, their poor slave woman whipped by unseen hands, food floating off as they watched, terrified; farm animals ignoring Bell's commands. A witch maligned those folks horrendously. They bolted Bell town--Mississippi bound. The overseer's ghost was close behind, the chosen family to haunt and hound. The witch had said, "You'll wish you hadn't moved!" In Tennessee he wanted them to stay. New tortures were then heaped upon the old. The Bells were not to see one peaceful day. Their wagons floated; wheels just flew right off. Again crops failed and animals went wild. Then came the worst; young Mary Bell fell ill. The doctor said, "I cannot help this child!" How does this story end? One tale asserts the evil entity took Mary's life because he'd fallen hard for her and knew the living cannot be a dead man's wife. It's said that after poor sick Mary died, the Bells were free of hauntings, death, and dearth, but only after years of pain and loss. The haint had turned their lives to hell on earth. Source: Norfleet, Phil (historian, genealogist) bellwitch02.tripod.com
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