#Tennessee Folklore

[briefbestiary]

The whirling whimpus was a bloodthirsty critter who hunted in the woods of Tennessee's Cumberland Mountains, puréeing unsuspecting American woodsmen walking along the trails.

[basementofthebizarre]

Bewitched in Tennessee: The Haunting Tale of the Bell Witch

The story of the Bell Witch is one of America’s most enduring and chilling tales of paranormal activity. Originating in the early 19th century in Adams, Tennessee, the legend has captivated generations with its eerie details of a malevolent spirit that terrorized the Bell family. The Bell Witch story is a complex blend of history, folklore, and supernatural occurrences, making it a fascinating…

[archivist-crow]

The Bell Witch - Part 1 of 4

The famous pre-American Civil War haunting of the Bell Witch involved poltergeist phenomena and spectral creatures, and, according to legend, tormented one man to death. The haunting excited the curiosity of many people, including General Andrew Jackson. The story exists in several versions, three of which are presented here. The first is probably closest to the true anecdote, as it allegedly is based on the diary of one of the Bell sons, Richard Williams Bell. The third version has a modern sequel. The different versions demonstrate how stories change in retelling.

Legend 1:

John Bell was a prosperous farmer who owned 1,000 acres near Adams, Tennessee. He had a beautiful wife, Lucy, and eight children. They were all devout Baptists and model citizens, In 1817, their lives inexplicably were turned upside down. The first signs were spectral creatures witnessed by Bell. One was a large, doglike thing that vanished when Bell fired upon it with his shotgun. The other was a large, turkeylike bird.

Following the appearances of the creatures, the home was plagued with knockings, rapping, and scrapings on the outside doors and windows. Sounds that resembled giant rats gnawing the bedposts and giant dogs clawing the floor were heard. These phenomena went on for about a year, and then covers began to be pulled off beds and invisible hands slapped faces and pulled hair. Particularly tormented was the Bells' 12-year-old daughter, Betsy, who was slapped, pinched, bruised and stuck with pins. Betsy was so afflicted that at first the family suspected her of perpetrating a trick on everyone else.

At first Bell was determined to keep the haunting a secret, but it became intolerable for the family. Bell at last confided in a neighbor, James Johnson, who discovered the offending spirit seemed to be intelligent, for it would temporarily desist when beseeched in the name of the Lord. Johnson advised forming an investigatory committee. With that, word went out, and the Bell home became the object of great curiosity.

The spirit began to whistle and then to speak. It gave various identities. It said it was "a Spirit from everywhere, Heaven, Hell, the Earth. I'm in the air, in houses, any place at any time. I've been created millions of years. That is all I will tell you." On another occasion, it said it was the spirit of a person who had been buried in the woods nearby, and whose grave had been disturbed. The bones had been scattered about, and a tooth was under the Bells' house. The spirit was looking for the tooth. The Bells searched, but no tooth was found.

On yet another occasion, the spirit said it was the ghost of an immigrant who had died and left a hidden fortune; it had returned to reveal to Betsy the location of the money. The spirit gave a location, and the Bell boys dug for hours without finding a thing. That night, the spirit laughed over the joke.

The townspeople came to think of the spirit as a witch. The spirit agreed, saying, "I am nothing more nor less than old Kate Batts' witch, and I'm determined to haunt and torment old Jack Bell as long as he lives." Kate Batts was a hefty local woman married to an invalid. She had once been dissatisfied with business dealings with Bell and had threatened to get even. She was still alive. From then on, the spirit was called "Kate."

"Kate" made almost daily appearances at the Bell home and visited everyone else in Robertson County as well, abusing them with her caustic tongue. She made predictions about the future, including the Civil War and the two World Wars of the 20th century. But her primary purposes were to torment "Old Jack," as she called Bell, and to torment Betsy in order to dissuade her from marrying a young man named Josh Gardner. "Kate" did not disturb Lucy Bell, nor Betsy's favorite little brother, John Jr.

"Kate" grew so famous that General Andrew Jackson decided to visit and bring along a "witch layer," a professional exorcist. Just outside the Bell farm, however, the Jackson carriage suddenly stopped and the wheels refused to budge. "Kates" voice then manifested, promising to appear that night in the home. The carriage became unstuck.

Later in the evening, "Kate" manifested with phantom footsteps and a voice. The witch layer attempted to shoot her with a silver bullet but was slapped about and frightened out of the house.

John Bell fell victim to repeated bouts of illness, for which "Kate" claimed responsibility. While he lay sick in bed, twitching and jerking, the spirit cursed him continuously. Finally, the ordeals wore him down and he told one son that the end was coming. He went to bed and never recovered.

His family found him in a stupor on the morning of December 19, 1820. A strange bottle was found in the medicine cabinet. When the liquid was administered to a cat, the animal went into convulsions and died. "Kate" exultantly declared that she had poisoned him with the liquid while he was asleep. Bell died the next morning. "Kate" shrieked in triumph.

The torments of Betsy began to diminish, encouraging her to announce her engagement to Gardner. That brought on a renewed attack from "Kate." In despair, Betsy broke the engagement and married another man, Dick Powell.

"Kate" announced to the Bell family that she would leave for seven years and marked her pledge with a cannonball-like object that rolled down the chimney and burst like smoke. As promised, "Kate" returned seven years later and plagued Mrs. Bell and two sons with scratchings and the pulling off of bed covers. They kept the return a secret, and the torments stopped after two weeks.

Before "Kate" left a second time, she visited the home of John Jr. and pledged to return in 107 years—in 1935— when she would bring bad tidings for Tennessee and the entire country. The year came and went without incident, but the area around the Bell farm is said to be haunted still.

The Bells never understood why they were singled out for such an unearthly attack. It is not known what the real Kate Batts had to say about it. Theories have been advanced that Betsy may have been a poltergeist agent. She was the right age, around puberty, and her strict Baptist upbringing may have caused repressed sexual guilt. She also may have had subconscious resentment toward her father. However, there is no evidence that she was unhappy or repressed. And, while the spirit did plague Betsy the most, it roved all over Robertson County and meddled in everyone's affairs. Perhaps the intense resentment and hatred bottled up in the real Kate Batts created a thought-form that took on a life of its own.

Abridged text from The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits, Third Edition by Rosemary Ellen Guiley (Checkmark Books - 2007)

[happinessoncorneliastreet]

Taylor has gone back to Invisible String instead of The 1 tonight!

– Taylor spoke about how her dad sent her an article (because she doesn’t Google herself ever) of how there is a bench now for her in Centennial Park and that’s why she thought it would be nice to sing Invisible String tonight.

[ariesxcove]

gray november

[goatfog]

Rain last night over the lamp by my apartment porch

[gameshowtrainwreck]

I've been trying to sketch out some outlines and broader worldbuilding for some pulpy scifi/magical realism stories revolving around a concept I'm calling 'Weird Appalachia.'

Particularly in Pigeon Forge, TN, about a sideshow barker turned monster-of-the-week hunter (Professor Elias Ephram Jeremiah Jacob Stout, "scholar of the occult, the esoteric, and the mysterious"). Prof. Stout spends his time searching and investigating cursed/paranormal/unexplainable items for his 'blatantly obvious' tourist trap named The House of A Thousand Doors (Museum, Bait & Tackle Shop, & Notary Public, LLC.). The business has a garishly-psychedelic paint job on an oversized victorian-era mansion, covered in shuttered windows and balconies that do not look build as much as grown; crawling with all sort and sundry of animatronic statuettes, geegaws, and goofy art structures reaching from the building's outline and into space like mold on bread.

Asides from the usual tourist hokum, Stout gives guided tours of his collection throughout the House's byzantine floorplan ("no two tours are ever the same!") and provides tales of woe and wonder involving each exhibit's previous owners. His main motivation for all of this is towards 'memetic inoculation,' to de-cursify/soften/mitigate the reality-bending aspects of his collection by making people believe they are fake. New items, once Stout figures out how to properly contain their malevolence, are given cosmetic accoutrements like adding slightly mismatched paint, exposed wires, hidden fans, fishing line, etc to make them all look like clever art projects and optical illusions (Stout would tell you that people stop looking once they find what they think will explain it). The benign and benevolent items that cross Stout's path he returns to their original owners (his line of work has him dealing just as much with thieves and fences as he does demons and yeti) after making a replica to add to the museum in its place.

One form of help that Stout counts on occasionally is his neighbor across the street from the House of a Thousand Doors, at a perpetually-empty used car lot, operated by a Yancy Smalls. Yancy admits they are something of a complicated character, but what you see of them is a materially-compatible psychic construct; a corporeal tendril of a much larger creature reaching into this material plane. They are omni-dimensional, potentially-omnipresent ("why would I want to be everywhere at once?") omniscient (but not omnipotent), eldrich being whose physiology revolves around the concept of thoughts posessing physical properties, and can be solidified in large enough amounts. Yancy described their beginnings as "crawling out of the flaming wreckage that resulted when a bunch of awfully powerful thoughts all converged on the same point at the same time. Being the first time I had ever existed, I thought that was quite rude, but it's something you learn to live with."

Given the nature of their being, Yancy's psychic construct always resembles a face from the observer's fading memories. Yancy's form never changes to the observer, but everyone who has interacted with them would have a completely different physical discription of them from one another. Before Yancy enters these stories, they have worked over the countless aeons to have their original name as a god once worshipped as a malevolent presence to be completely forgotten. They came to regret their actions and the innocent hurt by them. while they undid the damage, a being made of crystalized thought is not exactly blessed with the ability to forget. Wilfully abdicating the throne of a god of knowledge, their time is devoted to pursuit of wisdom. To this end, they have gone across the whole of existence as something of a wanderer and monk, cleaning up the messes they had once made as continual penance to the lives they had once destroyed, which was how Yancy came to meet Stout.

Stout first met Yancy on the side of the road, as a stranded motorist with a busted serpentine belt and no cell reception. Stout was on his way to obstruct a local cult from trying to summon an eldritch horror to the material plane, and happened to get a flat tire in the same area shortly after Yancy had their car trouble. Stout, in chatting with Yancy, figures out they are the being the cult has been trying to summon all this time. Hijinx ensue.

Post-hijinx with the cult, Yancy recognizes what Stout is as well as what Stout is trying to do. Given that they wilfully limited their own powers to physically interact with the material plane (demonstrated by Yancy always having their hands full, doing sudoku puzzles, knitting a scarf, etc), Yancy offers to lead Stout to the toys they used to play with in their younger, edgier days. In return, Yancy says they get to observe other life forms and sciences up close in return. Yancy is well aware that they and Stout's adventures are in a book and will crack jokes at the author's expense like an actor breaking the 4th wall to the audience ("Sorry, Stout, this deus ain't mock-inin' today— I honestly think Josh painted himself into a corner on this plot and I wanna see how he intends to get you out of it. You're gonna be all right, though." Stout: "Thanks for nothing, Yancy." Another Character: "how the hell did a cut scene just happen?")

I figure East TN would be a perfect setting (because I grew up there, up around Cumberland Gap) because between all the secret government research in Oak Ridge at the southwest of the region, the granny witches having to shoo off all manner of cryptids out of their gardens in the Appalachian mountains to the north and east (geologically older than a lot of things, and once a part of the same mountain chain in Scotland), and the hyperconsumerist culture around a tourist town, it seems a perfect melting pot for strange events to converge.

Stout tries to get to the bottom of it all with the help of/competition from the cottage industry of similar huckster in a world requiring cryptid management consultants, janitorial agencies specializing in anomalic cleanup services, college classes teaching applied metaphysics, dimensional displacement insurance, and updates from the National Moiraographic Service and their periodic vibes advisories (like pollen count but for those with sensitivities to psychic energy).

More as I actually get around to writing it...

[paranormal-playground-podcast]

The Bell Witch Haunting Podcast Episode

Join the Paranormal Playground Podcast as we delve into the chilling legend of the Bell Witch, one of America’s most enduring and enigmatic hauntings. Explore the terrifying encounters of the Bell family in 19th century Tennessee, the mysterious entity known as “Kate,” and the lasting impact this tale has had on American folklore. Plus, brace yourself for a bone-chilling creepypasta, “The Trapper…

[moonmausoleum]

The Cherokee Legend of Spearfinger in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Disguised as an old woman or a loved one, the liver eating Spearfinger has terrified the Cherokees for centuries. She hides in the mountain, attacking children to eat their livers.  

Disguised as an old woman or a loved one, the liver eating Spearfinger has terrified the Cherokees for centuries. She hides in the mountain, attacking children to eat their livers.   In the mist-laden embrace of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park between North Carolina and Tennessee lies a haunting tale, a Cherokee legend that weaves through the dense forests and shadowy trails under the…

[surrealhaunts]

What do you think of Wampus Cats? Locals in East Tennessee and nearby states claim that it stood about four feet tall, with mesmerizing eyes that seemed to pierce the soul. Its sleek dark coat blends seamlessly with the shadows of the forest.

This short video is about the Wampus Cat. Check it out!

[mothmanflight]

Here is a short film I made recently for fun and uploaded today for my venture Earth Limitation Films. Go support indie film and watch it. Give some feedback on it.

[thenewseptembers]

I am heartbroken. I am weeping. I am four days too late to see @taylorswift at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, TN

[torchflies]

Hi TG Fandom! 

I love Irish folklore and believe that the fae folk are terrifying. So…

Nicholas Bradshaw is born in Buck Holler, Tennessee to a coal miner and his wife. 

He's supposed to be an only child forever, he isn't though. 

His Mama loses six babies after him, buries ‘em under little rose bushes that grow big and sturdy with time, but no baby ever sticks as good as the bushes; sticks long enough to give him a little brother or sister to play with — until one does. 

Mama thinks it’ll be a boy, and her belly grows big — bigger than she was with all the others. 

One evening, Nicky is playing in a big circle of mushrooms that popped up over the day, jumping in and out of the ring — until Mama rushes over to scold him. She can't move very fast with her big belly, but she tries anyway, dropping her washing to kneel down and grasp him by the biceps. Mama looks at him with big worried green eyes and tells him to never ever dance in faerie rings, that the fair folk will come and steal him away. She speaks with the terror of a girl who spent her childhood in the Aran Islands, old Irish and fearful down to the very marrow of her bones. 

Nicky promises, his gentle brown eyes filling with tears, but then Mama starts bleeding and can't get to her feet. The baby is coming but something is very very wrong. 

Nicky doesn't dare leave her, he stays to hold her hand, the both of them crouched in the faerie ring — even as his Mama brings a small and silent baby into the world. It never makes a sound and Mama keeps on bleeding… Nicky doesn't know what to do. 

His Mama gasps, with pale lips and a grief-stricken twist to her soul, Please give him a little brother. Please. 

He doesn't know who she's begging, they're the only two out in the night — until he sees a bunch of little blue lights appear, bobbing in the darkness, surrounding them like little flickering candles. A pair of long white fingers comes from the shadows with them, gnarled like old crackling branches in the moonlight, reaching out to gather the remains of the tiny silent baby, the one who never lived, and to press another robust, naked baby into Nicky’s arms in the same breath. 

Tithe, something like a voice creaks out, older than the trees, and suddenly the living, breathing baby boy in Nicky’s arms — one with big, wet green eyes and wild black hair — starts to cry. 

Hello, little brother. He whispers, rocking his baby brother in the center of the faerie ring, surrounded by the sound of his mother’s dying breaths. 

Their father comes home from the mines at daybreak to two healthy sons and a wife who died in childbirth. 

[archivist-crow]

The Bell Witch - Part 4 of 4

Subsequent Activity:

The Bell Witch hauntings did not end with the death of John Bell in 1820, or the end of his family. After the death of Lucy Bell, the land was divided, and Joel Bell inherited the piece on the Red River. Joel eventually sold the land to his brother, Richard, who had the farm adjoining John Bell's property. Family members and visitors continued to experience odd phenomena, such as the mysterious breakage of objects, howling noises outside the house, and bed linens being torn off the beds.

The property continued to be plagued by strange noises, odd shapes, and unexplained ghost lights, even into the present. In 1969, one of John Bell's descendants died of a mysterious malady that struck suddenly, and resembled the malady described as having struck Bell himself. It appeared to be a nerve disorder that caused the woman's throat and mouth to swell and stiffen and impaired her ability to talk and swallow.

In 1964, the farm was bought by Bill and Frances Eden. They lived in the old farmhouse, but soon grew weary of the noises, apparitions, and other phenomena. Eden tore the house down and built a new one in its place—but the phenomena continued, suggesting that "place energy" might be a factor in the haunting. One eerie phenomenon was a tall figure in a long black cloak with the collar turned up who would walk up and down the road. Eden could not tell if it was male or female. The couple frequently heard voices, the sounds of a woman screaming, and raspy breathing.

The Edens popularized the cave as a tourist attraction.

After Bill Eden died at home, Frances moved, and the farm sat vacant for a few years. It was purchased in 1993 by Walter and Chris Kirby, tobacco farmers. They reopened the cave for tourism. Immediately upon moving in, they experienced haunting phenomena, which continues to the present.

In 2006, the film An American Haunting was released. The film was based on a novelization of the Bell Witch story, The Bell Witch: An American Haunting, by Brent Monahan. The film portrays a fictional conflict between John Bell and Kate Batts and emphasizes the afflictions of Betsy as more demonic in nature.

The Bell Witch Cave:

The cave is located near the farmhouse in the center of a bluff overlooking the river. A disturbed Indian burial mound lies on the bluff above the entrance. The cave is small, but extends deep into the bluff. Due to the narrowness of the passage, visitors can enter only about 500 feet of the cave. In rainy weather, a stream issues from the cave.

Visitors have recorded Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) inside the cave. A bizarre photographic effect occurs at the entrance: many photographs do not come out at all, while others have missing people and objects or show objects not present when the photographs were taken. Mists also show up on photographs.

A Native American woman's bones were discovered during construction work on a nearby road and were interred in the cave. The bones were stolen. Since then, bad luck seems to happen to people who take anything from the cave, such as a stone.

Glowing balls of light have been photographed inside the cave, and the apparition of a woman has been seen inside, floating along the passage. Troy Taylor and investigator Bob Schou filmed what appears to be an interdimensional doorway.

Explanations for the Bell Witch:

From the beginning of the case, skeptics suspected the haunting was a trick intended to dupe people out of money. Evidence does not support this theory—too many people, literally hundreds of them, have witnessed phenomena. Given the unhappy events that took place, it is not likely that a family would engineer them deliberately.

Poltergeist expert Nandor Fodor called the Bell Witch "the greatest American ghost story" and believed it could be explained naturally as poltergeist activity generated by the youthful Betsy, a likely focal point. But other ghost investigators find that explanation unsatisfactory.

Batts's eccentricity made people fearful of her, and rumors spread that she was a witch. But was she responsible for the spirit that plagued the Bell family? Batts was an outsider who did not get along well with others. She had the bizarre habit of asking every woman she met for a brass pin. She never explained why, and people evidently were too afraid to ask. However, it was well known that witches used pins and other personal items in their spell-casting, and so many assumed that Batts was collecting material for dark purposes. She was said to bewitch butter so that it would not churn. Batts also alienated people with her conceit. She considered herself above others and thought she was entitled to great social privileges.

Nonetheless, Batts was a devout Christian and made a great show of her faith. When word reached her that the spirit plaguing the Bell family identified itself as "the witch of Kate Batts," she was furious. She vowed to legally prosecute whoever was spreading this vicious rumor—but of course no person was ever found, for the source was the spirit itself.

The identity of the spirit remains unknown to this day. The spirit said it was a Native American whose burial rest had been disturbed. The spirit also has been associated with a woman who was buried in North Carolina, but without compelling evidence. Another theory holds that the spirit was a poltergeist riled up by the animosity between Bell and Batts, and exacerbated by the budding sexual energy of the young Betsy. Still others think that Batts was indeed a witch who cursed the Bell family with a nasty spirit.

Beliefs about Batts being a witch followed her to her grave. She died after Bell, and also long after the haunting phenomena ceased. But no one would sit the night with her corpse, which was the custom at the time. Finally a woman volunteered to do so, if several other women sat with her. The group claimed they were plagued by black cats and menacing black dogs all night long.

Troy Taylor calls the Bell property and cave "one of the most haunted locations in America." Taylor has proposed that the witch really was a nonhuman entity that was activated and released by the disturbance of the Indian burial mound when it was opened and desecrated long ago by two boys. The disturbance created an interdimensional portal or doorway through which the spirit was able to become active in the physical world. It probably was ancient in nature, and at first took forms it was familiar with—a black dog and a black bird. It then learned to speak. It was unhappy, perhaps even malevolent. The spirit may still move in and out of the portal, through the cave.

Abridged text from The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits, Third Edition by Rosemary Ellen Guiley (Checkmark Books - 2007)

[happinessoncorneliastreet]

Taylor has gone back to Invisible String instead of The 1 tonight!

– Taylor spoke about how her dad sent her an article (because she doesn’t Google herself ever) of how there is a bench now for her in Centennial Park and that’s why she thought it would be nice to sing Invisible String tonight.

[shadyufo]

Cryptids & Creatures of Folklore Drawtober Day 16 — Crocodingo

Beginning in the mid 1800s, residents of Scotts County in Tennessee began to witness an incredibly strange creature roaming the woods and fields around their homes.

The first sighting occurred on the night of July 31st, 1839 and was reported by a man named Hank Lemon. Lemon claimed to see strange green lights in the night sky over his home that frightened both him and his two dogs. After the lights disappeared, there was a foul smell in the air and then Lemon spotted a strange creature moving through the woods behind his home. He described it as looking like a dog with the head of an alligator.

In the following days, months, and years, residents of the area would continue to report seeing what came to be called the Crocodingo. Several witnessed it catching fish. Later sightings claimed the creature was lurking around sewers which it entered through manhole covers. Sightings continue on until as recent as 2012.