Tyler Estep is a local historian, former tobacco farmer & Baptist pastor at the oldest church west of Appalachia, in Adams, Tennessee; home of the infamous Bell Witch! After a reading from a 1904 newspaper that summarizes the Bell Witch mystery, we open on the region's tobacco farming culture. Then we turn to the topic at hand, the Bell Witch. We explore various explanations for the 19th-century hauntings: John Bell & an eccentric neighbor, Kate Batts; The Great Awakening & the demonic; ventriloquism & murder; an Indian curse & land-based hauntings; and lastly, a slave overseer's ghost. Throughout, Tyler openly shares his own strange encounters and spiritual battles with both mental health & the supernatural. For the official story, we hear of town folks' mysterious black dog sightings that harken back to the original accounts by the Bell family slave, Dean. We end on the area's cave systems and a potent warning not to take anything from them!

Check out the seasonal plays including Spirit in Adams, Tennessee: BellWitchFallFestival.com

Black dog story reading from An Authenticated History of the Famous Bell Witch  by M. V. Ingrim


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