The Tiny Town Near Nashville With A Terribly Creepy Past
By Meghan Kraft|Published June 05, 2018
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Meghan Kraft
Author
Meghan Kraft loves to travel the world, but she makes her home right here in Nashville, Tennessee. She holds a degree in English, and has worked in the digital marketing realm with companies such as Apartments.com, USA Today and HarperCollins Publishing.
Just about an hour north of Nashville sits the tiny and quiet town of Adams. If you’re driving along the interstate and blink, you may miss the sign that directs you to the town, but you’d be missing out on some of the eeriest and darkest history in the entire country. You see, the town was briefly and severely haunted by a witch who went as far as to terrify a future president, torment and beat local children, and even claim the lives of one of the church’s elders. Scared yet? Wait until you see the witch’s cave….
While the town of Adams, Tennessee only has fewer than 1,000 residents, its history is known across the country. It's home to some of the creepiest folk lore you've ever heard.
The town was settled in the late 1700's, and one of the first institutions established in the town was the Red River Baptist Church, built in 1791. One of the church's earliest elders was a man named John Bell.
The family came to believe that the land was haunted by a witch who lived in a cave on the back of their property. They saw strange creatures that would disappear suddenly, but before too long, they began to see and hear strange things in their house.
Some of the Bell children were dragged from their beds by invisible forces in the middle of the night, and others would wake up with welts and bruises all over their body. The family couldn't explain the activity, and rumor of the witch spread across the young state.
Even future president Andrew Jackson made a trip to the farm to investigate the stories of the witch, and he left vowing to never again venture near the place because of what he experienced in his time there.
While reports of the witch stopped after 1820, it was too late for John Bell. He reportedly died of poisoning from a potion that the witch admitted to giving him (via a disembodied voice in a seance, of course), but that's as far as the legend goes. What really happened on that form in Adams, no one can know for sure, but we're positive it's some of the creepiest history we've ever heard.
If dark history is your thing, then you’ll definitely love these 5 horrifying Nashville stories from throughout the city’s history.
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