Clarity Bell

Clarity Bell, later known as Granny Bell, was born In-the-Lord-Thou-Shalt-Find-Clarity Hawthorne, the youngest of five Talented daughters of Jeremiah and Humility Hawthorne. She was born in Tolland, Connecticut. Her father was a fire-and-brimstone Calvinist minister who felt the calling to preach to the Cherokee after his wife's death in 1792. He moved to North Carolina in 1793 with his youngest two daughters (Clarity and Jezebel) . The middle sister, Mary, moved to New York City to live with the second-eldest sister, Anna, who had married a lawyer there. The eldest, Temperance, was an American patriot and was probably instrumental in writing the Broad Pearl Code .
Not much is known of Clarity's life in North Carolina with her father and sister. Only two facts are certain. First, Clarity and Jezebel were eagerly teaching themselves magic and creating and refining unique spells, potions, and medicines. Secondly, Clarity was desperate to escape her father, who disapproved of The Talent. Family legend says that Jeremiah regularly prayed over and beat his two daughters in order to "get the devil out of them."
In 1797, she accepted a proposal from young army officer Lt. Gerald Bell and took her younger sister with her. The couple were apparently happy and had three children: Helen, Gerald, Jr., and James. All three children were Talented. Sister Jezebel eventually married a fellow officer and moved to her own household.
In 1812, the now Colonel Bell was called to fight against the British in the War of 1812. He died at Fort Erie, leaving Clarity and the children impoverished.
In 1815, Clarity received an invitation from one of Gerald's cousins, John Bell, who was later haunted by the so-called Bell Witch, to move to Nashville, Tennessee. Clarity took the children, and the thirty dollars and few household goods left to her name, and relocated. She was able to secure a loan and open a tavern, named The Three Bells after her children. The tavern was self-sustaining, but not nearly as prosperous as that of her famous cross-town contemporary, Lucinda White.
However, Clarity Bell quickly gained a reputation as a skilled brewer of medicines and tinctures and began to sell her potions as a sort of side business. Local doctors originally scoffed, then began to send patients to her as recovery rates began to speak for themselves. Clarity now began a third career as an apothecary. Unlike the Three Bells, this business was very profitable and allowed her to send her sons to university (Gerald Jr. became a medical doctor and James a lawyer). Helen followed her mother's footsteps and pursued her mother's research in magic, potions, and medicines. Mother and daughter together began to study alchemy; indeed, Helen later became a prominent alchemist and published on the subject. Helen later married a local builder named Aaron McCallister.
By 1825, Granny Bell, as she was now known, was so famous for her medicines that people began to travel great distances to seek her treatments. This influx of outsiders allowed Granny Bell to establish a station on the Underground Railroad. Accounts in letters and diaries report that Granny Bell had created several spells to assist enslaved peoples escape their bondage, including various obscuring glamours and a legendary spell that created an extra-dimensional hiding space to conceal those in her charge (and, incidentally, her workshop).
Granny Bell continued her medical, alchemical, and abolitionist work for more than 25 years. Her daughter Helen reports in the preface to one of her books that her mother kept an elaborate journal of her research, which has since been lost.
In 1852, however, Magio-Supremacists, working with bounty hunters, tracked down several enslaved people who had come to Granny Bell's Underground Railroad station. A fight ensued. Granny Bell cast an elaborate transportation ritual to enable the enslaved people to escape to the next station, but could not defend herself while doing so. One of the attackers shot her in the chest, but Granny Bell held the portal open as she died, and all in her charge got away. She is buried near Bell Road in Nashville, Tennessee.

Current Location

Talented Nashville

Age

72

Date of Birth

February 23

Life

1780 1852

Circumstances of Birth

One of three daughters of Jeremiah and Humility Hawthorne

Circumstances of Death

Killed by bounty hunters and magio-supremacists

Children

• Helen McCallister I

Gender

Female

Eyes

Blue-green

Hair

Gray / white

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Pale

Height

5'4"

Weight

110 lbs