The Witch House

04/09/2026

The basement in the witch house...would you come here at night?

04/03/2026

The Anatomy of "Targeted Torment"
The girlfriend's experience from early 2020 until the 2022 December breakup followed a predictable, escalating cycle:

The Sleep Deprivation Window: Her distress was centered on the 11:00 PM to 3:30 AM window. Witnesses and friends noted that while the other woman often slept through the disturbances or heard only "muffled" sounds, her girlfriend reported layered, rhythmic chanting that felt as if it were vibrating through the floorboards directly beneath her.

The "Mimicry" Effect: She often confided that the "woman’s voice" (the melodic, sorrowful singing reported by others) would sometimes change its tone to mimic her own, or would stop the moment she tried to record it—a phenomenon Dr. Duvall previously identified as the house "answering back."

Personality Displacement: By late 2022, her demeanor shifted from high-functioning to withdrawn and prone to "emotional outbursts." This mirrors Briscoe’s own descent into "erratic" writing and "trembling fear." The house didn't just scare her; it seemed to be displacing her presence within the home.

03/31/2026

The Witch House and the Black Acacia Cult:
The history of the Black Acacia Lodge represents a chilling "shadow-mirror" to the established fraternal orders of 1930s Kansas. While groups like the Freemasons utilized the acacia sprig to symbolize the immortality of the soul and the purity of life, the Black Acacia appears to have inverted this philosophy, focusing instead on the immortality of the material—specifically, the sentience of the structure itself. Here is an expansion on this lodge's role and how it fits into the broader, often-overlooked occult landscape of North Central Kansas during the Great Depression.

The Symbolism of the Black Acacia: Inversion of the Craft:
In standard Masonic lore, the acacia is a "shibboleth" of resurrection, linked to the burial of Hiram Abiff. In the context of the Belleville Witch House, the "Black Acacia" (historically identified as the Gleditsia triacanthos or Honey Locust) is a tree defined by its vicious, multi-pointed thorns.

The Inversion:
While the "white" lodge uses acacia to represent the soul leaving the body, the Black Acacia Lodge believed in anchoring spirit into matter. Their ritual of "awakening the house as a deity" suggests they viewed the building not as a shelter, but as a living vessel.

The Ritual of Bloodlines:
The "hidden mural" in the basement—where members inscribed their bloodlines—mirrors the 1930s fascination with "Record Stones" then being unearthed by archaeologists in counties like Riley and Douglas. The Lodge believed that by binding a family's blood to the house's "masonry," they could achieve a form of physical immortality through the structure’s longevity. The year 1935 was a tipping point for spiritual movements in the Midwest. The "I AM" Activity and other "New Scientific Religions" like Psychiana were gaining thousands of followers in Kansas by promising "health, wealth, and happiness" through the "inner God-Law."

The Black Acacia as a "Rogue Lodge":
During this era, many "clandestine" or rogue lodges split from traditional Masonry to pursue more radical, often darker, occult experiments. The Black Acacia fits the profile of a Mankind United or "I AM" splinter cell that turned inward, becoming predatory. The marking on the 1936 deed is a classic occult signature. In 1930s numerology, 8 represented the "Gnostic Octad" or the infinite cycle of regeneration. The double 88 likely signified a "binding of the above and below"—essentially locking the house into a perpetual cycle of "feeding" and "returning."

03/30/2026

The Catholic Failure (1935) and Institutional Trauma:
In the mid-1930s, the Catholic Church was the primary authority on spiritual warfare in Kansas. The involvement of Bishop Francis Joseph Tief was significant; Bishops do not authorize exorcisms lightly, especially for a structure rather than a person. Usually, a Catholic blessing is the "final word." In the case of the Sallie House, religious intervention was sought to soothe a spirit.

The Belleville Event: The two priests from Salina didn't just fail; they fled. The report of "indecipherable runes" scrawled on the walls after their entry suggests an adversarial response. The house didn't just resist the ritual—it countered it. The subsequent destruction of almost all records of this event by the Diocese indicates a level of institutional embarrassment or genuine fear that is rare in ecclesiastical history.

The Pentecostal Mockery (1992–1997):
The New Birth Assembly of God’s five-year attempt to reclaim the property is perhaps the most disturbing chapter. Pentecostalism often utilizes "speaking in tongues" (glossolalia) as a form of high-level spiritual warfare.

The Phenomenon: Neighbors reported hearing "psalms in unknown tongues" echoing from the house when it was empty.

The Implication: This suggests a mimicry. The house wasn't just making noise; it was seemingly mocking the very religious practices intended to clean it. Most Kansas hauntings (like the Eldridge Hotel) feature residual sounds of the past. This was an active, real-time subversion of the church's own rituals. After five years, the church didn't just stop trying; they abandoned the property entirely, unable to even sell it.

The Jehovah’s Witness Withdrawal (2019):
Jehovah’s Witnesses are known for their persistence and their "feet-on-the-ground" approach to spiritual cleanliness.
The Incident: A cleaning crew—not just one person, but a team—entered the home in 2019. They lasted less than 24 hours.

The Quote: The elder’s remark—"It doesn’t want us there"—is a chilling shift from the usual "it’s just demons" rhetoric. It acknowledges the house as a stakeholder. This is the definition of an Active Response. Instead of a ghost to be prayed away, they encountered a "presence" with a clear, exclusionary

03/27/2026

Angeline Briscoe and the Belleville Women’s Temperance Society (1908):

In 1908, the Temperance movement was at its peak in Kansas (a state that went "dry" long before the rest of the country). For a woman to be deemed "unsuitable" usually meant one of three things: public intoxication, "unholy" living arrangements, or—most relevant here—the practice of "folk magic" or "occultism" which was strictly forbidden by the church-led Temperance groups.

The nine sanded mirrors in her eye-level bedroom suggest she was practicing Catoptromancy (mirror gazing). By sanding them in spirals, she wasn't looking for a reflection; she was likely trying to create a "vortex" or a focal point for the house's energy. This would explain why her entries grew more erratic as the "sentient force" grew stronger.

03/22/2026

The Witch House has been unusually still tonight. It’s the kind of stillness that feels like someone holding their breath.

Send a message to learn more

09/09/2025

09/06/2025

Bellville Kansas is a great place to come to in the Autumn. There are a lot of RV spots, a couple Mexican restaurants, there is a mysterious Rocky Pond that even has cabin rentals and the town has a great history going back to 1869, so its been here awhile.

Rocky Pond Disappearances: Though not officially documented, locals speak of drownings and strange phenomena at Rocky Pond—ripples without wind, cold spots, and vanished swimmers. Besides that, it is stocked with fish and a popular place to catch something.

Lot's of Mysterious Fires: The original Republic County Courthouse burned down, prompting the construction of the current Art Deco structure.

In 1921, Belleville’s Electric Theatre was destroyed by fire, as reported in Moving Picture World magazine. The theatre had been a central entertainment venue, showing silent films and possibly hosting live performances. After the fire, it was rebuilt and reopened as the Majestic Theatre in 1919 (yes, the timeline overlaps due to renaming and reconstruction). The Majestic eventually closed by 1931 and was converted into retail space. Today, the building houses a funeral home.

Powell Opera House which had a grand opening on December 22, 1887. The second floor opera house had a seating capacity of 700 with seats that could be removed so the room could be used as a ballroom. Powell died about 1896 and the building was sold to Armstrong and Company. A spectacular fire on February 14, 1924 destroyed the Opera House, the Opera House Café, and the Arbuthnot Drug Company.

Old Buildings and Historic Sites: Belleville’s downtown boasts a number of late 19th- and early 20th-century buildings—old banks, the Republic County courthouse, and several business addresses along M Street. While none of these are formally documented as haunted in major databases, stories occasionally reference fleeting shadows, disembodied whispers, or feelings of being watched, especially after dark.

Republic County Historical Museum: As with many small-town museums, docents and local visitors occasionally mention odd drafts, sudden temperature drops, or curious footsteps. However, there is no widespread or recurring ghost lore directly associated with the museum—indicative of the region’s conservative approach to institutional hauntings.

Indian “Troubles”: Repeated raids, attacks, and tragic deaths in the mid–late 1800s are well documented. Stories persist of entire families or groups (especially a Mormon expedition) being slaughtered, leaving a residue of trauma and, for some, a perceived spiritual unease stitched into the landscape

Ghost Towns Nearby (Talmo, Minersville): Abandoned or nearly abandoned towns close to Belleville hold a particular fascination in area folklore. The ruins at Talmo, for example, have inspired ghostly tales and stories of mysterious lights in the distance, though these are more atmospheric than tied to specific hauntings. The “ghost” moniker is as much about the absence of people as the presence of spirits.

One striking pattern among accounts is the hesitance of locals to report directly, either out of fear of ridicule or social consequence. In neighboring communities, and certainly in Kansas at large, ghost stories may be recounted for amusement, but are rarely codified as “official” in the way that some towns market haunted sites for tourism like Haunted Atchison, Kansas.

While some Kansas cities (notably Atchison or Topeka) have become famous for documented hauntings and have been immortalized in state-level haunted travel guides, Belleville’s stories remain smaller in scale and scope, less amenable to commercial exploitation, but arguably more genuine and organic in nature

References:

Alexander, K. (2025, September). Indian troubles in Republic County. Legends of Kansas. Retrieved September 6, 2025, from https://legendsofkansas.com/indian-troubles-republic-county/

Cinema Treasures. (n.d.). Majestic Theatre in Belleville, KS. Cinema Treasures. Retrieved September 6, 2025, from https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/63251

City of Belleville. (n.d.). History of Belleville – Belleville, Kansas: At the Crossroads of America. Retrieved September 6, 2025, from https://www.bellevilleks.org/history-of-belleville.html

Republic County Democrat. (1921, June 8). p. 6.

09/05/2025

Apparenlty Emma RIchardson needed to be "converted" to christianity while she was in Belleville. However, Angeline Briscoe's diary hints that Emma Richardson was not a follower of the God of Abraham, but does not go any further with it unfortunately. I wonder if there is anything at this house that can confirm if she was or wasn't a witch. It was very strange for the late 1800s for a house to be deeded in a woman's name (almost unheard of for the time) especially since she did have a husband. There are still a lot of unopened walls, unexplored crawl spaces and things that could still be hidden beneith the earth here. For clarification, women were not generally referenced officially by their actual name back then, they were called Mrs. then their husband's initials and surname: J.E. Richardson thus, Angeline's birth surname is Stevenson and Emma's birth surname is Dickerman.

Reference

The Belleville Telescope. (1918, May 16). The Belleville Telescope, p. 1.

09/03/2025

The Following Newpaper Article from the Belleville Telescope dated 08 March 1906 shows the property transfer to Angeline Briscoe and the article from Thursay 29 March 1906 shows that Angeline Briscoe moved into the unfinished house on K Street. Republic County records state the house was not finsihed until 1910, but here Angeline Briscoe moved "into" the property she bought from Emma Richardson whose initials are Mrs. J.E. Richardson which signifies she is the wife of Jasper Richardson. Women back then used an archaic tradition where they were only known as Mrs. [insert husband's initials and surname here]. Angeline's diary also stated that Emma Richardson claimed the house was started by Joseph Brown in 1893 but never finished and there were "incidents" of the "unnatural variety" to happen there.

For clarification purposes, Angeline's birth surname is Stevenson and Emma's birth surname is Dickerman.

References:

The Belleville Telescope. (1906, March 08). Page 3. Belleville, Kansas.

The Belleville Telescope. (1906, March 29). Page 2. Belleville, Kansas.

09/02/2025

So, Angeline Briscoe (Brisco) (1849-1935), was the first self-professed Witch who lived in this house. She was a pioneer woman whose life spanned nearly nine decades of American history, including the Civil War, westward expansion, and the settling of Kansas. She was born on October 9, 1849, in Springfield, Illinois, to Henry and Serra Stevenson. In 1868 she married John Smith in Springfield and had three children by that marriage. Mr. Smith died under mysterious circumstances in 1876.

Two years later in 1878 Angeline Stevenson married James Briscoe (1837-1896) in East St. Louis and had four four children by that marriage. They finally settled in Clyde Kansas around 1890. In 1895 her second husband died under mysterious circumstances similar to her first husband. She remained in Clyde until 1905 when she purchased the unfinished Witch House in Belleville, Kansas. She finished the house in 1910 and remained in Belleville until her death in 1935.

In 2025 whilst peeling back crumbling plaster I unearthed her hidden diary, its binding brittle with age and pages that almost disinigrate when touched. Many pages dripped with contempt for Belleville’s townsfolk and disgust for the Christian mask she wore. She feared persecution, so she casted numerous protection spells on the property to protect her and any future women who owned the house from male aggressors. In 1910 there were no other residential buildings anywhere near her house, so she could literally practice her craft in solitude away from prying eyes.

She spoke of the house being "alive" and would write about hearing "chanting" at night usually on Wednesday nights going into Thursday mornings. Interestingly, her obituary states she is bured in the New Hope Cemetary in Clyde Kansas but no such person is buried in the cemetary. The cemetary directory lists her last husband James Briscoe, but her grave is nowhere to be found.

The Witch House stands on K Street as her enduring monolith, its warped floors stained by history and occult ritual. Every hidden diary page and warped board pulses with Angeline’s undying hunger for forbidden truths, daring any who enter to awaken the darkness she distilled within its walls.