Bethberei Stories

An anonymous reader e-mails concerning Bethberei Church in Lewisburg:

I visited the Bethberei Church 3 times, and each time I felt unwelcomed. On my first two visits my companions and I encountered very strange and disturbing accounts.

1st visit- We simply drove in front of the church and stopped, without getting out, just look around. When in front of the church, our car became cold, engine temp dropped, and the engine started to spudder.

2nd visit- A couple new companions accompanied me to the church. This time we entered late one summer night. The outside and most of the church were warm. When we approached the front of the chapel, I became very cold. One of my friends stood next to me and looked around toward the back of the chapel to a small stairway. She then went into shock and ran out. She claimed to have seen a figure walk out of the top room and then jumped off the top and appeared to had been hanging from the lighting fixture. Another companion claimed to have seen the fixture swing at that moment.

Stories and rumors that I gathered from other visitors, most likely tall tales to scare kids from going:

A high school kid from Murfreesboro/Eagleville area visited the church one night by himself. Nothing inside happened from the report. But on his drive home, a strange smell started to build within his car. When the smell started to become overwhelming, he stopped checked the interior and exterior of his car for any road kill or bad food. Then he checked his trunk...the report I gathered was that he discovered a mutilated torso in the trunk. He slammed the trunk and ran to the nearest house to call his parents. When his parents met him at the car and examined the trunk, nothing was discovered.

Heard rumors that the across the road cemetery was formerly the original grounds of a slave church. One night, a group of Klan members burned the church down while a service was being conducted. Due to the times and poor record keeping, many of the graves were left blank. Some speculate that many of the remains were mixed up when buried. That is the reason visitors to the church see figures walking among the graves, in search of their rightful remains.

Another rumor I encountered about Bethberei Church is that it lies on the old gathering grounds of a witch coven. It is speculated that grounds also carry the graves of many of the coven members, which were only marked by trees, rocks, and stumps. Some say that a few of the graves were violently moved to make room for the church cemetery when it was first established. And that even the church lies on top of many of the graves, possibly directly under the pulpit.