“You may all go to Hell, and I will go to Texas” – Davy Crockett.

There is probably not a person in America

who was a child in the mid-1950s who can’t still sing the theme song to the TV

show Davy Crockett.  “Born on a

mountaintop in Tennessee, greenest state in the land of the free.  Raised in the woods so he knew every

tree.  Killed him a bear, when he was

only 3.” Sales of coonskin caps like the character of Davy Crockett wore were

huge.  But who was this he? 

Davy Crockett was a real person, who led a

very interesting life.  He was descended

from French Huguenots, one of whom served in King Louis XIV’s Household Troops.

His father, John fought at the Battle of Kings Mountain during the American

Revolutionary War.

Davy Crockett himself served in the

military as well and was also elected to Congress before famously dying at the

Battle of the Alamo.

He was born on 17 August 1786 in Greene

County, Tennessee, the middle child of 9. 

It’s easy to say he was meant to be a frontiersman, having been taught

by his father to shoot his rifle at the tender age of eight. He loved to go hunting,

but his father insisted he go to school when he became a teenager although

school lasted less than a month as he ran away following an altercation with

the school bully.

Davy Crockett did return a few years later at age 15 to help pay off debts his father owed, first to Abraham Wilson and then John Canady. His father had told him he was free to leave but he decided to stay in John Canady’s employ for a further four years during which time he fell in love with John Canady’s niece Amy Summer, who unfortunately for Davy was engaged to be married to Canady’s son, John.

Just before he turned 20, Davy Crockett married his first wife, Mary Finley, known as Polly, and they moved to a small farm.  They had three children but sadly Mary died in 1815.  Crockett then married a widow called Elizabeth Patton who already had two children, with the couple going on to have two more children of their own.

Davy Crockett’s military career began during the War of 1812 when he enlisted as a scout with a company of mounted riflemen. Serving under Colonel John Coffee, he preferred to hunt wild game rather than kill Creek warriors, staying with the company until December 1813.

Crockett reenlisted and was given the rank

of third-sergeant in the Tennessee Mounted Gunmen with the aim of helping

Andrew Jackson drive the British out of Spanish Florida although he saw little

action. He served out his term, returning home in December 1814.

During 1817 Davy Crockett entered public office for the first time when he became a commissioner of Lawrence County following which he became a justice of the peace.  As he was also now running several businesses he found that he no longer had the time required to dedicate to public office and so resigned as Justice of the Peach in 1819. In 1821 he stepped down as commissioner and successfully ran for a seat in the Tennessee House of Representatives.   Only a few weeks later, the Tennessee River flooded and destroyed his business.

Davy Crockett first ran for the US Congress in 1825, a bid that was unsuccessful but in 1827 he did win and was also re-elected for the 1829-31 session. During this session, Crockett introduced a resolution to abolish the United States Military Academy at West Point and also opposed President Jackson’s 1830 Indian Removal Act. However, his opposition was not popular with his own district and so he lost the election of...