David Crocket

Full Name: Mr. David Crockett
Place of Birth: Greene County, Tennessee, USA
Died: March 6, 1836
Place of Death: San Antonio, Texas, USA
Classification: Heroes & Icons

David Crockett (August 17, 1786 – March 6, 1836) was a celebrated 19th-century American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier and politician; referred to in popular culture as Davy Crockett and often by the epithet “King of the Wild Frontier.” He represented Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives, served in the Texas Revolution, and died at the Battle of the Alamo. His nickname was the stuff of legend, but in life he shunned the title “Davy” and referred to himself exclusively as “David

Embodied as the King of the Wild Frontier, Davy Crockett became an icon of a rough, tough, and savvy expanding nation. In his autobiography entitled The Narrative of the Life of Davy Crocket, he claims to have killed a bear at the age of three, quit school by age nine, traveled all of Tennessee and other States, become a hunter, trapper, and excellent marksmen, and returned home before he was fifteen.

Already known as a public figure who stood strong for the true spirit of American expansion into the frontier, Crockett says it was the freedom he had experienced in his early years that allowed him to become such a natural leader of an American people with passion, but no direction. During his time in Virginia, Davy Crockett worked for farmers, wagon makers, and as a trapper and hat maker. Upon returning home, he worked to pay off his father’s debts and often won local shooting competitions because of his amazing rifle skills. After saving money and buying his own clothes, horses, rifles, and a house, he married Polly Finlay at the age of twenty. The two bore two sons and Polly died some years later. Crockett then married Elizabeth Patton, who was a widow at the time.

While some of his story has gone down as legend or myth, it is known that Davy Crocket was a man who kept his word, worked hard, and became an eloquent speaker, member of the House of Representatives and a congressman. Before his political career took off, he served in the Second Regiment of the Volunteer Mounted Rifleman in Tennessee where he fought in Alabama and quickly became a lieutenant.

In his autobiography, Davy Crockett also says he told his constituents that if he were not re-elected into the House of Representatives again, “…they could all go to hell and I will go to Texas”. Davy kept his word and when he wasn’t re-elected he joined the Texas Revolution in 1835, where he would be granted several thousands of acres for his service. When he joined the revolution, he had only 139 men under his command. When the entire group was killed after a surprise attack by Mexican forces, he left and went to fight the Battle of the Alamo. His feat at the Texas Revolution went down in history because the 139 men held off thousands of Mexican soldiers for over eleven days. When Davy Crockett’s men were finally killed, over two thousand Mexicans had been slain. Legend, lore, and myth live on about what happened in those days of battle, but Davy Crockett is still considered a martyr for the cause and spirit of the United States.