Davy Crockett 

David “Davy” Crockett was a 19th century American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier and politician. He is commonly referred to in popular culture by the epithet, “King of the Wild Frontier.” Crockett grew up in East Tennessee, where he gained a reputation for hunting and storytelling. He became famous in his own lifetime for larger-than-life exploits popularized by stage plays and almanacs. After his death, he continued to be credited with acts of mythical proportion. These led in the 20th century to television and movie portrayals, and he became one of the best-known American folk heroes.

On May 21, 1815, Crockett was elected a lieutenant in the Thirty-second Militia regiment of Franklin County. He became a justice of the peace on November 17, 1817, a post he resigned in 1819. He became the town commissioner of Lawrenceburg April 1, 1818, and was elected colonel of the Fifty-seventh Militia regiment in the county that same year.

New Year’s Day 1821 marked a turning point in Crockett’s career. He resigned as commissioner to run for a seat in the Tennessee legislature as the representative of Lawrence and Hickman counties. He won the August election and, from the beginning, took an active interest in public land policy regarding the West. After the session concluded he moved his family to what is now Gibson County in West Tennessee. He was reelected in 1823, defeating Dr. William E. Butler, but was in turn defeated in August 1825 in his first bid for a seat in Congress.

In 1826, after returning to private business, Crockett nearly died when his boats carrying barrel staves were wrecked in the Mississippi River. When he was brought to Memphis he was encouraged to run again for Congress by Maj. M. B. Winchester and won election over Gen. William Arnold and Col. Adam Alexander to the United States House of Representatives in 1827. He was reelected to a second term in 1829 and split with President Andrew Jackson and the Tennessee delegation on several issues, including land reform and the Indian removal bill. In his 1831 campaign for a third term, Crockett openly and vehemently attacked Jackson’s policies and was defeated in a close election by William Fitzgerald.

Disenchanted with the political process and his former constituents, Crockett decided to do what he had threatened to do, and that was to explore Texas and to move his family there if the prospects were pleasing. On November 1, 1835, with William Patton, Abner Burgin, and Lindsey K. Tinkle, he set out to the West. The foursome reached Memphis the first evening and, in company with some friends congregated in the bar of the Union Hotel for a farewell drinking party. It was there that Crockett offered his now famous remark: “Since you have chosen to elect a man with a timber toe to succeed me, you may all go to hell and I will go to Texas.” They set off the next day. In early February Crockett arrived at San Antonio de Béxar; while at about the same time Antonio López de Santa Anna was moving with his army towards Texas.

On the one hand Crockett was still fighting Jackson. The Americans in Texas were split into two political factions that divided roughly into those supporting a conservative Whig philosophy and those supporting the administration. Col. William B. Travis had deliberately disregarded Sam Houston’s orders to withdraw from the Alamo. Rather than support Houston, a Jackson sympathizer Crockett chose to join Travis. What was more, he saw the future of an independent Texas as his future, and he loved a good fight.

Crockett died on March 6, 1836 during the Battle of the Alamo.