David Crockett (38 page)
Authors: Michael Wallis
Tags: #Biography & Autobiography, #Adventurers & Explorers, #Political, #Historical
For the many scholars and Crockett researchers every bit as devoted to the historic figure as those in love with the myth, the overwhelming evidence supports the Peña narrative. And in the end, does it truly matter how Crockett died? Is his death less noteworthy or dramatic? As longtime Crockett scholar Paul Hutton notes:
He died as he had lived, boldly facing his opponents with unflinching determination to be sure he was right—and then go ahead! That he did not fall at the height of battle, ringed by the men he had slain with his clubbed rifle and knife, is of no consequence. Such a death would have been out of character with his life. He was no warrior chieftain—no combination of Beowulf and Roland—but was rather a pioneer turned politician who came to symbolize western egalitarianism and unbridled opportunity.
33
To those who claim that God made Texas, one may say that, figuratively, Crockett invented Texas. His blood and the blood of all who died with him transformed the Alamo into an American cultural icon, affecting economic and political conditions in Texas and beyond. The oft-used battle cry “Remember the Alamo!”—employed just weeks later by Sam Houston to inspire his force when they captured General Santa Anna and defeated the Mexican army at San Jacinto—still reverberates through history and culture. For many Anglo Texans and others, those three words conjure images of patriotic heroes, unabashed sacrifice, and love of liberty.
The Alamo remains the most instantly recognized battle in American history, with the possible exception of Gettysburg. It has been said that not until the Battle of the Little Big Horn and the death of George Armstrong Custer forty years after the Alamo would Americans have a more vainglorious event to rally around. Texans also used the Alamo and the revolt against Mexico to establish a republic and, later, a state that they believed unique and more special than any other. In 1845, when the Republic of Texas gave up its sovereignty to become the biggest state in the Union, it did so with the caveat—depending on whose interpretation of the Texas Constitution is followed—that it could secede at any time and split into five separate entities, thus creating four new states.
34
The strong belief among many Texans was that their independence—their Lone Star status—had been bought and paid for at the Alamo.
Crockett’s death sums up the single most important aspect of his brief stay in Texas. His contribution to the Lone Star State resulted not so much from how he lived but how he died. His impact on Texas derives precisely from his death in that battered Spanish mission. In death he turned into an even more marketable commodity than he had been in life, and the Alamo eventually would become the state’s biggest tourist attraction and one of the most popular historic sites in the nation.
Crockett’s death helped fuel the flames of rebellion against Mexico and also made him a celebrated martyr for the cause. This contributed to the creation of the prideful, sometimes bellicose, stereotypical image of swaggering, boastful Texans bursting with superlatives and pride when describing the land they love. Crockett’s demise also helped turn the Alamo into the “Cradle of Texas Liberty” and a monument to Anglo westward expansion that became known as Manifest Destiny.
There was the David Crockett of historical fact, and there is the Davy Crockett of our collective imagination. The first was a man who led a most interesting and colorful life. The other is the American myth, featuring Crockett as a symbolic figure with superhuman powers; in this version, Crockett is frequently used by others to promote their own interests. Both Crockett and the Alamo remain ensnared in clouds of myth.
In the end, Crockett was a uniquely American character and a formidable hero in his own right. He should not be judged by his death but rather by his life—including the good and the bad and the shades of gray. Consider him as a legend and a hero, but always bear in mind that he was a man willing to take a risk. That was what he symbolized and that is how he should be remembered.
Writing a book is ultimately a solitary act. But the process of getting to the point of the actual writing and all that transpires after a manuscript is completed is far from solitary. This book—my sixteenth—was no exception. It took many people besides me to get the job done. Each of them was important, many were essential, and a few of them were so invaluable that without them this book would never have been written.
Two people who absolutely fit in that last category are Suzanne Fitzgerald Wallis and Joseph A. Swann. That is why I dedicated the book to them. This gesture is but a small token of my appreciation to both of them.
Suzanne is my life partner, best friend, lover, and chief collaborator. Her wisdom, diligence, and encouragement are largely responsible for this book as well as for all the others I have written and those yet to come. Suzanne, with assistance from our quirky feline muse, Sophie, is there for me every day whether I deserve it or not.
Joe Swann not only acted as a tireless guide and excellent source of knowledge about all things Crockett but also unselfishly shared his entire unpublished manuscript detailing Crockett’s many years spent in Tennessee. The voice and vision of Joe Swann echoes throughout much of this book. Joe showed me places and led me to people that I would not have found on my own. He and his lovely wife, Rebecca, the epitome of a gracious Tennessean, nourished my mind and body at their comfortable home. I will never forget their hospitality and kindness.
Another person who figured prominently in the development of this book is James Fitzgerald. Jim is my literary agent and also happens to be one my wife’s trio of Irish brothers. Jim and I have known each other for more than forty years. At times we also have been known to battle like a pair of boar bears, but I always know that ultimately I can count on Jim, one of the savviest individuals in the strange and sometimes turbulent world of publishing.
As they have done in the past with my other books they have published, the entire editorial, design, marketing, and promotional team at W. W. Norton is once more to be commended for helping make this book a reality. Robert Weil, my esteemed editor, was at the helm of this effort and was there for me every single step of the way. Throughout my career as an author I have been fortunate to encounter some topflight editors. All of them play second fiddle to Bob Weil. He is bar none the most diligent, driven, and dedicated editor drawing breath today. I defy anyone to tell me otherwise. Likewise, Bob’s hardworking assistants—in the case of this book, Lucas Wittmann and Phil Marino—never let me down. Both of these young men have learned well from Bob, a proven mentor whose long line of editorial assistants from over the years have gone on to much success in publishing.
During the long research and writing process, I also was fortunate to have happened upon other knowledgeable and helpful sons and daughters of Tennessee. Much like Joe and Becky Swann, these people opened their hearts and homes to me and made the development of this book much more enjoyable. Two Tennesseans at the top of this list are Jere Ellis and Jim Claborn. Jere took care of me in West Tennessee, and Jim was one of my primary guides in East Tennessee. Both men deserve medals on their chests for their assistance.
Jere resides at Blue Cut near Tiptonville, Tennessee, not far from one of David Crockett’s favorite hunting sites at Reelfoot Lake. Beside staying active in his community and taking the time to show authors the secret places and hidden corners of Crockett’s former stomping grounds, Jere maintains the Eagle Tree Gallery, where his vast inventory of museum-quality Southwestern Indian art, crafts, and artifacts attracts people from all over the country. Unquestionably, this book would not have been the same without the assistance and input I received from Jere. Thank you, my friend, for your graciousness and guidance, and also a special thanks for introducing me to Boyette’s, a dining oasis since 1921 that consistently turns out catfish, hush puppies, and coleslaw to die for.
Jim Claborn, who hails from Talbott, a small community near Morristown, Tennessee, the site of the Crockett Tavern Museum, was recommended to me when I sought out people with a passion for history to show me the ropes in “Crockett Country” of eastern Tennessee. Jim is an accomplished historian and teacher, but most of all he is a masterful storyteller. Together with another excellent teacher and historian, Bill Henderson, Jim coauthored
Hamblen County, Tennessee: A Pictorial History
, and he often portrays Crockett in full costume for a variety of audiences. His guidance and infusion of information and knowledge was of great help to me. Thanks, my friend.
I was fortunate to have a pair of capable and resourceful researchers helping me every step of the way. In Knoxville, Tennessee, the research assignment went to Kevin Pettiford, a fine journalist and freelance writer, who prowled and probed archives, libraries, and museums in my behalf. Kevin never came up empty-handed, and I appreciate not only his consistency and hard work but his ability to go over and beyond when it came to finding those elusive morsels of the past that often remain undiscovered.
On the home front, I was fortunate to have the research assistance of William “Trey” Stewart, a native Tulsan who started his work with me just prior to his senior year at Middlebury College in Vermont. Trey is also a self-starter, who required very little direction once a task was assigned to him. A dedicated student of American history and a fine developing writer, Trey is also a sturdy rugby player, which helps explain the tenacity and dogged persistence he demonstrated in all of his fine work for me. Also, special thanks to Anne Payne, a good friend and neighbor who put in untold hours helping Suzanne gather photographs, images, and permissions for the book.
Speaking of support at home while laboring over Mister Crockett, our dear friends Sue and Steve Gerkin as always were there every minute along the way to offer moral support and encouragement. Many thanks to you, Tex and Spud. I am very grateful for our friendship.
Before writing one word of this book, I conferred with Paul Andrew Hutton, a distinguished professor of history at the University of New Mexico and the former president of Western Writers of America and executive director of the Western History Association. Like me, Paul has an affinity for Henry McCarty, aka Billy the Kid, as well as for David Crockett. In fact, Paul has been laboring on his own book about Crockett for many years. I am so grateful to him for encouraging me to proceed with my book and also for providing me with several contacts who proved to be important sources and fonts of information about Crockett and his times.
Others who merit mention and my profound thanks include Sally A. Baker, site director, Crockett Tavern Museum, Morristown, Tennessee; Cherel Bolin Henderson, director, and Lisa Oakley, curator of education, East Tennessee Historical Society, Knoxville; Steve Cotham, manager, C. M. McClung Historical Collection, Knox County Public Library, Knoxville, Tennessee; Robert D. Jarnagin, Dandridge, Tennessee; Lura B. Hinchey, director, and Ernie Hodges and Bobby Shands, volunteers, Jefferson County Archives, Dandridge, Tennessee; Strawberry Luck, Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, Tennessee; Nick Wyman, Research Services, Special Collections Library, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Joe Bone, manager, Last Home of Davy Crockett Museum, Rutherford, Tennessee; Joy Bland, historian, Direct Descendants and Kin of David Crockett; Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville; Michael A. Lofaro, professor of American studies and American literature, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; William B. Eigelsbach, Reference Services, University of Tennessee Special Collections Library, Hoskins Library, Knoxville; National Society of Colonial Dames of America in the State of Tennessee; Gert Petersen and the Franklin County Historical Society, Winchester, Tennessee; State of Tennessee Department of Education, Nashville; Lawrence County (Tennessee) Historical Society; The Mid-West Tennessee Genealogical Society, Jackson, Tennessee; Tennessee Historical Commission, Nashville; Lake County (Tennessee) Historical Society; Joe and Bernadine Widdifield, Panther Springs, Tennessee.
Thanks also to Aaron D. Purcell, associate professor and director of Special Collections and University Libraries, Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg; Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library at the Alamo, San Antonio; Berkeley County Historical Society, Martinsburg, West Virginia; Gowen Research Foundation, Lubbock, Texas; Alabama Department of History and Archives, Montgomery; Andrew Burstein, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge; Dr. Joe Reilly, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the San Jacinto Museum, Houston, Texas; Birmingham Public Library Cartographic Collection, Birmingham, Alabama; Craig Remington, Department of Geography, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa; Rick Watson, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin; Linda Stone, curator, Woolaroc Museum, Bartlesville, Oklahoma; Aryn Glazer, Prints and Photographs Collection, Dolph Briscoe Center of American History, University of Texas at Austin; Oklahoma State Senate Historical Preservations Fund, Inc., Oklahoma City; Dorothy Sloan and Shelby Smith, Dorothy Sloan Rare Books, Austin, Texas; Print Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, The New York Public Library; G. W. Blunt White Library at Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, Connecticut; Ronald McCoy, Tulsa, Oklahoma; Emily Priddy, Tulsa, Oklahoma; Linda Priddy, Herrin, Illinois; Robert McCubbin, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Larry Yadon, Tulsa, Oklahoma; Danny and Barbara Moon, Hickman, Kentucky; and Phillipe Garmy, Stillwater, Oklahoma.
ONE • “KILT HIM A B’AR”
1
Lyrics by Tom Blackburn, music by George Bruns, copyright 1954, Wonderland Music Co.
2
David Crockett,
A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee
(Philadelphia: E. L. Carey and A. Hart, 1834), 190.
3
Ibid., 190–91. Some sources contend that Crockett’s story about climbing a tree and sliding down to stay warm was pure invention—one of his exaggerated yarns later picked up and reprinted in almanacs and newspapers. Others disagree and believe the story has the ring of truth.
4
Ibid.
5
Ibid., 194.
6
J. H. Grime,
Recollections of a Long Life
(Lebanon, TN: 1930), 8. Rev. John Harvey Grime, a prominent Baptist preacher and religious leader throughout the South, recalled that as a boy in Tennessee he had a hunting dog named after Davy Crockett and another he named Jolar after Crockett’s favorite dog.
TWO • BORN ON A RIVERBANK IN FRANKLIN
1
No records of David Crockett’s birth exist. In all probability, August 17, 1786, is correct. It has always been the accepted date of birth.
2
Kathryn E. Jones,
Crockett Cousins
(Graham, TX: K. E. Jones, 1984; 2nd printing, rev. ed., 1986), 21–24.
3
From Joy Bland e-mail to the author, April 8, 2009.
4
Joy Bland, “Genealogical Discovery,”
Go Ahead: Newsletter of the Direct Descendants and Kin of David Crockett
25, no. 1, August 2008, 3.
5
Ibid.
6
Ibid.
7
Robert L. Geiser,
The Illusion of Caring
(Boston: Beacon Press, 1973), 148.
8
This quote is attributed to Mary Boykin Chestnut, the daughter of a South Carolina governor and the wife of James Chestnut Jr., the son of one of antebellum South Carolina’s largest landowners.
9
Crockett,
Narrative
, 16.
10
James Atkins Shackford,
David Crockett: The Man and the Legend
, edited by John B. Shackford (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1956), 7.
11
Curtis Carroll Davis, “A Legend at Full-Length: Mr. Chapman Paints Colonel Crockett—and Tells About It,”
Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society
(Worcester, MA: American Antiquarian Society, April 1960), 170. Crockett made this statement to artist John Gadsby Chapman in 1834 while sitting for his portrait in Chapman’s studio in Washington, D.C.
12
David Dobson,
Directory of Scots in the Carolinas, 1680–1830
(Baltimore: Genealogical Printing Company, 2002), 52. The name Crockett may have come from the ancient Norse word
krok-r
, meaning crook, hook, or bend and probably the root of the old English word
crock
.
13
Joseph A. Swann, “The Early Life & Times of David Crockett, 1786–1812,” unpublished manuscript.
14
Ibid.
15
Ibid.
16
Ibid. Lowland Scots were an interesting mixture of Celts, Romans, Scandinavians, Germans, English, Irish, and Scots. The region of southern Scotland and northern England was an age-old border battleground where lawlessness had become a way of life. Residents of this contested landscape raided back and forth across the border from before the time of the Romans in the first century AD. This lawlessness and fighting escalated by the seventeenth century, creating an environment of strife and disorder, which effectively undermined any kind of sustained economic opportunity. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the British government confiscated a great deal of Catholic-owned property and enacted penal laws restricting land ownership exclusively to Protestants.
17
Ibid. Over three or four generations, the Scots succeeded in developing the Ulster-Londonderry area that had been torn apart by war and poverty into a thriving industrial region. By the middle of the seventeenth century the county of Ulster was almost totally populated by Scots-Irish. The marshes and bogs had been drained, and fertile lands were planted with a new crop—the potato—brought by Sir Walter Raleigh from the American Indians and soon a staple in the Irish diet. At the same time, the manufacture of woolen and linen products flourished until the English manufacturers tired of Scots in Ulster shipping goods to the American colonies. This resulted in the implementation of harsh trade restrictions, including a ban of the exportation of Irish wool products to anywhere in the world except England and Wales. The mostly English landlords of Ulster also employed a policy referred to as rack-renting, which doubled or even tripled the property rent. The word “rack” became a term of protest, evoking the medieval torture device, to denote excessive rents.
18
Ibid.
THREE • THE CROCKETTS ARRIVE
1
Crockett,
Narrative
, 14.
2
Ibid., n. 3.
3
Jim Webb,
Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America
(New York: Broadway Books, 2004), 133.
4
Swann, “The Early Life & Times.”
5
Ibid.
6
Webb,
Born Fighting
, 118. Although the term Scotch-Irish is commonly used in the United States, the author points out that in other countries, especially Scotland, it is considered rude to refer to a person as being Scotch. He explains that Scotch is a whiskey and that Scots are people whose roots go back to Scotland.
7
Swann, “Early Life & Times.”
8
Jones,
Crockett Cousins
, 4. Located on the Potomac River, separating Virginia and Maryland, the ferry was established in 1744 and was named for Evan Watkins, the ferry owner who resided at his nearby home and farm, Maidstone-on-the-Potomac, a site well known to the Crocketts and other early Scots-Irish.
9
Ibid., 4. Frederick County, VA, Court Records, Order Bk. 2, 456.
10
Ibid., 4–5. It also has been suggested that Elizabeth may have been somehow related to a William Patterson who was mentioned in several deeds involving the Crocketts, and may account for the name Patterson bestowed on one of their grandsons.
11
Swann, “Early Life & Times.”
12
Jones,
Crockett Cousins
, 4. Throughout the early 1770s, the names of David the elder and other family members appeared on legal documents and records in Tryon County and later when it became Lincoln County. These records include various Crocketts serving as witnesses for property deeds, codicils to wills, and mortgages. On at least two occasions David and his eldest son, William, served together as jurors, including on a January 1775 criminal trial in which the jury panel ruled in favor of the defendant and found Thomas Espey, a Tryon County justice of the peace, not guilty of a charge of extortion.
13
Robert Morgan,
Boone: A Biography
(Chapel Hill: Algonquin, 2007), 20.
14
Jones,
Crockett Cousins
, 39.
15
Swann, “Early Life & Times.”
16
Crockett,
Narrative
, 14.
FOUR • OVER THE MOUNTAIN
1
Jones,
Crockett Cousins
, 6.
2
John R. Finger,
Tennessee Frontiers, Three Regions in Transition
(Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2001), 39–41.
3
Ibid., 39.
4
Wayne C. Moore, “Paths of Migration,”
First Families of Tennessee: A Register of Early Settlers and Their Present-Day Descendants
(Knoxville: East Tennessee Historical Society, 2000), 30.
5
J. G. M. Ramsey,
The Annals of Tennessee
(Charleston, SC: Walkers & Jones, 1853; reprinted in 1967 for the East Tennessee Historical Society, Knoxville; reprinted in 1999 by Overmountain Press), 94.
6
Ibid., 96.
7
John Trotwood Moore and Austin P. Foster,
Tennessee, The Volunteer State
(Nashville and Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1923), v.
8
Jones,
Crockett Cousins
, 2, 6.
9
Wilma Dykeman,
Tennessee, A History
(New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1984), 43–44.
10
Ibid.
11
Jones,
Crockett Cousins
, 3, 6. The document signed by two David Crocketts was called the Washington County Petition. It provides additional proof that the David Crockett who is the subject of this book had an uncle named David Crockett Jr.
12
Crockett,
Narrative
, 15.
13
James Mooney,
Myths of the Cherokee and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees
(Nashville: Charles and Randy Elder-Booksellers Publishers, reproduced 1982, originally published by the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1891 and 1900), 55.
14
Crockett,
Narrative
, 15–16.
15
Shackford,
David Crockett: The Man and the Legend
, 4–5.
16
Swann, “Early Life & Times.”
17
Crockett,
Narrative
, 16.
18
Jones,
Crockett Cousins
, 101.
19
Swann, “Early Life & Times.”
20
James Collins,
Autobiography of a Revolutionary Soldier
, edited by John M. Roberts (Clinton, LA: Feliciana Democrat, 1859; reprinted New York: Arno Press, 1979), 22.
FIVE • ON THE NOLICHUCKY
1
Fred Brown,
Marking Time: East Tennessee Historical Markers and the Stories Behind Them
(Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2005), 112. Rev. Samuel Doak, a Presbyterian minister and a major influence on the Tennessee frontier, came up with the cry for liberty in 1780 after delivering a sermon to the Overmountain Men preparing for the King’s Mountain battle. Doak urged them to fight with “the sword of the Lord and of Gideon,” and the Scots-Irish Presbyterians before him responded as one: “The sword of the Lord and of our Gideons.”
2
Wayne C. Moore, “Paths of Migration,” 39.
3
Ibid.
4
Harriette Simpson Arnow,
Seedtime on the Cumberland
(Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1983), 195. As the author points out, women listening from behind fort walls often mistook the battle whoops of their own returning menfolk, bearing fresh scalps, for those of Indians.
5
Crockett,
Narrative
, 14–15. Except for the
Roster of Soldiers from North Carolina in the American Revolution
listing John Crockett as a member of the Lincoln County militia, no detailed record of his service record has been found. There is, however, a record provided for John’s brother Robert, who filed for a pension in 1833 based on his service during the Revolution. It shows Robert serving in various militia posts for several weeks or months at a time from June 1776 until 1781, when he was discharged. Since Robert and John were from the same family and were close in age, their military service records might be similar.
6
Court Records of Washington County, Virginia—Minutes, vol. 1, 39, August 1778.
7
Jones,
Crockett Cousins
, 6–7.
8
Court Records of Washington, County, Virginia, 54.
9
Ibid.