David Crockett (40 page)

7
Ibid.

8
Crockett and Thomas Chilton, a friend and colleague in the U.S. Congress, read Ovid’s classic work as they prepared to write the Crockett autobiography.

9
Ibid. Records show that the Elders lived along Lick Creek, in Greene County, at the same time as David and his family.

10.
Swann, “Early Life & Times,” quoting an 1893 article by Alexander Hynds in the
Louisville Courier Journal
.

11
Crockett,
Narrative
, 50.

12
Randell Jones,
In the Footsteps of Davy Crockett
(Winston-Salem, NC: John F. Blair, 2006), 21–22.

13
Jefferson County Marriage Records Book 1, Entry Number 526, Jefferson County Courthouse, Dandridge, TN. The Crockett-Elder license at the Jefferson County courthouse is a copy. The original document was mistakenly discarded during a housecleaning of the archives, and eventually ended up in the possession of a private party in Tampa, FL. When it surfaced at a broadcast of
Antiques Roadshow
, an appraiser from Christie’s in New York said the document’s historical significance was immeasurable.

14
Crockett,
Narrative
, 53.

15
Ibid., 53–54.

16
Ibid., 54.

ELEVEN • POLLY

1
Crockett,
Narrative
, 54.

2
Ibid., 55.

3
Shackford,
David Crockett: The Man and the Legend
, 13.

4
Crockett,
Narrative
, 57. In Crockett’s day virtually all people of German extraction were simply described as
Dutch
, as in Pennsylvania Dutch.

5
Crockett,
Narrative
, 57.

6
Ibid., 58.

7
Ibid., 58–59.

8
Robert E. Corlew,
Tennessee: A Short History
(Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1981), 111–12.

9
Crockett,
Narrative
, 58.

10
Swann, “Early Life & Times.”

11
Crockett,
Narrative
, 59. Plaguy, also plaguey, meaning irritating or bothersome.

12
Ibid., 59–60.

13
Shackford,
David Crockett: The Man and the Legend
, 14. Crockett described Billy Finley as being “clever,” at that time a word meaning
friendly
or
sociable
.

14
Crockett,
Narrative
, 61.

15
Ibid., 62.

16
Ibid., 63.

17
Ibid., 64.

18
Crockett’s first rifle, owned by noted Crockett historian Joseph Swann, has been in his family’s possession for several generations. The rifle is on public display at the Museum of East Tennessee History in Knoxville. See “Crockett’s First Rifle,” photograph and story.

19
Ibid.

20
Jefferson County Marriage and Bond Book, 1792–1840
, Marriage Bond, “David Crockett to Polly Finley,” August 12, 1806, Jefferson County Courthouse, Dandridge, Tennessee.

21
Ibid.

22
Joseph Swann, “The Wedding of David Crockett and Polly Finley,”
Go Ahead: Newsletter of the Direct Descendants and Kin of David Crockett
23, no. 2 (December 2006), 2–4.

23
Ibid., 3.

TWELVE • FINLEY’S GAP

1
Crockett,
Narrative
, 67.

2
Ibid.

3
Swann, “Early Life & Times.” Swann, whose own family settled in the area early on, states that an Indian trader named Isaac Thomas guided several of the men from the expedition who later settled on lands they had traversed. Swann believes it is possible that John Crockett was among the soldiers who followed the route down Long Creek to its source on the south side of Bays Mountain and over the mountain near Finley’s Gap to the Dumplin Creek valley, which followed on to the southwest.

4
Muncy,
People and Places of Jefferson County
, 183.

5
Ibid., 200.

6
J. L. Caton, “Davy Crockett and Polly Finley in Jefferson County,” March 1, 1958, transcription of unpublished memoir of George Cox, Crockett File, Jefferson County Historical Archives, Jefferson County Courthouse, Dandridge, TN.

7
Ibid.

8
Crockett,
Narrative
, 68.

9
Joseph A. Swann, “The History of David Crockett’s First Rifle,” unpublished paper.

10
Swann, “Early Life & Times.”

11
Crockett,
Narrative
, 68.

12
Written account of John L. Jacobs, Cullasaja, Macon County, NC, November 22, 1884, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville.

13
Hugh Talmadge Lefler, ed.,
A New Voyage to Carolina by John Lawson
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1967), 116. Originally published in London in 1709, Lawson’s journal was the first popular American travel book, an international best seller, and an important source document for colonial natural history. The origin of the bearskin as ceremonial headwear dates to the early 1700s, when several British regiments adopted sixteen-inch-high bearskin hats.

14
Arnow,
Seedtime
, 398.

15
Ibid.

16
Ibid.

17
Information obtained by Joseph Swann gleaned from the Quarles Family files of Reverend Reuell Prichett, former Jefferson County (TN) historian.

18
Crockett,
Narrative
, 68.

19
Joseph A. Swann, Transcript Copies of Circuit Court File 1808–1835, Jefferson County Archives, Jefferson County Courthouse, Dandridge, TN.

20
Heritage Jefferson County
(Dandridge: The Bicentennial Committee of Jefferson County, TN, 1976), 4.

21
Ibid., 4–5.

22
Swann, Transcript Copies. Only a few years later, Trimble would allow a young Sam Houston—future political hero of Tennessee and Texas—to spend six months reading for the law in Trimble’s office before Houston established his own law office in Lebanon, TN.

23
Ibid.

24
Ibid.

THIRTEEN • KENTUCK

1
Written account of John L. Jacobs.

2
Ibid.

3
Ibid.

4
Crockett,
Narrative
, 68. Lincoln County was created in 1808 and named after Revolutionary War hero General Benjamin Lincoln. In 1806, the Cherokees and Chickasaws ceded the land comprising the new county to the United States, and settlers began arriving immediately to get their share of the fertile soil.

5
From
Surveyors Entry Book C, Surveyors District II
, Entry No. 3944, 414, Tennessee State Archives. “Surveyed. David Crockett…enters 5 acres of land in Lincoln County and on the head waters of the East fork of Mulberry Creek a North Branch of the Elk River. Beginning at a Beech marked D.C. Standing about 60 or 70 yards north eastwardly.”

6
Crockett,
Narrative
, 69.

7
The Gowen Papers, Gowen Research Foundation, Lubbock, TX, http://freepages.geneaology.roots.web.com/-gowenrf.

8
Ibid.

9
John S. C. Abbott,
David Crockett: His Life and Adventures
(New York: Dodd & Mead, 1875), 86.

10
Ibid.

11
Crockett,
Narrative
, 69.

12
William C. Davis,
Three Roads to the Alamo
(New York: HarperCollins, 1998), 25.

13
Jones,
In the Footsteps of Davy Crockett
, 42.

14
Ibid.

15
Gert Petersen,
David Crockett, The Volunteer Rifleman: An Account of His Life, while a Resident of Franklin County, 1812–1817
(Winchester, TN: Franklin County Historical Society, 2007), 11–13. Archard Hatchett (1782–1852) and his son, James L. Hatchett (1838–1904), were laid to rest in the Hatchett Cemetery on the family farm, according to the Cemetery Records of Franklin County, Tennessee, as compiled by the Franklin County Historical Society, Winchester, TN.

16
Ramsey,
Annals of Tennessee
, 94.

17
Russell Family Files, Kraus-Everette Genealogy,
www.larkcom.us/ancestry/main/
.

18
Bean Family Files, Kraus-Everette Genealogy,
www.larkcom.us/ancestry/main/
.

19
Ibid.

20
Robert V. Remini,
Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, 1767–1821
(New York: Harper & Row, 1977), 115.

21
Ibid.

22
Ibid.

23
Franklin County, TN, Files, Tennessee Historical Commission; Tennessee Historical Society, Nashville, TN; Franklin County Historical Society, Winchester, TN.

24
Bean Family Files, Kraus-Everette Genealogy.

FOURTEEN • “REMEMBER FORT MIMS”

1
John S. Bowman, general ed.,
The World Almanac of the American West
(New York: World Almanac/Pharos Books, 1986), 88. President Madison proclaimed a state of war between the United States and Britain on June 19, 1812. He had received the support of the House of Representatives (79–49) on June 4 and of the Senate (19–13) on June 18. Madison and Congress were unaware that on June 16 the British agreed to suspend orders authorizing British ships stopping American vessels.

2
Paul S. Boyer, ed.,
The Oxford Companion to United States History
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 814.

3
Ibid.

4
Tom Kanon, “Brief History of Tennessee in the War of 1812” (Nashville: Tennessee State Library and Archives, 2008), www.tennessee.gov/tsla/history/military/tn1812.h.

5
Crockett,
Narrative
, 71.

6
Finger,
Tennessee Frontiers
, 232.

7
Remini,
Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire
, 188.

8
Ibid.

9
Ibid.

10
David Stewart and Ray Knox,
The Earthquake That Never Went Away
(Marble Hill, MO: Gutenberg-Richter Publications, 1993), 17.

11
Ibid., 21. The largest quake occurred on February 7, 1812. It is considered to be one of the largest quakes not only in the United States but in the world. This is the quake that caused the Mississippi to run backward. The retrograde motion of the river lasted only a few hours, but the resulting waterfalls remained for two or three days.

12
Norma Hayes Bagnall,
On Shaky Ground: The New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811–1812
(Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1996), 41, 49, 50.