2 Shackford, David Crockett: The Man and the Legend, 7.
3 Henderson and Claborn, Hamblen County, 85. A development of private residences was built on the 1,952-foot-high Crockett Ridge starting in the early 2000s.
4 Crockett, Narrative, 22.
5 June 14, 1797, Bent Creek Day Book, May 1796–June 5, 1800.
6 Crockett, Narrative, 22–23.
7 Wallace L. McKeehan, Sons of DeWeitt Colony Texas, 1997–2006, The Sylar Family, www.tamu.edu/ccbn/mckstorysylarframe.htm. His family surname means “ropemaker” in German. It was spelled a variety of ways in America, including Sylar, Seiler, Silor, and Siler, the spelling used by David’s new employer. In 1793, Siler married fourteen-year-old Jane Hartley, and they established themselves near the home of her father, Peter Hartley, in Rockbridge County, VA.
8 Ibid. The famed Natural Bridge formed an arch that was sacred to Indian tribes and one of the wonders of the new world for European visitors during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
9 Crockett, Narrative, 23.
10 Ibid., 23–24.
11 Ibid., 24.
12 Ibid., 24–25.
13 Ibid., 25–26.
14 Ibid., 29.
15 Ibid., 29–30.
16 Ibid., 30.
17 Ibid., 32.
18 Ann K. Blomquist, ed., Cheek’s Cross Roads, Tennessee Store Journal, 1802–1807 (Baltimore: Gateway Press, 2001), ix.
EIGHT • THE ODYSSEY
1 Swann, “Early Life & Times.”
2 Extracted from files of the Berkeley County Historical Society, Martinsburg, West Virginia.
3 Crockett, Narrative, 32.
4 Ibid., 33.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid., 34.
7 Ibid., 35.
8 Ibid. Perhaps the horses pulling the wagon did see a ghost, as Crockett humorously suggested. Elliott City, MD, formerly named Elliott’s Mill, has been called the most haunted small town in the state and one of the most haunted spots on the eastern seaboard.
9 Ibid., 36–37.
10 Ibid., 37.
11 Ibid., 38.
12 Ibid., 39.
13 Ibid., 39–40.
14 James Strefhan Johnson III, “The Evolution of an American Small Town,” master’s thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, June 2004, 18. A warrant was issued for Boone’s arrest, but by then he had moved on. To this day the document is intact at the courthouse.
15 Shackford, David Crockett: The Man and the Legend, 10.
16 Ibid.
17 Crockett, Narrative, 40.
18 Ibid., 40–41.
19 Ibid., 41.
20 Ibid., 42.
21 Ibid.
22 Ibid., 42–43.
NINE • RISE ABOVE
1 Swann, “Early Life & Times.”
2 Lareine Warden Clayton, Stories of Early Inns and Taverns of the East Tennessee Country (Nashville: National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Tennessee, 1995), 85. The costliest spirit at the time was wine, at ten cents for a half pint, the same price as a full dinner.
3 Crockett, Narrative, 45.
4 Ibid.
5 Swann, “Early Life & Times.”
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid.
8 John and Margaret Thornbrough Canaday Family, www.freepages.family.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mygerman. In later years, Lost Creek Meeting became a station on the Underground Railroad, helping runaway slaves find freedom.
9 Swann, “Early Life & Times.”
10 Ibid.
11 Crockett, Narrative, 46.
12 Ibid., 46–47.
13 Ibid., 47.
14 Swann, “Early Life & Times.”
15 Ibid.
16 Bent Creek Baptists Church Minutes, Saturday, February 4, 1803. The baptism took place on Samuel Riggs’s property.
TEN • LOVESICK
1 Crockett, Narrative, 47.
2 Swann, “Early Life & Times.”
3 Crockett, Narrative, 47–48.
4 Ibid., 48.
5 Ibid., 48–49.
6 Ibid., 49.
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 pa
per.
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.
13 Russell H. Caldwell, Reelfoot Lake Remembered (Union City, TN: Caldwell’s Office Outfitters, Inc., 2005), 24.
14 Lake County Tennessee Historical Society, History and Families, Lake County Tennessee, 1870–1992 (Paducah, KY: Turner Publishing, 1993), 14.
15 Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, 188.
16 Buddy Levy, American Legend: The Real-Life Adventures of David Crockett (New York: Berkley Books, 2005), 38–39.
17 Ibid.
18 Richard Boyd Hauck, Davy Crockett: A Handbook (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982), 19.
19 H. W. Brands, Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times (New York: Anchor Books, 2006), 192.
20 Ibid., 194.
21 Ibid., 195.
22 Ibid.
FIFTEEN • “WE SHOT THEM LIKE DOGS”
1 Crockett, Narrative, 73.
2 Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., general ed., The Almanac of American History (New York: Bramhall House, 1986), 197.
3 Crockett, Narrative, 71–72.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid., 73.
6 Petersen, David Crockett, The Volunteer Rifleman, 14.
7 Ibid.
8 From “Regimental Histories of Tennessee Military Units During the War of 1812,” prepared by Tom Kanon, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tennessee.
9 Family Histories: Franklin County Tennessee, 1807–1996 (Winchester, TN: Franklin County Historical Society, 1996), 14.
10 Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, 191.
11 Webb, Born Fighting, 188.
12 Brands, Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times, 188–90.
13 Ibid., 196.
14 Crockett, Narrative, 75.
15 Ibid.
16 Crockett, Narrative, 82.
17 James Parton, The Life of Andrew Jackson, in Three Volumes (New York: Mason Brothers, 1860), vol. 1, 427–29. The journalist James Parton wrote this book less than fifteen years after Andrew Jackson’s death. It is considered the first scholarly biography of the seventh president, although Parton said that even after years of study, instead of discovering the real Jackson, he found only an enigma.
18 Crockett, Narrative, 85–86.
19 Petersen, David Crockett, The Volunteer Rifleman, 18.
20 Ibid., 19.
SIXTEEN • RIDING WITH SHARP KNIFE
1 Petersen, David Crockett, The Volunteer Rifleman, 20.
2 House of Strother Newsletter, February 1991
, vol. 3, no. 1, 10.
3 Petersen, David Crockett, The Volunteer Rifleman, 20.
4 Benson John Lossing, The Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1868), 764.
5 Petersen, David Crockett, The Volunteer Rifleman, 20.
6 Crockett, Narrative, 92.
7 Ibid., 92–93.
8 Ibid., 93.
9 Andrew Burstein, The Passions of Andrew Jackson (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003), 93.
10 Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, 227, 383–84.
11 Petersen, David Crockett, The Volunteer Rifleman, 22.
12 Lossing, Pictorial Field-Book, 766. According to Lossing, Jackson shared in his soldier’s privations and also ate acorns to sustain life.
13 Crockett, Narrative, 93.
14 Shackford, David Crockett: The Man and the Legend, 27.
15 Brands, Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times, 212.
16 Petersen, David Crockett, The Volunteer Rifleman, 24.
SEVENTEEN • “ROOT HOG OR DIE”
1 A. J. Langguth, Union 1812: The Americans Who Fought the Second War of Independence (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006), 284.
2 Ibid., 284–85.
3 Ibid., 285.
4 Finger, Tennessee Frontiers, 234.
5 Ibid.
6 Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, 216–17.
7 Ibid., 217.
8 Petersen, David Crockett, The Volunteer Rifleman, 32.
9 Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of the American Empire, 219.
10 Ibid., 226.
11 Ibid., 231.
12 Finger, Tennessee Frontiers, 235.
13 Ibid.
14 Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, 21.
15 Ibid., 232–33.
16 Crockett, Narrative, 101.
17 Ibid.
18 Petersen, 33.
19 Ibid.
20 Crockett, Narrative, 102.
21 Ibid.
22 Ibid., 103.
23 Petersen, David Crockett, The Volunteer Rifleman, 35, 37.
24 Crockett, Narrative, 106.
25 Ibid., 107.
26 Ibid., 109–10.
27 Ibid., 115.
28 Several sources and dictionaries credit Crockett with having introduced this idiomatic expression in his published autobiography in 1834. It was used in many parts of the country well prior to that date.
29 Crockett, Narrative, 120.
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