David Crockett: The Lion of the West

by Michael Wallis

  DAVID CROCKETT

  OTHER BOOKS BY MICHAEL WALLIS

  Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride

  Oil Man: The Story of Frank Phillips and the Birth of Phillips Petroleum

  Route 66: The Mother Road

  Pretty Boy: The Life and Times of Charles Arthur Floyd

  Way Down Yonder in the Indian Nation: Writings from America’s Heartland

  Mankiller: A Chief and Her People

  En Divina Luz: The Penitente Moradas of New Mexico

  Beyond the Hills: The Journey of Waite Phillips

  Songdog Diary: 66 Stories from the Road (with Suzanne Fitzgerald Wallis)

  Oklahoma Crossroads

  The Real Wild West: The 101 Ranch and the Creation of the American West

  Heaven’s Window: A Journey through Northern New Mexico

  Hogs on 66: Best Feed and Hangouts for Roadtrips on Route 66 (with Marian Clark)

  The Art of Cars (with Suzanne Fitzgerald Wallis)

  The Lincoln Highway: Coast to Coast from Times Square to the Golden Gate (with Michael S. Williamson)

  Frontispiece: Portrait of David Crockett painted by John Gadsby Chapman, Washington, D.C., 1834. (Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin)

  Copyright © 2011 by Michael Wallis

  All rights reserved

  For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book,

  write to Permissions, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.,

  500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Wallis, Michael, 1945–

  David Crockett: the Lion of the West / Michael Wallis.—1st ed.

  p. cm.

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  ISBN: 978-0-393-06758-3

  1. Crockett, Davy, 1786–1836. 2. Pioneers—Tennessee—Biography.

  3. Legislators—United States—Biography. 4. United States. Congress. House—Biography.

  5. Alamo (San Antonio, Tex.)—Siege, 1836. I. Title.

  F436.C95W35 2011

  976.8'04092—dc22

  [B]

  2011000216

  W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

  500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110

  www.wwnorton.com

  W. W. Norton & Company Ltd.

  Castle House, 75/76 Wells Street, London W1T 3QT

  FOR SUZANNE FITZGERALD WALLIS FOR NEVER LOSING FAITH IN ME

  AND

  JOE SWANN, A TRUE SON OF TENNESSEE

  CONTENTS

  Personal Introduction

  Preface

  PART I

  1. “Kilt Him a B’ar”

  2. Born on a Riverbank in Franklin

  3. The Crocketts Arrive

  4. Over the Mountain

  5. On the Nolichucky

  6. A Boy’s Learning

  7. Coming of Age

  8. The Odyssey

  9. Rise Above

  10. Lovesick

  11. Polly

  12. Finley’s Gap

  PART II

  13. Kentuck

  14. “Remember Fort Mims”

  15. “We Shot Them Like Dogs”

  16. Riding with Sharp Knife

  17. “Root Hog or Die”

  18. Cabin Fever

  19. A Tincture of Luck

  PART III

  20. “Itchy Footed”

  21. “Natural Born Sense”

  22. Gentleman from the Cane

  23. Land of the Shakes

  24. In the Eye of a “Harricane”

  25. A Fool for Luck

  26. Big Time

  27. “The Victory Is Ours”

  PART IV

  28. Man without a Party

  29. Trails of Tears

  30. Lion of the West

  31. Bear-Bit Lion

  32. Go Ahead

  33. Just a Matter of Time

  34. Gone to Texas

  35. Time of the Comet

  36. El Alamo

  Acknowledgments

  Notes

  Bibliography

  Index

  About the Author

  Map of Tennessee when it was part of North Carolina, 1795. (Courtesy of Birmingham Public Library Cartographic Collection)

  Tennessee’s first governor John Sevier (1745–1815), portrait circa 1790. (Courtesy of the C. M. McClung Historical Collection of the Knox County Public Library)

  Tsi’yu-gunsini (“Dragging Canoe”), Cherokee war chief. (Mike Smith, artist)

  Nine hundred “Overmountain men” from Virginia and Tennessee assemble at Sycamore Shoals for the King’s Mountain campaign, September 1780. The Overmountain Men by Lloyd Branson. (Courtesy of the Tennessee State Museum, Nashville)

  Battle of King’s Mountain, October 7, 1780 by Alonzo Chappel. (Courtesy of the C. M. McClung Historical Collection of the Knox County Public Library)

  Treaty of the Holston, July 2, 1791. (Courtesy of the C. M. McClung Historical Collection of the Knox County Public Library)

  Replica of David Crockett’s 1786 birthplace by the Nolichucky River. (Photograph by Michael Wallis)

  The Crockett Tavern Museum, Morristown, Tennessee. (Photograph by Michael Wallis)

  David Crockett’s first rifle. (Joseph A. Swann Collection)

  Marriage bond, David Crockett and Polly Finley, August 12, 1806. (Recorded in the office of the County Court Clerk of Jefferson County, Tennessee)

  Long Creek map, Jefferson County, Tennessee. (Courtesy of Robert Jarnagin)

  Crockett’s summons to appear as a witness on behalf of his brother-in-law James Finley, Jefferson County, Tennessee, 1811. (Jefferson County, Tennessee, Archives, Lu Hinchey, director)

  Anonymous portrait of Jean Laffite, pirate, ally of Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans, and slave smuggler. (Courtesy of the Rosenberg Library, Galveston, Texas)

  Early portrait of Sam Houston. (San Jacinto Museum, Houston, Texas)

  Major General Andrew “Old Hickory” Jackson. (Major General Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, 1829–1837, painted by Thomas Sully [1783–1872]; James Burton Longacre [1794–1869], engraver; engraving published by Wm. H. Morgan, Philadelphia, circa 1820; Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)

  Hand-colored lithograph of Creek Chief McIntosh, circa 1836, printed and colored by J. T. Bowen and published originally by D. Rice and A. N. Hart, Philadelphia. (On loan from Oklahoma State Senate Historical Preservation Fund, Inc.)

  Burial site of Polly Crockett, first wife of David Crockett, near Rattlesnake Branch, Franklin County, Tennessee. (Joseph A. Swann Collection)

  Map of Tennessee, 1822. (Courtesy of Birmingham Public Library Cartographic Collection)

  David Crockett delivers a stump speech during his congressional campaign. (From an 1869 edition of the autobiography A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee by David Crockett, published by John E. Potter and Company, Philadelphia)

  Replica of Crockett’s last home in Rutherford, Tennessee. (Photograph by Michael Wallis, Michael Wallis Collection)

  Final resting place of Crockett’s mother, Rebecca, in Rutherford County, Tennessee. (Photograph by Michael Wallis, Michael Wallis Collection)

  Reelfoot Lake, formed during the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811–12. (Photograph by Michael Wallis, Michael Wallis Collection)

  Obion River, Gibson County, Tennessee. (Photograph by Michael Wallis, Michael Wallis Collection)

  The Trail of Tears, painting by Robert Lindneux, 1942. (Courtesy of Woolaroc Museum, Bartlesville, Oklahoma)

  Sam Houston, a Crockett associate and the first president of the Repub
lic of Texas. (Prints and Photographs Collection, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin)

  Portrait of Crockett on stone by Samuel Stillman Osgood, circa 1834. (Photograph by Dorothy Sloan, Dorothy Sloan Rare Books)

  Congressional credentials issued to David Crockett. (National Archives and Records Administration)

  Page 576 of a 1774 edition of Ovid’s Metamorphoses with Crockett’s 1832 signature. (Special Collections Library, University of Tennessee, Knoxville)

  Engraving by artist Asher B. Durand based on an 1834 watercolor portrait of Crockett on paper, painted by Anthony Lewis De Rose. (Print Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundation)

  Lithograph depicting President Jackson seated on a collapsing chair, with the “Altar of Reform” toppling next to him, 1831. The scurrying rats are (left to right): Secretary of War John H. Eaton, Secretary of the Navy John Branch, Secretary of State Martin Van Buren, and Secretary of the Treasury Samuel D. Ingham. (Lithograph by Edward W. Clay)

  U.S. President James Knox Polk, a fellow Tennesseean and political adversary of Crockett. Daguerrotype by Mathew B. Brady, February 14, 1849. (Mathew B. Brady, photographer)

  Map of the Mexican state of Texas, 1835, compiled by Stephen F. Austin. (James P. Bryant Collection, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin)

  William Barret Travis, the ambitious and quick-tempered Alamo commander. (Courtesy of Texas State Library and Archives Commission)

  The site of David Crockett’s death on March 6, 1836. (Michael Wallis Collection)

  The only known oil-painting portrait of the notorious James Bowie, painted from life, circa 1820. Frontiersman, land speculator, and slave trader, Bowie died at the Alamo on March 6, 1836. (Alleged portrait of Bowie attributed to various artists, including William Edward West [1788–1857])

  Mexican military map of San Antonio de Bexar and the Alamo fortifications, compiled by Colonel Ygnacio de Labastida, March 1836. (Map Collection, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin)

  This rare image—an 1849 daguerrotype of the Alamo chapel by an unknown photographer—is the earliest known extant photograph taken in Texas. It is also the only known photograph of the Alamo taken before it was repaired and rebuilt by the U.S. Army in 1850. (Dolph and Janey Briscoe Collection, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin)

  Equestrian portrait of Antonio López de Santa Anna, president of Mexico, general in chief of the Army of Operations, and commander of Mexican forces at the siege of the Alamo. (Prints and Photographs Collection, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin)

  This fanciful wood engraving from 1836 is thought to be the first published illustration of Crockett’s death at the Alamo. It appeared in Davy Crockett’s Almanac of Wild Sports in the West. (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin)

  The Personal Narrative of Lt. Col. José de la Peña, which includes his detailed description of Crockett’s execution immediately following the fall of the Alamo. (José de la Peña Papers, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin)

  James Kirke Paulding, author of the 1831 play The Lion of the West, which featured a frontier character named Nimrod Wildfire who was loosely based on David Crockett. Paulding also served as secretary of the navy from 1838 to 1841. (Naval History and Heritage Command)

  Carte de visite of Frank Mayo in the title role of Davy Crockett; or, Be Sure You’re Right, Then Go Ahead by Frank Murdoch, 1872. Mayo, who coauthored the play, starred in the drama from 1872 until his death in 1896. (Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations)

  This famous clipper ship, named for Crockett, was constructed on the Mystic River in Connecticut and launched in 1853. A profitable ship for forty years, it sailed primarily from New York to San Francisco and New York to Liverpool. (Courtesy of G. W. Blunt White Library at Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, Connecticut)

  “Col. Crockett’s Desperate Fight with the Great Bear,” Almanac illustration, 1835. (Photograph by Dorothy Sloan, Dorothy Sloan Rare Books)

  Almanac cover, 1836. (Photograph by Dorothy Sloan, Dorothy Sloan Rare Books)

  Almanac cover, 1836. (Photograph by Dorothy Sloan, Dorothy Sloan Rare Books)

  Almanac illustration, 1836. (Photograph by Dorothy Sloan, Dorothy Sloan Rare Books)

  Almanac cover, 1838. (Photograph by Dorothy Sloan, Dorothy Sloan Rare Books)

  Almanac cover, 1839. (Photograph by Dorothy Sloan, Dorothy Sloan Rare Books)

  Almanac cover, 1841. (Photograph by Dorothy Sloan, Dorothy Sloan Rare Books)

  Almanac cover, 1846. (Photograph by Dorothy Sloan, Dorothy Sloan Rare Books)

  Almanac illustration. (Photograph by Dorothy Sloan, Dorothy Sloan Rare Books)

  Almanac illustration. (Photograph by Dorothy Sloan, Dorothy Sloan Rare Books)

  Almanac illustration with text. (Photograph by Dorothy Sloan, Dorothy Sloan Rare Books)

  PERSONAL INTRODUCTION

  IT’S HARD FOR ANYONE BORN, say, after 1958 to recall the “Davy Crockett” frenzy that swept America in the 1950s. So profound was the cultural inundation that no baby boomer can fail to recall this charismatic American hero’s name. Such recognition, to my way of thinking, is a good thing, but the veritable flood of misinformation about Crockett’s life that resulted—which I became aware of only later in life, and which in part has motivated me to write this book—created a mythology that continues to this day.

  My first exposure to this inimitable American icon came, and I can vividly recall the date, on the frosty night of December 15, 1954, in my hometown of St. Louis. The ABC television network had just aired Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter, the first of three episodes produced by Walt Disney for his studio’s then new series, which had premiered two months earlier. Called simply Disneyland during its first four years, this anthology series, under a variety of other names, including, most commonly, The Wonderful World of Disney, was to become one of the longest-running prime-time programs on American television.

  I was just nine years old that December evening, but I could have predicted the show’s success. I was hooked moments after hearing the theme music, “When You Wish upon a Star,” sung by cartoon insect Jiminy Cricket from the soundtrack of the movie Pinocchio. Longtime Disney announcer Dick Wesson introduced host Walt Disney and, with some visual assistance from a flittering Tinkerbell, Uncle Walt unleashed the legendary frontier character Davy Crockett from the twelve-inch screen of our 1950 table model RCA Victor television set into our living room, as if from a runaway train.

  I was a goner. Within only minutes the larger-than-life Crockett, clad in buckskin and wearing a coonskin cap, had won me over. My fickle nine-year-old heart pounded. The previous summer, at two separate events in a department store parking lot, I had shaken the hand of Hopalong Cassidy and the Cisco Kid, but now they were instantly demoted to lesser status on my list of heroes. Even Stan Musial—“swinging Stan the Man,” the legendary St. Louis Cardinal All-Star slugger, whose name was etched in granite at the top of that list—was in jeopardy of being topped.