Conor Devine
For years, the name Davey Crockett has been synonymous with the frontier. He is recognized as the one of the greatest woodsmen, marksmen, and frontier heroes ever to live. Crockett has been immortalized in numerous written works, movies and television series, and historical studies. All of these have in some way added to the legend of Davey Crockett. Society’s image of Crockett is a direct result of how these works depict him. Perhaps the most common image evoked by his name is that created by the three-part Disney miniseries “Davey Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier.” Broadcast in 1955, it depicted Davey Crockett’s life and adventures with actor Fess Parker in the lead role. But is the image of Davey Crockett that has been created by this and other works true to the real person, or is it merely a romanticized version of a man whose real life was far less extraordinary?
As the well-known theme song of a Disney miniseries says, Davey Crockett was “born on a mountain top in Tennessee.” To this point, the song is true; Crockett was born to an Irish immigrant family in 1786 in Tennessee, where his father kept a tavern. However, here is where the absolute truth ends and artistic license picks up. Though most are able to tell that the following line “killed him a bear when he was only three” is an exaggeration, it still works to create an image of Davey Crockett as an amazing being. In fact, fictional accounts of Crockett’s life tend to stretch the truth about him so that he has become more of a hero than he would be if we looked strictly at his real life experiences. That is not to say that Crockett was not an extraordinary man, it is simply that his life has been so exaggerated and enlivened that the true person has been shrouded over a bit.
Crockett
ran away from home when he was about thirteen years old. For
a few years, he wandered the woods between Tennessee and
Baltimore, working odd jobs and relying on his hunting skills to
stay alive. He was a young boy who was able to survive by
himself for several years, and in this way he truly was
remarkable. During these three or so years, he became a
frontiersman; he came in contact with and learned the ways of the
Indians, and he perfected his tracking and hunting skills. As
one might imagine, he received very little formal education
except for about six months that he spent in school in an attempt
to win the heart of a young girl! Unsuccessful, he returned
to his free lifestyle. However, at the age of twenty, he
married Polly Finley and started a family of his own. For a
while, Crockett tried to earn a living by farming, but he soon
found himself to be inept at this profession. He was too
well suited for a life on the frontier to be able to settle down
and work diligently in one place for any extended period of time,
so he moved his family to the border of Tennessee and the
frontier. In 1813 and 1814, Crockett enlisted as a scout
under General Andrew Jackson in the Creek War.
These years of wandering and establishing himself in the world are the years during which he developed the reputation of having a wealth of knowledge in all matters concerning the wilderness. They also are the years that lend themselves most easily to the creation of a legend. According to stories about him, this is when he earned the name “King of the Wild Frontier.” It also seems that somewhere in this stretch of time he acquired his fabled rifle that he affectionately called “Old Betsy.” As most everyone knows, with her always at his side, he became the most accomplished marksman of the West. To many Americans, the mention of Dave and Old Betsy conjures up an image of a tall, rugged man donning a coonskin cap and tanned leather outfit. Then too, his trusty sidekick Georgie Russel is recalled as the somewhat comical but always faithful friend of lesser talents. Wild and amusing adventures have been created over the years to fill in this portion of his life that little is known about. In the Disney miniseries, he was pitted against the River King Mike Fink in a riverboat race in one episode, and Andrew Jackson himself in another. Crockett may have been an excellent marksman and frontiersman, but he has been catapulted to a position of stardom and supremacy by different embellished tales about him.
Soon
after the Creek War, Crockett began his career as a politician.
He started out as a local justice of peace and then eventually
worked his way up to a seat in Congress. He served three
fairly unremarkable terms in Congress between 1827 and 1835.
Insignificant as they were, these years helped to further his
reputation and make him a nationally known figure. He was
the source of considerable amusement for the more serious
politicians in Washington and a favorite of the people. Crockett
prided himself in being little educated, and often commented on
the fact. His only real contributions to Congress were his
exaggerated tales of his adventures in the wilderness and his
friendly, likeable personality. Ironically, this is one of
the times that his reputation as a man of the frontier grew the
most. He gained great public exposure, and his stories were
popular with the people of the nation.
Though
touched upon in accounts of his life, this section is rarely
embellished. In this case, he was the one responsible for
the creation of his image. In fact, he wrote, or at least
ghost-wrote, two autobiographical books; one focused on the
person and his life, while the other focused more on his colorful
rendition of adventurous anecdotes from his life. Some
bordered the far-fetched in content. In addition,
playwright James Kirke Paulding based his main character, Colonel
Nimrod Wildfire, from the play The Lion of the West on
Crockett. Wildfire lived though many wild exploits as well,
and because of its great popularity, it too added to
Crockett’s persona.
When
Crockett failed to be re-elected in the 1836, he decided to move
west. The small territory of Texas which was fighting for
its independence from Mexico caught his eye. In April of
1836, he arrived in Texas to help the warring Texans. He
and some of his Tennessee friends arrived just in time to fight
at the Alamo. The story of his participation at the Alamo
is one of his greatest legacies. His name alone is usually
the first to come to mind at the mention of the Alamo. Sadly,
this battle would steal from the United States from one of its
most colorful characters of all time. For the most part, it
is agreed upon that Davey Crockett was either killed in battle or
taken as a prisoner and shot directly afterward. He died a
noble death, whatever the manner, giving his life to a cause
close to this nation’s heart. It is this final
adventure of Crockett’s that incites the most emotion and
most vivid picture of him. Virtually all accounts of his
life leave one with the picture of Davey Crockett, the last man
standing, wearing his coonskin cap and wielding Old Betsy over
his head as Mexican bullets riddle him. He never gave up,
and fought to the very end. Whether this is true or not, no
one will ever really know, but one thing is for sure, Davey
Crockett was a hero.
Davey
Crockett was, in his own rite, an awe-inspiring man. His
life was interesting, and his experiences were broad, but had it
not been for a little stretching of the truth and dramatization,
he would not likely have earned such a revered spot in American
folklore as he has today. It is interesting how the
romanticized version of a man can be so much more captivating
that the real. In the case of Davey Crockett, the man
became a legend, and now, the legend has become the man. Old
Betsy, coonskin caps, and the Alamo are Davey Crockett.
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