To begin the rest of the story, some of the myths surrounding David Crockett should be set straight. He really never wore a “coonskin cap”. That was likely the imagination of Walt Disney and the well loved “King of the Wild Frontier” shows.
He was never known as “Davy Crockett”, but was always called David Crockett, or Col. David Crockett. “Davy” just sounds better in the TV show theme song.
Although a prolific bear hunter and excellent marksman, he did not kill a bear when he was 3 years old!
David Crockett did indeed die at the Alamo. There has been some historical research to the contrary, and historians still enjoy debating his death. Stories exist that he surrendered or was captured alive and taken to Mexico where he was executed. The weight of historical evidence, however, indicates this was not feasible and he died along with the mass of others at the battle of the Alamo.
It seems that Elizabeth Patton’s family might have been correct in opposing her marriage to Crockett. This quote from the OLD BUNCOMBE COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY describes their life after moving back to Tennessee: “Elizabeth did not find David Crockett to be a steady husband/farmer who stayed at home to till the land and care for his family and stock. Instead, it was mostly left to Elizabeth to run the home and garden and raise their three children as best she could while David made a precarious living as a hunter, and taking frequent long trips as a guide and trailblazer, helping other people travel or locate places to settle.”
After eventually losing his three term U.S. Representative seat in an election, Crockett is credited with this infamous line: “Since you have chosen to elect a man with a timber toe to succeed me, you may all go to hell and I will go to Texas.”
Leaving the family behind, Crockett did move to Texas, the outcome of which ended at the Alamo.
Many years later, Elizabeth was rewarded for her late husband’s services to the state of Texas with a payment in the amount of $24. Along with that paltry sum, the 65 year old widow was granted 1,280 acres of land roamed and ruled by Comanches.
When the Mrs. Crockett was finally able to follow in David’s footsteps and move to Texas to claim her land she did end up with 640 acres. By then her children were grown and only two went to Texas with her. Her son build a log cabin in which she lived for the final six years of her life, dying at age 72.
David Crockett was a three term Representative in the U. S. Congress from Tennessee.
This was actually the second marriage for both David and Elizabeth. His first wife Polly had died after their third child was born, leaving him with three young children. Elizabeth’s husband had died in warfare and she also had three children of similar age. David and Elizabeth Patton Crockett then had three children of their own.
