The "King Of The Wild Frontier!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Clicked on my desktop icon marked "Stories" which hold a myriad of Pages links to items I at one time thought interesting enough to save for a later story for my blog.  One such Pages folder was marked "davy crockett" so I clicked on it and "viola", there were several photos of Davy Crockett and a rather interesting story from the Lancaster Republic Herald and Examiner.  

Davy Crockett

Davy Crockett was one of my favorite TV heroes who was played by Fess Parker, a 6'6" hunk of a man who wore a coonskin cap and a leather jacket with fringes.  My wife actually has a jacket much like the one that Davy wore on TV.  She wore it when she was riding her horse "Blackie."  Well, Fess launched a nationwide craze of coonskin caps and toy rifles in the mid-1950s with his portrayal of the rugged frontiersman Davy Crockett.  I was one of those kids who just had to have one of those caps for when my neighborhood friends came to play.  As far as David "Davy" Crockett goes, he emerged from the wilds of Tennessee to become one of the United States' first living heroes.  

Fess Parker who played Davy Crockett.

Though he was best known for dying in 1836 at the Alamo in Texas, he was also a writer, hunter and U.S. congressman whose reputation as an adventurer made him a legend in his own time.  He was born on August 17, 1786 in what is now eastern Tennessee, but at the time was known as the state of Franklin which was a breakaway territory that had declared its independence from North Carolina.  When Davy was 13, his father arranged for him to attend school, but after four days and a confrontation with a classmate for which his father threatened to beat him, he ran away from home, eventually working as a cattle driver, farmhand and hat maker's apprentice.  He eventually returned home, but in 1813 joined the state militia as a scout to fight against the "Red Sticks", a fraction of Creek Indians who had attacked American settlers.  

An etching showing Davy as a bear hunter.

He next became a professional hunter stalking black bears for their pelts in the woods of Tennessee.  He also tried his hand at politics serving in the Tennessee legislature and then the U.S. House of Representatives.  He gained fame for his folksy persona and advocacy for the poor, but also gained some enemies for his criticism of President Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act which led to his final defeat in 1835 though he did help foil Jackson's assassination attempt when a crazed gunman emerged from a crowd of spectators near the East Portico and was wrestled to the ground and disarmed by Crockett.  After he was defeated in 1835 he drifted west, eventually arriving in Texas where he swore an oath to the Republic of Texas and agreed to take up arms against Mexico.  

An etching showing Davy saving Andrew Jackson during
an assassination attempt in 1835.

Now, at the age of 49, he found his way to San Antonio and arrived at the former mission known as the Alamo where General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's Mexican forces laid siege just a few days later and breached its outer walls on March 6, 1836.  In the ensuing battle Davy Crockett and some 200 other defenders were all killed.  There is more to Davy's story, such as having two wives and six children which I'm not sure what happened to them.  

Davy had a U.S. Postage stamp designed for him.

I searched YouTube for the Ballad of Davy Crockett and was surprised that I remembered the first verse of the song.  You will find a link to it at the end of my story.  And I have also added the story featured in my local newspaper almost 200 years ago.  And, for those who still might have their coonskin hats and would like a matching leather jacket with fringes, leave me a comment with your contact information and I'll be in touch with you.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

Story in Lancaster newspaper.  Click to enlarge.