- He was born one of nine kids to a poor farmer and Continental Army veteran. His birthplace was in what is today eastern Tennessee, but at the time was officially North Carolina. Actually, his father and others claimed he was born in the independent republic of Franklin, which was the western part of North Carolina that was trying to secede and become a state.
- He ran away from home at age 13 because his father whipped him for beating up a bully who had been harassing him. He was away for over two years. He did some cattle driving and worked as a teamster, farmhand, and hat maker’s apprentice. (Speaking of which, there is no proof that he ever wore a coonskin cap.)
- In his early adulthood, he had the most success as a professional bear hunter. There is no evidence he killed a b’ar at age 3 (and he never claimed to), but he did claim to have killed 105 bears in a seven month period.
- His reputation as an Indian-fighter was exaggerated. He did fight in the Creek War and was present at the massacre of an Indian village. However, as a Congressman he fought against the Indian Removal Act.
- He was elected to three nonconsecutive terms in Congress. He accomplished nothing in Congress and was absent a lot. He was present when a deranged man tried to assassinate Andrew Jackson at the Capitol. The assassin’s pistols misfired and Crockett helped wrestle him to the ground. His friendship with Jackson did not last. He was defeated for reelection partly due to his opposition to Jackson’s Indian Removal Act. He was a bit of a poor loser, telling his constituents: “You can all go to Hell, I’m going to Texas.”
- By the time he arrived in Texas (leaving his family behind), he was a celebrity based on a play and a book. The play, “The Lion of the West”, was popular. It traveled the country in 1831. Everyone knew the main character Nimrod Wildfire was based on Crockett. He wrote his autobiography A Narrative of the Life of Davy Crockett of the State of Tennessee. It is hard to separate fact from fiction in the book. One of the tales was him killing a bear in the pitch dark with a butcher’s knife to the heart.
- He did not go to Texas to join the rebellion. But once he was there, he willingly joined in. What else could a hero do? The Hollywood version of him dying fighting in the Alamo was probably not accurate. Most likely, he was one of the few Americans who were captured, brought before Santa Anna, and then executed.
https://time.com/4450210/davy-crockett-ballad-factchecking/
https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-davy-crockett
https://www.npr.org/2013/03/02/172956653/born-on-a-mountaintop-or-not-davy-crocketts-legend-lives-on
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