This is the true story of the folk hero Davy Crockett
Davy was born in Tennessee (Not to sure if it was on a mountain top) on August 17th. 1786. He once told his dad he would like to hunt with a rifle, but daddy told him he couldn’t afford the rifle shot as Davy would properly miss and waste his money.
So the chance of him “killing a bear when he was only three” was maybe a myth? What do you think? Davy Crockett was the man with three ears: a right ear, a left ear, and a wild frontier, or did I just read that somewhere?
Poor old Davy! His father would beat him for the slightest thing so when Davy began to skip school more and more he decided to run away from home to avoid the beating he knew he would get, when his father found out.
He spent the next three years going from town to town learning the skills of a hunter and a trapper, he returned home when he was 15
While he had been away Davy’s Dad had opened a tavern and Davy popped in to get a meal he sat there unannounced and watched his family move about working at their chores, until his oldest sister Betsy (Davy named his rifle after her) recognised him and cried out, look everyone it’s Davy, he’s come home.
Much to Davy surprise they come round him and hugged him and were very pleased to see him and more surprising his Dad was pleased to see his too.
But his Dad who was in debt, hired out Davy to a friend, to help clear his debt, good old Dad, he knew what he was doing.
Rifleman and a politician
Over time, Davy became an excellent rifleman and On September 24, 1813, Davy joined the Second Regiment of Tennessee Volunteer Mounted Riflemen.
He began to get involved into politics and in 1826 he was elected to the House of Representatives.
As a congressman, he supported the rights of squatters and the fought for their right to buy land in the west, he once said, “I bark at no man’s bid. I will never come and go, and fetch and carry, at the whistle of the great man in the White House no matter who he is”, he would often be critical of his Congressional colleagues, fighting an election in the east saying “I told the people of my district that I would serve them as faithfully as I had done; but if not … you may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas.
He was defeated and so off he went to Texas (Little rascal wasn’t he)
David Crockett died a hero at the battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836 (I wonder if he wore his hat made out of the fur of a raccoon)?
His name will always stand for the spirit of the American frontier, as an Indian fighter and a hunter of the old west.
