The Crockett No One Speaks Of

Davey's Ne'r Do Well Brother Nathan

The history of Tennessee is filled with its villains and heroes, and depending where you live and how you vote, your villain might be another’s hero.  Such is history everywhere.

But there are few who disagree that the story, the myth of Davey Crockett, has a universal appeal.  Hollywood cemented that appeal in the late 1950’s and early 60’s when John Wayne played the frontiersman on the silver screen, and Fess Parker/Walt Disney turned coonskin caps into a must for any child.

There have been other movies about The Alamo, including the most recent, starring Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Quaid in 2004.  They all contributed to the myth of David Crockett:  frontiersman, politician, martyr to the cause of Texas.

Remember The Alamo!

What we DO know about Davey Crockett?  He was born in Limestone, in what is now Greene county Tennessee, in the Appalachian mountain country between Johnson City and Knoxville.

After marrying, he lived in Lincoln and Franklin counties before moving to Lawrence County, where he held various political offices.

His first wife, Mary “Polly” Finley, is buried in Cowan, a small village 20 miles south of Tullahoma.

After losing his congressional seat to a peg-legged politician backed by Tennessee’s governor and U.S. President Andrew Jackson, Crockett famously declared:

“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.”

And so he did.  Three months later, he died in the 90 minute Battle of The Alamo.  The victorious Mexican army under General Santa Anna gathered all survivors, executed them, and burned their bodies. 

Later what was left of the ashes were gathered and buried in a coffin.  The exact location of the coffin is unknown today.

Davey was one of seven children born to John and Rebecca (Hawkins) Crockett.  His siblings:

Nathan Crockett (1778 – 1839)

William Crockett (1782 – 1858)

Aaron Crockett (1782 – 1835)

James Patterson Crockett (1784 – 1834)

John Crockett Jr. (1787 – 1841)

Rebecca Jane Crockett (1796 – 1880)

Our story focuses on his little known eldest brother, Nathan.  He was the black sheep of the Crocketts, and we are only now learning why he was so loathed by his siblings, indeed even by his father, to his dying day.

Nathan Crockett’s father never prospered as a farmer – it’s one of the reasons he moved his family so many times.  But the truth is, scandal also kept the Crockett family from setting down roots of any kind.

Even as a pre-teen, Nathan picked up a bad reputation in Limestone as Crockett The Pickpocket.  If an especially controversial trial at the county courthouse fetched audiences from the hinter regions, Nathan Crockett could be found circulating through the audience, which soon found their silver coins disappearing from pockets and purses.

Unsuspecting country rubes were Crockett’s specialty.  If a religious tent revival came to Limestone, Nathan made himself useful, ingratiating himself with the traveling preacher, helping him organize and distribute fliers.

By the third revival of the summer, in Nathan Crockett’s thirteenth year, the Greene County sheriff was on the lookout, catching young Crockett red-handed with the parson’s hat after it was passed around the congregation.  It was only because of a solemn promise by John Crockett that the family would leave immediately that young Nathan escaped the hangman’s noose.

The next town to be subjected to Nathan’s criminal machinations was McMinnville, where Nathan solemnly assured his parents he was on the straight and narrow path.

But by the time he had turned 15, Nathan’s felonious behavior had the entire family making an abrupt midnight escape as the eldest son was seen exiting the bedroom window of the mayor’s home.  The mayor was away; his much younger wife wasn’t.

The next to last siting of young Nathan Crocket was a day’s ride south and west of McMinnville, in the crossroads of a young Tullahoma.  The town constable recorded his initial impressions of the hooligan:

“This young Crockett will do well in life, I think.  He’s fair of hair, with piercing yet dancing eyes that invite your confidence.  In the brief three months of his residence, his demeanor has been pleasing to his elders, and not a few of the fairer sex now find themselves drawn to his entertaining stories and handsome features.  His very being speaks honesty and fairness.  His future in land speculation is all but assured.”

Young Crockett could lay it on with a shovel, but he was poor at his ciphers.  The fifth piece of land he (allegedly) purchased, and then sold was to the constable’s brother.  Before it could be determined that the land description of the property sold to the constable’s brother was for the land on which the constable himself lived, Nathan Crockett had disappeared.

To the family’s credit, they had disowned the malefactor months before.  And so life for the survivors settled into a routine of farming, each of the children striking out on their own.

Soon after, David Crocket settled in Cowan and married his first wife, Polly.

And nothing further was heard of Nathan…until 1850.

In 1838, the same General Santa Anna who won the Battle of the Alamo lost his left leg to cannon fire during a battle with French troops.

Then, a decade later, Santa Anna was defeated by the U.S. Army in the Mexican American War, paving the way for Texas to be annexed by the United States.  During one battle, troops of Illinois militia overran Santa Anna’s position.  The Mexican general was forced to flee, leaving behind his prosthetic leg.

For a time no one could account the whereabouts of the wooden leg.  Rumors included it being burned near the site of The Alamo.  Some said the militia that captured it took it back to Illinois.

But in 1850, an enterprising if elderly tinker peddling his wares outside Austin sold a wooden leg to a suspicious man outside the city’s most popular saloon. 

The man confiscated the leg and the loot when he peered inside the tinker’s wagon – only to see a stack of twenty other wooden legs.

So it was on that dusty summer day in 1850, that an angry crowd of drunken Texans, shocked at the fraud perpetrated on sacred history of their proud state, strung up and hung Nathan Crockett until he was dead.

Santa Anna’s real wooden leg now sits in the Illinois State Military Museum.  Officials from Texas have repeatedly demanded the leg’s return to the Lone Star State.  Illinois is having none of it, and vows the leg will remain in the Land of Lincoln

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