howeenterprise.com
Monday, September 28, 2015
Page #14
Davy Crockett and Texas federal land sales and treatment of Native American tribes. As a result, Jackson used all of his political will to destroy Crockett’s political career.
end, never surrendering. Reports Dallas, and Grand Prairie. This is from Mexican troops contended that in addition to the Crockett National he was captured, and while Santa Forest and Lake Davy Crockett, Anna’s troops, impressed with his both in East Texas. bravery, pled for Crockett’s life, the bitter and vainglorious general Many films, books, and television He lost the 1834 election to Adam ordered his execution anyway. shows have told and re-told his tale Huntsman, a Jackson ally. After Regardless, when Texas troops made often. Perhaps the most famous the bitter defeat, Crockett left for their stand in that desperate siege, was the Walt Disney depiction on Texas in 1835, seeking the Crockett stood with them. television that originally appeared promise of new lands and a fresh in 1954 and 1955, starring Fess Dr. Ken Bridges start. In the years after his death, Crockett Parker as Crockett in a coonskin Perhaps no figure is more a part of became a larger-than-life legend, cap. American children were Texas History and American As for Huntsman, Crockett’s adored by countless Americans. captivated by the wild frontiersman folklore than Davy Crockett. In eldest son, John Wesley Crockett, Numerous landmarks were named in image of Crockett, reportedly his life on the frontier and his defeated him for re-election in his honor. The town of Crockett was buying millions of coonskin caps to death, he has been a hero to 1836, avenging his father’s name founded near Houston in 1837. imitate Parker’s portrayal of the millions of Americans for once and for all. Crockett County in western “King of the Wild Frontier.” In generations. Tennessee, not far from Memphis, modern America, the legend has Crockett’s time in Texas was was named for him in 1871 (with the become almost inseparable from David Crockett was born in the short. Almost immediately upon county seat in the community of the man. mountains of eastern Tennessee in his arrival, he was swept up in the Alamo). Crockett County in West 1786. He was the fifth of nine excitement of the Texas Texas was named for him in 1891. Dr. Bridges is a Texas native, children in a farming family. By Revolution as Mexico was pulled Numerous schools have been named writer, and history professor. He the age of twelve, he was part of apart. He joined a volunteer unit after him, including in Austin, can be reached at cattle drives from Tennessee into heading to San Antonio to meet drkenbridges@gmail.com. Virginia. He had little formal the approaching forces under Gen. education and taught himself to Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. read, write, and add. He became Crockett reached the Alamo on known for his quick wit and February 8, 1836, and began storytelling. shoring up the old mission’s defenses. By February 23, the By 1816, Crockett and his new Mexican army arrived and the family settled in Lawrence siege began. The defenders held County, Tennessee, where out for two weeks against a Crockett farmed, hunted, and ran heavily armed force ten times their two mills and a distillery. He was size. Santa Anna seized the soon elected as county mission on March 6, and 182 commissioner and became a defenders perished. lieutenant colonel in the local militia unit. He was elected to the What happened to Crockett at the state legislature by 1821 and to fall of the Alamo has been a Congress by 1827. source of intense debate for many He had a bitter falling out with years. Some studies contended for Davy Crockett President Andrew Jackson over years that he fought to the bitter
