In Texas with Davy Crockett

by John T. McIntyre

At the age of eight years David was engaged by a drover to help take care of his cattle. But after two weeks on the road he ran away, joined a wagon train and returned home.

Soon after this young Davy got into a scrape at school. He had a fight with a boy much larger and older than himself and thrashed him; then, fearing what the schoolmaster would say, he played truant. When Davy’s father heard of this he sought out his son. But the boy eluded him. And so we find him in the situation of fearing to go to school and also fearing to go home. So he ran away, engaged with another drover and traveled into Virginia.

The boy drifted about the country for a time, working for drovers and wagoners; once at Baltimore he was upon the point of going to sea, but the teamster with whom he was then engaged refused to allow him to go.

After suffering a great deal of bad usage, he made up his mind to go back home to Tennessee. To escape a whipping at the hands of his father he had endured hardships that were worse than a thousand whippings. He dreaded what they’d say to him and more than once hesitated on the journey home. But he was welcomed with open arms.

Now came the time for Davy to show the stuff he was made of; his father was in debt, and the boy, now large and strong and fifteen years of age, set to work to pay this off. It was accomplished in a year’s time, and by hard, steady toil, such as none of the family had ever dreamed him capable of.

The boy up to this time had little or no education; and so he set about getting one. In six months he had learned to read and write and do sums in arithmetic; this was all the schooling he ever had.

And through all this time the woods offered the young man a fair chance to gratify his love for wandering and hunting. Little by little his skill grew, and before many years he was considered the most deadly marksman in all Tennessee.

While still very young, Crockett married an Irish girl, Polly Finlay; and they began their housekeeping in a log cabin. Attracted by the hunting grounds and an opportunity to better his condition in life, he, his wife, and two boys later crossed the mountains with their household goods into Lincoln County and settled on Elk River.

Here in this paradise of the hunter Crockett’s skill grew and grew. There were many mighty hunters in that day, but not one whose celebrity approached that of Crockett.

But then the second war with England came on; Tecumseh rallied the Indian tribes against the white settlers who had begun to occupy their hunting grounds.