WEBVTT - Ep. 114: David Crockett - The Early Years (Part 2) 0:00:05.640 --> 0:00:08.160 There was a real Crockett out there, not just the 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:11.840 one we saw on TV that my family had known 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:13.239 and been involved with. 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:17.200 On the last episode, we learned that David Crockett was 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:20.919 America's first celebrity and that his identity was founded on 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:23.920 being a bear hunter. We learned that there were four 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:28.520 Crocketts that America knew, the bear hunter, the soldier, the politician, 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:32.000 and the martyr at the Alamo. Today we'll dive into 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:35.000 what I believe was the most important part of his life, 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:39.200 his childhood. In early life, they didn't put this part 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:41.920 of his story on television and make cartoons of it 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:45.879 to put on lunchboxes, and this period led him to 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:48.920 being a soldier, which we're going to talk about. We'll 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:53.040 hear again from Cornell professor Robert Morgan, and meet the 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:56.960 man who's had one of Crockett's first guns in his 0:00:57.120 --> 0:01:01.720 family since eighteen oh three, to shoulder the gun they 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:06.040 call Betsy, And we might even hear from the greatest 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:11.440 of all time, Michael Jordan. The way forward is complex, 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:15.840 the truth is narrow and elusive, but Crockett's influence on 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:20.560 American culture is invaluable in learning why we are The 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:24.040 way we are. I doubt you're gonna want to miss 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:24.520 this one. 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:28.040 That was part of his charm if you had this background, 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:32.520 very different from most other leaders and the politicians, and 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:35.960 you could draw on that again like Lincoln who had 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:39.480 all these stories from the farm and from the wild 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:45.000 part of the country. 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:52.480 My name is Clay nukemb and this is the Bear 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:57.520 Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search 0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:01.840 for insight and unlikely places where we'll tell the story 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:05.440 of Americans who live their lives close to the land. 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:11.800 Presented by FHF gear, American made purpose built hunting and 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:15.360 fishing gear as designed to be as rugged as the 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:25.360 places we explore. I'm trying to get a grasp on 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:29.360 the amount of residual knowledge Americans have on David Crockett. 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:33.280 He's down in there, deep in almost all of us. 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:36.360 Nearly two hundred years after his death, Americans seem to 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:39.440 be born with some knowledge of him. I'm about to 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:44.400 ask some folks about him. Excuse me, Jellen Kay, asking 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:47.440 you guys a few things here. Absolutely, what do you 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:49.200 guys know about David Crockett? 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:53.000 Tell me everything you know Davy Crockett. The only thing 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:56.600 I know is he's a guy that was a woodsman, 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:00.959 and that's really all I know. Woods It's been a while, 0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:03.640 so you know much about David Crockett. I don't know that. 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:05.440 I know a whole lot. The thing that comes to 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:09.200 my mind is like when I when I think of 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:12.840 like American history, he's one of the like, to me, 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:17.120 one of the main frontiersmen that was back in the day. 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:23.160 Okay, so American frontiersman. Good, Thank you guys. Good woodsman 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:24.720 an American frontiersman. 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:25.760 Not bad. 0:03:27.040 --> 0:03:29.400 As soon as I stopped recording, this guy says he 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:32.960 remembers the Davy Crockett song, which was first recorded in 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:37.600 nineteen fifty four to accompany Disney's Crockett trilogy. The song 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:41.240 would become America's number one hit for thirteen weeks. I 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:45.360 click the recorder back on. So do you know that song? 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:46.720 Do you know the Davy Crockett song? 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:48.280 I remember hearing it. 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:49.000 Can you sing it? 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:50.360 Yeah, I'll sing the. 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:57.119 Part Davy Crockett king, Oh the while front tier day. 0:03:59.280 --> 0:03:59.800 Let's see. 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:03.240 I don't know all these words. I think I remember 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:05.720 the Kentucky Headhunters singing in or something. 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:12.400 Yeah, all right, wonder the Kentucky Headhunters. Yep. 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:18.200 The Kentucky Headhunters recorded the Ballad of Davy Crockett in 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:25.000 nineteen ninety one on a mountain green instead in the 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:28.160 Land of the Free Rain in the Woods. 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:33.320 Who Haven't Killing My mind? You one adream? 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:37.200 Their music video has the live band playing in front 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:44.080 of a dancing crowd, all wearing coonskin caps. Crockett of 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:48.520 the Wild rock Here they pan to the drummer. Behind 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:51.560 him is a window with the bear looking in. The 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:55.760 drummer abandons the set and chases after the bear with 0:04:55.839 --> 0:05:08.000 his fists. The crowd cheers on the drummer chasing the bear, 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:13.880 and then the man is attacked by children with bows 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:15.720 Crockett on. 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:17.000 The live run here. 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:23.000 This video taps into two of Crockett's four identities that 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:25.919 Robert Morgan spoke about. He was a bear hunter and 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:30.280 a soldier in the Creek War. It's unadvisable and unnecessary 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:32.920 for a man to speak ill of the Kentucky Headhunters. 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:36.479 But that's not my favorite recording of the Ballad of 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:40.200 Davy Crockett. I'm a big fan of the Fest Parker version. 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:44.479 Do you recall in the nineteen eighty five movie Back 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:47.520 to the Future, which is set in nineteen fifty five. 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:51.920 Marty McFly, played by Michael J. Fox, goes back in 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:55.599 time and walks into a diner. In Fest Parker's The 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:59.159 Ballad of Davy, Crockett is playing on the juke box. 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:03.479 Hey hid, could you do jump ship? 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:05.719 Which? 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:06.799 What the life preserver? 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:15.040 I just want to use the phone and it's. 0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:15.360 In the back. 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:21.320 The Crockett craze of the nineteen fifties hammered America hard, 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:24.520 and the frenzy created a new template for how TV 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:28.960 movies could be heavily merchandised. Everything in anything you could 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:32.920 imagine was branded with Crockett's name and his signature coonskin cap, 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:38.080 pocket knives, lunchboxes, postcards, books, and guitars. But this wasn't 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:42.200 the first commercialization of Crockett. In his lifetime, he was 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:47.080 heavily commercialized without his permission by multiple fake autobiographies. A 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:50.360 world famous Broadway play was made about him, which led 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:54.120 him to writing a real autobiography, which was a global bestseller. 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:58.120 Europe and the Americans in the East couldn't get enough. Crockett, 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:03.320 who had gained notoriety being America's first frontier populist, politician 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:09.320 and boldly opposing Andrew Jackson. Crockett's anecdotal stories about bear hunting, 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:12.800 squirrel hunting competitions, and being able to grin coons out 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:16.480 of the tree mesmerize people, giving them insight into this 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:21.239 uniquely American identity of the frontier, which I would say 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:26.080 is still alive today. We're now going to leave the 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:29.160 hype behind and look at the real Crockett, a real 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:33.320 American backwoodsman. I've got a friend of meat eater whose 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:38.080 name rhymes with Cleaves Stanella that has historically been dismissive 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:40.920 of Crockett, viewing him to be a vein man, not 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:44.080 worthy to stand as a peer to Bear Grease Hall 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:48.160 of Famer Daniel Boone. This is like trying to compare 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:52.760 Michael Jordan to any other player. Jordan is the goat 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:57.960 and Boone is the indisputable goat of the American Frontier. 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:00.440 Crockett is clearly the. 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:05.560 Lebron James of the American Frontier, which is major. Here 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:09.920 is Michael Jordan in this clip. A reporter asked him 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:14.400 about Lebron. I think Cleave could learn something here. 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:18.240 How do you personally view that legacy that he's built 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:20.720 and do you think that by the end he will 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:28.280 merit a place in that conversation of top three Ton. 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:31.280 James insert Crockett's names for Lebron Jordan Is Boon. 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:34.920 I just think that, you know, we're playing different Eras's. 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:37.760 He's an unbelievable player. He's one of the best players 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:40.599 in the world, if not the best player in the world. 0:08:41.200 --> 0:08:44.400 I know it's a natural tendency to compare Eras to Eras, 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:46.880 and you know it's going to continue to happen. I'm 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:49.840 a fan of his I love watching him play, you know. 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:52.040 I think he's made his mark, he will continue to 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:54.520 do so over a period of time. But when you 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:56.840 start the comparisons, I think it is what it is. 0:08:56.880 --> 0:08:58.760 You know, it's just a standard measurement, you know, And 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:01.319 I take it with the greens. He is a heck 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:02.800 of a basketball player, without a doubt. 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:08.480 I'd take any comparison of Boone and Crockett with the 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:12.839 grain of salt. Now we're going to continue our walk 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:17.360 through Crockett's life chronologically. We left off with him working 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:21.199 for an honest Dutchman named Canaday. We're trying to understand 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:23.600 where all this Crockett hype came from. 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:25.840 Here's Robert Morgan. 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:31.640 He was born where Limestone Creek runs into the Naulachucky. 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:34.080 River and seventeen eighty six. 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:38.240 And August seventeenth, seventeen eighty six, and he was born 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:40.880 in the state of Franklin, which was this state that 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:44.960 lasted only four or five years, and then North Carolina, 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:48.880 with the help of the federal government, declared it illegal, 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:51.200 and then of course it became part of the state 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:54.479 of Tennessee. But I've always seen that as kind of significant, 0:09:54.520 --> 0:09:59.600 this place that only lasted for four or five years 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:04.360 and was like his life. He moved and moved, the 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:09.360 kind of instability as his debts catch up with him 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:13.320 and he's moving into the frontier, into cheaper lynn Freelin 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:16.160 and starting all over. He's like Daniel Boone in that, 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:18.120 I mean, he runs up debts and then you know 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:22.360 he has to has to try again, start again. But 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:26.920 he was kind of bound out by his father to 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:31.600 labor for other people to pay the father's debts. John 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:36.560 Crockett was always getting into debt. He was borrowing money, 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:40.560 and again he was like Daniel Boone and the older 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:43.200 crocketted the same way. He had to keep borrowing money 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:47.760 was always in debt. And this is very interesting that 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:52.040 this father would put his young son out to labor 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:55.800 when he was so young, to work hard. And this 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:59.280 is really important and understanding that from a very early 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:02.840 age he was this heavy labor hit farms. 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:05.680 When he was twelve years old, he was what he 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:09.079 called bound out by his father to a complete stranger 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:13.400 that had come through the town. Kroccutt's father owned a 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:16.840 tavern in what is now Morristown, Tennessee. It was a 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:21.880 primitive hotel and restaurant. I want to read out of 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:25.560 Crockett's biography about a formative moment in his young life. 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:27.800 I don't want to take for granted that we can 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:31.600 hear these stories in Crockett's own voice. In history, a 0:11:31.640 --> 0:11:35.920 primary source, a first hand to count is major. The 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:40.200 middlemen and their interpretation are absent from this. This is 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:43.640 when Crockett was bound out to a complete stranger by 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:49.880 his father. An old Dutchman by the name of Jacob Siler, 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:52.720 who was moving from Knox County to Rockbridge in the 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:55.600 state of Virginia in passing, made a stop at my 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:58.400 father's house. He had a large stock of cattle that 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:01.439 he was carried on with him. I suppose made some 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:05.319 proposition to my father to hire someone to assist him. 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:08.640 Being hard run every way and having no thought as 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:11.559 I believe that I was cut out for Congress. 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:11.560 Or the like. 0:12:12.040 --> 0:12:14.520 Young as I was and as little as I knew 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:17.800 about traveling or being from home, he hired me to 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:21.120 the old Dutchman to go four hundred miles on foot 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:24.880 with a perfect stranger that I had never seen until 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:30.120 the evening before. Crockett seemed to be surprised that his 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:33.800 dad did this. Even a frontier child raised in such 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:38.520 a wild environment thought this was a touch irresponsible. I'm 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:42.120 certain Juju wouldn't approve, But then again, she did let 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:44.800 me and Chris Roberts float Briar Creek in a leaky 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:47.360 canoe without life jackets after a four inch rain in 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:50.640 May in nineteen ninety eight. You can listen to meeting 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:54.000 your close calls for that story. I'm out drowned, and 0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:57.560 I'm not blaming Juju. Did your parents ever do anything 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:03.440 that looking back surprises you. I've found myself on the 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:04.240 trail of a rabbit. 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:06.439 Brothers and sisters. Let's get back to Crockett. 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:11.000 Crockett's family were those aggressive Ulster Scots that came from Ireland. 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:14.720 His father, John Crockett, wasn't born in America. David said 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:17.000 he didn't know if his dad was born in Ireland 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:20.880 or on the boat passage over. His mother, Rebecca Hawkins, 0:13:20.920 --> 0:13:24.160 had been born in America. Crockett's grandparents were some of 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:27.560 the first white folks to settle in eastern Tennessee, and 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:30.839 were killed in their cabin by Creek Indians in seventeen 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:35.480 seventy seven, nine years before David's birth. During the raid, 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:39.040 Crockett's uncle, who was both deaf and dumb, who they 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:42.640 fondly called Dumb Jimmy, was captured by the Creeks and 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:46.480 lived with them for seventeen years and nine months before 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:51.080 John Crockett, David's father, located his brother and purchased him 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:54.560 back from the Creeks. David wrote that he didn't remember 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:58.200 how much they paid for him. I bet Jimmy had 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:02.520 some wild stories. This was the world Crockett was born into. 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:06.280 His parents lived in extreme poverty on the frontier. His 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:09.679 father fought in the Revolutionary War but never talked about it, 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:13.960 and in his autobiography, David recalls as a boy watching 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:17.839 his father cleanse a gunshot wound using a muzzleloader ramrod 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:22.200 to push a silk scarf through a man's abdomen. Crockett's 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:24.920 cousin shot his neighbor who was picking wild grapes in 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:27.880 the woods after he mistook him for a deer. It 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:30.840 was a hunting accident. They called John Crockett, who saved 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:34.640 the man's life. David Crockett was one of nine siblings, 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:37.640 born fifth in the order. He was a middle child, 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:41.440 and he said, quote, I stood no chance to become 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:45.040 great in any other way than by accident. As my 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:48.160 father was very poor and living as he did far 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:49.200 in the backwoods. 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:50.960 He had neither the means. 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:53.400 Nor the opportunity to give me or any of the 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:55.320 rest of his children any learning. 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:57.280 End of quote. 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:01.240 Here's mister Morgan on Crockett's ex experience as a kid. 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:06.120 Well, he was hired to help drive a herd of 0:15:06.200 --> 0:15:10.040 cattle up that wilderness road, the old road, all the 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:13.800 way into Virginia, I think beyond Lynchburg. That's really something 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:16.960 to think about, this twelve year old kid being sent 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:19.240 to do that kind of heavy work. I mean, driving 0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:22.800 cattle is a kind of tough thing. You've got to 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:25.640 keep them in line. You've got to fend off the 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:28.600 dogs that run out and scare them and make sure 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:31.040 they have enough to eat. And in cattle on a 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:33.680 long crip line, you can possibly carry enough feed for them. 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:36.520 So you've got to find a place, usually at a 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:39.240 what's called a drover's stand, somebody who has a kind 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:42.000 of tavern, and you stay the night and they sell 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:45.800 you corn meal or something to feed your cattle, and 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:48.200 then you move on to some very rough people out 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:51.680 there on the road in those taverns. So Crockett from 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:55.640 a very early age was exposed to kind of rough society. 0:15:57.400 --> 0:16:00.320 Crockett was exposed at an early age to the roughness 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:03.840 of the American frontier. I'm certain in his childhood the 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:07.000 people he dealt with greatly influenced who he would become, 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:10.200 how he talked, how he saw the world, who he was. 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:13.160 It appears to me that Crockett had a very tender, 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:16.760 loyal heart, and it's exposed many times in his book, 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:20.760 but can be lost in his boisterousness. This tender heart 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:23.960 will also be exposed later in his politics, as he 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:26.480 would fight hard for the rights of the common people 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:31.720 and aggressively oppose the harsh Native American removal policies. As 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:34.880 a kid, he worked for this dutchman he was hired 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:38.400 out to for the entirety of their agreement. Crockett was 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:41.600 an honest man, but decided the guy was just going 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:44.600 to keep him, so as a young boy, he planned 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:48.800 a secret escape. He wrote quote, I went to bed 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:51.600 early that night, but sleep seemed to be a stranger 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:54.360 to me. For though I was a wild boy, yet 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:57.920 I dearly loved my father and mother, and their images 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:01.600 appeared to be so deeply fixed in my mind that 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:05.879 I could not sleep for thinking about him. Crockett loved 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:09.200 his mom and dad. That leaves a tender mark on 0:17:09.200 --> 0:17:13.000 one's legacy. Crockett leaves in a snowstorm that will cover 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:15.800 his tracks as he starts a treacherous at least one 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:19.960 hundred mile journey home. Here he talks about what happens. 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:25.320 I was fortunately overtaken by a gentleman who was returning 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:27.560 from market to which you had been, with a drove 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:30.560 of horses. He had a lead horse with a bridle 0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:33.040 and saddle on him, and he kindly offered to let 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:34.480 me get on his horse and ride. 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:36.640 I did so, and was glad of the. 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:39.720 Chance, for I was tired, and moreover near the first 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:42.880 crossing of the Roanoak, which I would have been compelled 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:45.560 to wade, cold as the water was, if I had 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:48.560 not fortunately met this good man. I traveled with him 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:51.879 in this way without anything turning up worthy of recording, 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:54.760 until we got within fifteen miles of my father's house. 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:57.879 There we parted, and he went to Kentucky, and I 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:01.439 trudged on homeward which place I reached that evening. The 0:18:01.560 --> 0:18:05.119 name of this kind gentleman I have entirely forgotten, and 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:07.760 I'm sorry for it, for it deserves a high place 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:10.760 in my little book. A remembrance of his kindness to 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:14.760 a little straggling boy and a stranger to him, has, however, 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:18.160 a resting place in my heart, and there it will 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:24.040 remain as long as I live. Crockett's tender recollection of 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:27.640 this stranger is touching. He would be loyal and generous 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:31.120 to his friends and his family his whole life. Crocatt 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:33.440 would make it home and stay for about a year 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:36.159 before his father tried to put him in school, but 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:39.440 Davy couldn't take it. He got in a fight at 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:46.120 school and started skipping class here's what happened. At last, However, 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:49.240 the master wrote a note to my father inquiring why 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:51.760 I was not sent to school. When he read this note, 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:53.560 he called me up, and I knew very well that 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:55.600 I was in a devil of a hobble, for my 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:58.359 father had been taking a few horns and was in 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:01.480 good condition to make the fur fly. He called on 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:03.560 me to know why I had not been to school, 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:05.639 and I told him I was afraid to go, and 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:08.040 that the master would whip me. For I knew quite 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:10.760 well if I turned over to this old kitchen, I 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:13.240 should be cooked up to a crackling in a little. 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:13.720 Or no time. 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:16.600 But I soon found that I was not to expect 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:18.960 a much better fate at home, for my father told 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:21.000 me in a very angry manner, that he would whip 0:19:21.040 --> 0:19:23.359 me an eternal sight worse than the master if I 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:26.879 didn't start immediately to the school. I tried again to 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:29.679 beg off that nothing would do but go to the school. 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:33.879 Finding me rather too slow about starting, he gathered about 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:36.720 a two year old hickory and broke after me. I 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:38.640 put out with all my might, and soon we were 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:41.560 both up to our top speed. We had a tolerable 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:43.760 tough race for about a mile. But mind me not 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:45.960 on the schoolhouse road, for I was trying to get 0:19:46.000 --> 0:19:48.840 as far as tother way as possible. And yet I 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:51.040 believe if my father and the school master could have 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:53.280 both levied on me at the same time, I should 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:55.760 have never been called on to sitting the counsels of 0:19:55.800 --> 0:19:58.520 the nations, for I think they would have used me up. 0:19:58.880 --> 0:19:59.800 But fortunately for. 0:19:59.800 --> 0:20:02.399 Me, about this time I saw just before me a 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:05.840 hill over which I made headway like a young steamboat. 0:20:06.119 --> 0:20:08.000 As soon as I had passed over it, I turned 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:10.119 to one side and hid myself in the bushes. And 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:13.440 here I waited until the old gentleman passed by, puffing 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:16.119 and blowing as though his steam was high enough to 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:19.159 burst his boilers. I waited until he gave up his 0:20:19.240 --> 0:20:22.480 hunt and passed back again. Then I cut out and 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:24.720 went to the house of an old acquaintance a few 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:27.399 miles off, who was just about to start with the drove. 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:31.040 His name was Jesse Cheek, and I hired myself to 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:35.040 go with him, determining not to return home as home 0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:38.679 in the schoolhouse had both become too hot for me. 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:47.879 Crockett bailed home in school when he was thirteen years old, 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:51.200 and he would be gone on a wild excursion for 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:54.920 over two years. He lives a wild life of adventure, 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:58.960 rivaling the fictional characters of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:04.600 exceptrocket stories were real. We'll later learn, surprise surprise, that 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:09.280 Crockett most definitely influenced Mark Twain's riding. Crockett would again 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:12.240 work on a cattle drive, and as what he called 0:21:12.280 --> 0:21:16.920 a wagoneer, he drove a wagon hauling supplies. Here's one 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:25.280 of Crockett's wagoneering tales. Our load consisted of flower in barrels. 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:27.720 Here I got into the wagon for the purpose of 0:21:27.840 --> 0:21:30.680 changing my clothing, not thinking I was in any danger. 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:33.120 But while I was in there, we were met by 0:21:33.160 --> 0:21:35.960 some wheelbarrowed men who were working on the road, and 0:21:36.000 --> 0:21:38.520 the horses took a scare and away they went like 0:21:38.520 --> 0:21:41.280 they'd seen a ghost. They made a sudden wheel around 0:21:41.280 --> 0:21:43.720 and broke the wagon. Tongue slapped short off as a 0:21:43.720 --> 0:21:46.720 pipe stem, and snap went both of the axles at 0:21:46.720 --> 0:21:50.080 the same time, and all of the devilish flouncing of 0:21:50.160 --> 0:21:53.119 the flower barrels that had ever been seen. Even a 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:55.359 rat would have stood a bad chance in a straight 0:21:55.480 --> 0:21:58.320 race among them, and not much better in a crooked one, 0:21:58.600 --> 0:22:00.520 for he would have been in a good way to 0:22:00.600 --> 0:22:03.200 be ground up as fine as ginger for their rolling 0:22:03.320 --> 0:22:06.199 over him. But this proved to me that if a 0:22:06.280 --> 0:22:08.320 fellow is born to be hung. 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:09.920 He will never be drowned. 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:13.159 And further, if he is born for a seat in Congress, 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:18.159 even flower barrels can't make mash of him. If a 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:22.280 man's born to be hung, he'll never drowned. Now that's good, 0:22:22.560 --> 0:22:25.399 but I hope that isn't why I survived Briar Creek. 0:22:26.440 --> 0:22:29.200 Remember this book is written in the peak of Crockett's 0:22:29.200 --> 0:22:32.720 political career, so he often mentioned his seat in Congress. 0:22:33.160 --> 0:22:36.560 On Crockett's sojourn at the age of fourteen, he was 0:22:36.800 --> 0:22:40.520 minutes away from taking a job sailing to London when 0:22:40.640 --> 0:22:44.840 his older wagoneer boss physically restrained him from going. Crockett 0:22:44.840 --> 0:22:47.920 would bounce around for some time more, but would head 0:22:48.160 --> 0:22:52.199 home to Tennessee after two years, but not before a 0:22:52.320 --> 0:22:55.840 wild canoe ride trying to get home. This was Crockett's 0:22:55.840 --> 0:23:01.800 own Briar Creek experience. When I reached the river at 0:23:01.800 --> 0:23:04.160 the mouth of the small stream called the Little River, 0:23:04.480 --> 0:23:07.080 the white caps were flying so that I couldn't get 0:23:07.119 --> 0:23:10.480 anybody to attempt to put me across. I argued the 0:23:10.520 --> 0:23:12.359 case as well as I could, but they told me 0:23:12.400 --> 0:23:15.040 there was danger of being capsized and drowned if I 0:23:15.080 --> 0:23:17.720 attempted to cross. I told them if I could get 0:23:17.720 --> 0:23:20.840 a canoe, I would venture caps or no caps. They 0:23:20.920 --> 0:23:23.320 tried to persuade me out of it, but finding they 0:23:23.359 --> 0:23:26.119 could not, they agreed I might take a canoe, and 0:23:26.160 --> 0:23:29.160 so I did and put off. I tied my clothes 0:23:29.200 --> 0:23:31.040 to the rope of the canoe to have them safe 0:23:31.080 --> 0:23:34.840