History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties. Page: 109

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creek, August 17, 1786, the son of John
Crockett, of Irish descent, who participated
in the American revolution for independence.
David's grandparents were murdered by Indians,
one uncle wounded by them, and
another captured. When about twelve years
of age his father hired him out to a kindhearted
Dutchman in Virginia, several hundred
miles distant, but he soon became homesick,
ran away, and, availing himself of the
services of a man he knew, and who was
passing through that section of the country
with a wagon, started home with him, but
the wagon proved to be too slow in its progress
for his eagerness to reach home, and he left
it and hastened along on foot.
But he was not home very long until he
ran away from that, and after a time went to
Baltimore to embark in a seafaring life, but
the man who conveyed him to Baltimore in
his wagon, concluding that the boy was too
hasty, prevented him, by holding his clothing
and money, about $7; and the wagoner
started back with him in a homeward direction,
and young Crockett had to complete
his journey home for the want of funds to
go elsewhere. He remained with his father
for some years, working on the farm and
hunting, for he finally became as great a
hunter as Daniel Boone himself. During
this period, when about seventeen years of
age, he ' fell in love" with a young Quakeress
and proposed marriage, but was refused,
which event preyed upon his spirits. When
about eighteen he was "smitten" by another
girl, who at first agreed to marry him, and
then jilted him; and this was worse than
ever; he felt like committing suicide.
Within a year or so, however, after this, he
found still another young lady who agreed
to marry him, and ", stuck" to her bargain.
Up to the time of his second proposal of

marriage he had had but four days' schooling,
and he sometimes thought that it was
his lack of education that caused the girls to
despise him, and he managed to get a few
months' schooling, and that was all he ever
obtained in his life. After marriage he
moved to Lincoln county, and then to Franklin
county, Tennessee.
The Creek war coming on, in 1813, Mr.
Crockett enlisted in Captain Jones' company
of mounted volunteers, and was engaged as a
scout. Afterward, while a member of the
main army, he participated in several engagements,
and subsequently, under General Jackson
in the Florida campaign, he was commissioned
colonel.
About the close of the Florida war his wife
died; but he soon married a soldier's widow
and emigrated to Shoal creek, where he had
an amusing time endeavoring to serve as a
justice of the peace. He was subsequently
elected a member of the State legislature,
despite his backwoods character, as he was a
witty humorist. He made the campaign a
characteristic one as a humorous, typically
Western-pioneer electioneering can vass, which
suited the tastes of the people of the time and
place.
His next removal was to Obion, Tennessee,
to a point seven miles distant from the nearest
house, fifteen from the next, twenty from
the next, and so on; but, being a passionate
hunter, and living in a forest noisy with
abundant game, he found it easy, the height
of his life's pleasure, to keep his family supplied
with fresh meat of the highest order,
besides obtaining many luxuries from a distant
market in exchange for peltry. He
killed many a bear, one specimen weighing
600 pounds, and of course he had many hairraising
adventures and hairbreadth escapes
with his life.

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