David Crockett_ The Lion of the West - Michael Wallis [154]
6 Ibid., 58.
7 Ibid., 58–59.
8 Robert E. Corlew, Tennessee: A Short History (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1981), 111–12.
9 Crockett, Narrative, 58.
10 Swann, “Early Life & Times.”
11 Crockett, Narrative, 59. Plaguy, also plaguey, meaning irritating or bothersome.
12 Ibid., 59–60.
13 Shackford, David Crockett: The Man and the Legend, 14. Crockett described Billy Finley as being “clever,” at that time a word meaning friendly or sociable.
14 Crockett, Narrative, 61.
15 Ibid., 62.
16 Ibid., 63.
17 Ibid., 64.
18 Crockett’s first rifle, owned by noted Crockett historian Joseph Swann, has been in his family’s possession for several generations. The rifle is on public display at the Museum of East Tennessee History in Knoxville. See “Crockett’s First Rifle,” photograph and story.
19 Ibid.
20 Jefferson County Marriage and Bond Book, 1792–1840, Marriage Bond, “David Crockett to Polly Finley,” August 12, 1806, Jefferson County Courthouse, Dandridge, Tennessee.
21 Ibid.
22 Joseph Swann, “The Wedding of David Crockett and Polly Finley,” Go Ahead: Newsletter of the Direct Descendants and Kin of David Crockett 23, no. 2 (December 2006), 2–4.
23 Ibid., 3.
TWELVE • FINLEY’S GAP
1 Crockett, Narrative, 67.
2 Ibid.
3 Swann, “Early Life & Times.” Swann, whose own family settled in the area early on, states that an Indian trader named Isaac Thomas guided several of the men from the expedition who later settled on lands they had traversed. Swann believes it is possible that John Crockett was among the soldiers who followed the route down Long Creek to its source on the south side of Bays Mountain and over the mountain near Finley’s Gap to the Dumplin Creek valley, which followed on to the southwest.
4 Muncy, People and Places of Jefferson County, 183.
5 Ibid., 200.
6 J. L. Caton, “Davy Crockett and Polly Finley in Jefferson County,” March 1, 1958, transcription of unpublished memoir of George Cox, Crockett File, Jefferson County Historical Archives, Jefferson County Courthouse, Dandridge, TN.
7 Ibid.
8 Crockett, Narrative, 68.
9 Joseph A. Swann, “The History of David Crockett’s First Rifle,” unpublished paper.
10 Swann, “Early Life & Times.”
11 Crockett, Narrative, 68.
12 Written account of John L. Jacobs, Cullasaja, Macon County, NC, November 22, 1884, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville.
13 Hugh Talmadge Lefler, ed., A New Voyage to Carolina by John Lawson (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1967), 116. Originally published in London in 1709, Lawson’s journal was the first popular American travel book, an international best seller, and an important source document for colonial natural history. The origin of the bearskin as ceremonial headwear dates to the early 1700s, when several British regiments adopted sixteen-inch-high bearskin hats.
14 Arnow, Seedtime, 398.
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid.
17 Information obtained by Joseph Swann gleaned from the Quarles Family files of Reverend Reuell Prichett, former Jefferson County (TN) historian.
18 Crockett, Narrative, 68.
19 Joseph A. Swann, Transcript Copies of Circuit Court File 1808–1835, Jefferson County Archives, Jefferson County Courthouse, Dandridge, TN.
20 Heritage Jefferson County (Dandridge: The Bicentennial Committee of Jefferson County, TN, 1976), 4.
21 Ibid., 4–5.
22 Swann, Transcript Copies. Only a few years later, Trimble would allow a young Sam Houston—future political hero of Tennessee and Texas—to spend six months reading for the law in Trimble’s office before Houston established his own law office in Lebanon, TN.
23 Ibid.
24 Ibid.
THIRTEEN • KENTUCK
1 Written account of John L. Jacobs.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Crockett, Narrative, 68. Lincoln County was created in 1808 and named after Revolutionary War hero General Benjamin Lincoln. In 1806, the Cherokees and Chickasaws ceded the land comprising the new county to the United States, and settlers began arriving immediately to get their share of the fertile soil.
5 From Surveyors Entry Book C, Surveyors District II, Entry No. 3944, 414, Tennessee State Archives.