David Crockett_ The Lion of the West - Michael Wallis [164]
12 Poe probably wrote “To Octavia” in 1827.
When wit, and wine, and friends have met
And laughter crowns the festive hour
In vain I struggle to forget
Still does my heart confess thy power
And fondly turn to thee!
But Octavia, do not strive to rob
My heart of all that soothes its pain
The mournful hope that every throb
Will make it break for thee!
13 Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame, Octavia Walton Le Vert (1811–1877), www.awhf.org/levert.html.
14 Shackford, David Crockett: The Man and the Legend, 308, n. 24.
15 Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame, http://famousamericans.net/octaviawaltonlevert/. Octavia and her husband had five children, several of whom died as children. During the Civil War, she remained in Mobile and welcomed both Union and Confederate soldiers to the family home. Public opinion turned against her, and she was denounced as a “Yankee spy.” By the close of the war, her husband was dead and most of their money gone. She traveled and gave public readings until her death in 1877.
16 Haley, Sam Houston, 101.
17 Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., gen. ed., The Almanac of American History (New York: Bramhall House, 1986), 229.
18 The Gettysburg Star & Republican Banner, Gettysburg, PA, March 11, 1834.
19 Ibid. Crockett’s letter of response to the Mississippi Whigs was written in Washington City and dated February 24, 1834.
20 Working Man’s Advocate, New York, May 3, 1834.
21 Joseph Jackson, Market Street Philadelphia: The Most Historic Highway in America, Its Merchants and Its Story. Originally published as a series of articles in the Public Ledger in 1914 and 1915, it was republished by the newspaper in book form in 1918, 193.
22 Leon S. Rosenthal, A History of Philadelphia’s University City (Philadelphia: West Philadelphia Corporation, 1963), http://uchs.net/Rosenthal/rosenthaltofc.html.
23 The Mail, Hagerstown, MD, May 9, 1834.
24 Working Man’s Advocate, New York, May 3, 1834.
25 William Groneman III, David Crockett: Hero of the Common Man (New York: Forge Books, Tom Doherty Associates, 2005), 117.
26 Levy, American Legend, 205.
27 Ibid. Irving Wallace, The Fabulous Showman: The Life and Times of P. T. Barnum (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1959), 69–70.
28 Davis, Three Roads to the Alamo (New York: HarperCollins, 1999), 390–91.
29 Groneman, David Crockett: Hero of the Common Man, 118.
30 Ibid., 120.
THIRTY-FOUR • GONE TO TEXAS
1 From information provided by the Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, from July 2001 exhibition titled A Brush with History: Paintings from the National Portrait Gallery. Chester Harding (1792–1866) is the only artist known to have painted a portrait of Daniel Boone from life. Boone sat for the portrait near his Missouri home just a few months before his death in 1820. When Crockett sat for his portrait in Boston during the 1834 book tour, Harding was considered the city’s most popular painter.
2 Shackford, David Crockett: The Man and the Legend, 289. In appendix 4 of his book, Shackford devotes ten pages (pp. 281–91) to discussing the various Crockett portraits.
3 John Gadsby Chapman (1808–1889) was born in Alexandria, VA, and named for his maternal grandfather John Gadsby, a well-known tavern keeper. He displayed an interest in art early on and received encouragement from several established painters. Besides his formal training, he traveled abroad and in Italy copied the works of the old masters. James Fenimore Cooper commissioned Chapman to copy Guido Reni’s work Aurora, and Chapman also accompanied Samuel F. B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph, on two sketching trips in Italy. Chapman returned to the United States in 1831, married, and had three children. He contributed illustrations to some of the works of James Kirke Paulding, creator of The Lion of the West. Chapman and his family moved to Italy and resided there for many years. Chapman visited the United States briefly after his wife died and returned for good in 1884. He spent his last five years living in Brooklyn.
4 Grime, Recollections, 165.
5 Davis, “A Legend at Full-Length,” 165.