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was about the same age as David and, like him, had also discovered the bevy of eligible Elder girls and became smitten with one of Margaret’s sisters. Aware that Canaday frowned on “courting frolics,” the pair of young bucks devised a scheme that enabled them to woo the Elder sisters without their employer knowing about it.12 “We commonly slept up-stairs, and at the gable end of the house there was a window. So one Sunday, when the old man and his family were all gone to meeting, we went out and cut a long pole, and, taking it to the house, we set it up on end in the corner…. After this we would go upstairs to bed, and then putting on our Sunday clothes, would go out the window, and climb down the pole, take a horse apiece, and ride about ten miles to where his sweetheart lived, and the girl I claimed as my wife.”

The young men—always careful to sneak back into the Canaday house before daybreak—continued their night courting and romancing right up until the time of David and Margaret’s wedding. The couple had set an autumn date, and on October 21, 1805, Crockett donned his best—and no doubt only—suit of clothes and rode to the Jefferson County courthouse at Dandridge to procure the marriage license.13 Just nineteen, he was more than ready to quit being a bachelor and create a home of his own.

The marriage plans dissolved unexpectedly a few days later when David caught wind of a shooting match and frolic. The crack marksman saw a good chance to make some money. He told Canaday that he was off to hunt deer but, instead, picked up his rifle and rode directly to the match. After all, it was being held on the way to the Elder home, where he planned to end his day by finally asking for their daughter’s hand, something that he had long put off.

At the shooting match, Crockett’s aim with his long rifle was as true as ever, and, when it ended, he and a companion had won the prize—a whole beef. He sold his portion for a hefty five dollars in “real grit,” gold and silver coins. With “a light heart and my five dollars jingling in my pocket,” he rode off to see his fiancée and her parents.14 A couple of miles from the Elder home, Crockett stopped on an impulse for a brief chat with one of Margaret’s uncles. At the cabin he found that her younger sister was visiting, and when David greeted her, the girl burst into tears. She blurted out that Margaret was jilting David. She had no intention of marrying him but instead, the very next day, was going to wed another man, who had also procured a wedding license.

“This was as sudden to me as a clap of thunder of a bright sunshiny day,” Crockett recalled. “It was the cap-stone of all the afflictions I had ever met with; and it seemed to me, that it was more than any human creature could endure. It struck me perfectly speechless for some time, and made me feel so weak, that I thought I should sink down.”15

After a while, David recovered enough to pull himself upright and take his leave. Through her sobs, the girl urged him to continue on to her home and reason with Margaret. She said her parents preferred David to the other suitor, and there was a chance he could break up the match. “But I found I could go no further,” he noted long after, “…concluding I was only born for hardships, misery, and disappointment.”16

Crockett was not guiltless in this matter. More than likely his propensity for shooting matches and social frolics contributed to the demise of the couple’s relationship. Furthermore, his blustery, dominating personality may have failed to recognize the emotional needs of a prospective spouse. There was clearly room on both sides for blame.

ELEVEN

POLLY

AFTER MARGARET ELDER CAST HIM aside for another, Crockett laid low for a time, licking his wounds and regretting his lot in life. He had come to the conclusion that he was snake-bit when it came to finding love, just as his father was when it came to staying out of debt. Crockett described himself as someone who had been “born odd, and should always remain so, and nobody would have me.”1 For several weeks he was restless