David Crockett_ The Lion of the West - Michael Wallis [9]
One of nine Crockett children, David was the fifth of six sons. His elder brothers were Nathan, William, Aaron, and James Patterson. Brother John was a year younger than David, followed by two sisters, Elizabeth (mostly known as Betsy) and Rebecca.2
The identity of the eldest Crockett sibling, always believed to have been a daughter, remained unknown for many years. This mystery was resolved only in July 2008, at a three-day gathering of the Direct Descendants and Kin of David Crockett (DDDC) at Crockett’s birthplace on the Nolichucky River. For the first time, indisputable evidence was presented that David’s elder sister was Margaret Catharine Crockett. She was born to John and Rebecca Crockett at Womack’s Fort, built by Jacob Womack as a refuge from Indian war parties in the northeast corner of what eventually became Tennessee.
Identification of Crockett’s long “unknown” sister surprised the organization’s members, including Joy Bland, DDDC historian and a fourth great-granddaughter of David Crockett. “I don’t have a doubt,” Bland replied, when asked if enough evidence existed to authenticate the discovery. “Great descendants are coming from her [Margaret Catharine] and contributing to our history. There is a bible record that proves this.”3 This record was found in the family Bible of Louisa Taylor Lemmons, granddaughter of Margaret Catharine, and was brought to light by Timothy E. Massey, a great-grandson of Margaret Catharine.4
In the Bible, a letter written by Louisa Taylor Lemmons spells out the family lineage: “This is what your momma always tole of your mammaw. Your mammaw was Margaret Catharine Crockett then oldest younon of old John Crockett of Limestone Creek. She was borned at a place called Womack’s Fort. Her brother was Col. David that all the stories are about.”5
According to the handwritten letter, the girl was only twelve years old when she was “served out” by her father, John Crockett, to a prominent family residing at Jonesborough—a town established in 1779, only seventeen years before Tennessee was granted statehood. Soon after going to work as a household servant, the girl “got in the motherly way,” presumably through the amorous advances of her master. Margaret Catharine was dismissed by her employer’s wife, only to be turned away at her own family home by John Crockett, the pregnant girl’s uncaring father, who, more than likely, was angry that a convenient source of income had dried up.
It is difficult to imagine the feelings a pregnant girl, still a child herself, must have experienced. Pregnancy and childbirth were life-threatening events, and the infant death rate was high. Without proper care and attention, women and older girls frequently died from traumatic deliveries or a variety of complications. But, beyond the physical and psychological pain, a bound-out servant who turned up pregnant usually was branded as a cunning and seductive Jezebel and was blamed for the dalliance that led to her condition.
A compassionate preacher and his family, living on Limestone Creek, took in the abandoned girl. A short time later, a daughter was born whom Margaret Catharine named Catharine. However, the rigors of childbirth weakened the young mother, and later that same day she died. Her “earthly body was laid to rest…at the big oak tree at the stone fort buring [sic] ground.” The man who had impregnated Margaret Catharine sent her surviving daughter dolls and candy at Christmas but never publicly acknowledged that she was his child.6 It is no surprise that the Crockett family buried her story.
The practice of parents binding out their children for wages was nothing new on the Tennessee frontier of the late 1700s. Neither was the indenturing of neglected or orphaned children,