The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1869-09-15
DAVID CROCKETT.

shot himself there. 1t was the won
derful.skill as a marksman, his daring
rs a bear hunter, which made him so
popular in his district, that when he
chose to run for office he usually dis
tanced all competitors. He could
shoot a humming bird on the wing
with a single ball. Seated on the mar
gin of the river. as soon as the crack
of his rifle was heard, one of the lit
tie inmates of the stream would be
seen struggling On the surface.
Shooting was not his only qualifca-
ton. He had other gifts and graces
calculated to win the favor of a from
tier population; although it was his
matchless skill with a rifle that first
drew attention to him. He vas an
abundant relator of comic anecdotes,
and an utterer of those eccentric re
marks which are passed from mouth
to mouth, and form a large part of the
common stock of wit in a country
place. Forty or fifty years ago al
most every newspaper that appeared
had n story in it, in some odd corner
in which the name of David Crockett
figured.
He was born in East Tennessee, in
1896, the younger of but oneaofsthe
six Sons of John Crockett, who by
turns was a farmer, miller and tavern
keeper. This John Crockett was the
SON of an emigrant from ireland, and
who, after fighting with noted courage
through the Revolutionary war, set
tied in East Tennessee. There he and
his wife were murdered by the Creek
Indians one of their sons was woun-
ded; another carried into captivity,
and remained a prisoner with the In
dams seventeen years. John Crock
EFT escaped, grew up, and in due time
became the father of the famous Da-
vid. When the boy vas seven years
old his father met with a misfortune
which reduced him to utter poverty.
a freshet swept away a new mill in
which he had invested the savings of
q life time. 1t a carried off bodily
leaving not a wreck behind. The I'M
fortunate proprietor then removed in
TO another county, and opened a tav-
ern not far from the present city OF
Knoxville.
D., It happened one evening when Da-
yid was twelve years of age, that IN
old Dutchman, a drover, put up at his
fathers tavern, having with him a
drove of cattle. To this Dutchman
John Crockett hired his son, with the
understanding that he was to help
drive the cattle as far as Richmond,
and then return. Away he went, and
was soon in high favor with the
.Dutchman, from whom the learned
A o-ool4Eo, on1 n,Enh
brouge which he afterwards employ
ed with so much eject. He liked his
master very well, but after travelling
some weeks with the cattle, he be-
came homesick, ran away, joined q
waggoner bound for East Tennessee,
and so reached home again.
The next winter his father sent him
to school for the first time in his life,
but before he had been there a week,
he had a fight with one of the scholars,
in which he gained a victory, and
beat his antagonist so severely that he
dared not show himself in school
again. So he played truant for sew
eral days, but discovering. that his
father found him out, he thought it
prudent to beat a retreat, and hired
himself to another drover who was
going to Virginia. Many were his
adventures. His employer, after i'll
treating him in various ways, turned
him adrift hundreds of miles from
home with only four dollars. Then
he Joined a waggoner once more, and
soon found himself in Baltimore.
Leaving his waggoner o after,
he started. penniless to work his way
home. First he worked awhile as a
,Iaborer, and, with the money thus
earned, he travelled a few miles to-
wards Tennessee. When his money
was gone he would stop and work
again for the first farmer who wanted
him. Once he bound himself as an
apprentice to a halter, for four years,
and worked for him a few months,
Until the halter failed, and he was
homeless once more. Atlength, after
two wears absence, one winter even
ing, he entered his fathers tavern
with his bundle, Eand asked permits
sion to sit down and rest. No n
knew him. His father, a somewhat
sinfirm old man, was waiting upon his
guests his mother was cooking sup
per and his sister was also working
about the house. He remained silent
for an hour, when supper being
ready, he was asked to come to the
table, where the light fallingIupon his
face, his sister recognized him. The
-truant had a joyful welcome, and he
kept the family late relating his adj
ventures.
now set to work in earnest to
assist his old father, to whom he had
not gwen much help or comfort hith-
erto: BY six months hard work he
paid one of his fathers debts, which
had caused the old manmueh anxiety.
Then he worked six months more to
cancel a note Of thirty dollars which
his father had given, and brought it
to his father as a present. Next he
went to work EEfor gsundry other
months, until he had provided him
self with a supply of decent clothes.
He was now nearly twenty years OF
q and being much mortified with
his inability to read OF write, he made
a bargain with a Quaker school-mast-
er, agreeing to work two days on the
Quaker's farm for every three that he
attended his school. He picked up
knowledge rapidly, and after six
months of this arrangement, he could
read, write cipher sufficiently well for
I.fo IN tho