While at a Little Rock banquet given in his honor, David "Davy" Crockett reportedly stated, "If I could rest anywhere it would be in Arkansas, where the men are of the real half-horse, half-alligator breed such as grow nowhere else on the face of the universal earth but just around the backbone of North America."
The were a few “flashes in the pan” but no one went off “half-cocked” as area marksmen tried their frontier skills at the David Crockett Birthplace State Park last Saturday.
Dr. Steve Patchin
Born in Eastern Tennessee on August 17, 1786, he was one of eight children born to parents Rebecca and John Crockett. History remembers Davy Crockett as a bare handed bear killer who wore a hat made out of raccoon skin. His attire included a leather coat and pants, carrying a long barreled musket, but his life took a much different path.
After a childhood filled with work and frontier adventures, in 1806, at the age of 20, he married Mary (Polly) Finley. They had three children while living in Franklin, Tennessee. Nine years later (1815) Polly died. Crockett went on to remarry widower Elizabeth Patton who had two children of her own. Crocket and Elizabeth went on to have three children of their own, bringing the family size to eight.