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Crockett's father taught him to shoot a rifle when he was just 8 years old. As a youngster, he eagerly accompanied his older brothers on hunting trips. But, when he turned 13, his father insisted that he enroll in school.
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Crockett participated in a massacre against the Creek Indians at Tallushatchee and earned a seat in the 21st U.S. Congress.
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In September and October of 1813 he served as a scout. He left,and then returned to military service from September 1814 to February 1815. During this time Crockett served as a scout and a hunter and apparently encountered little fighting. He later had a weapon named after him.
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Crockett was elected a lieutenant in the Thirty-second Militia regiment of Franklin County. Before summer's end he married Elizabeth Patton, a widow with two children (George and Margaret Ann), and he explored Alabama in the fall with an eye towards settlement.
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New Year's Day 1821 marked a turning point in Crockett's career. He resigned as commissioner to run for a seat in the Tennessee legislature as the representative of Lawrence and Hickman counties. He won the August election and, from the beginning, took an active interest in public land policy regarding the West. After the session concluded he moved his family to what is now Gibson County in West Tennessee.
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Crockett notified his constituents of his intention to run in the 1825 election for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
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He was elected to Congress in 1828, was defeated in 1831 but won again in 1833. On his defeat in 1835, Crockett left his family and went to Texas.
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Crockett was killed at the Battle of the Alamo in San Antonio, though the exact circumstances of his death have been the subject of debate. The myth of Crockett was commodified for children during the 1950s as part of the popular Disneyland TV series.
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Walt Disney’s 1955 television show (and later movie) Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier sparked a pop-culture flash fire.
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In recent years, focus has been on the Alamo rather than Crockett. The last actor to portray him was Billy Bob Thornton in the 2004 film 'The Alamo'.
