Men like Davy Crockett and Hugh McGary represented different instincts as pioneers settled the American frontier of Tennessee and Kentucky after the Revolutionary War. Andrew Jackson and the Indian Removal Policy loomed in the background.
According to Barnes (Historical Atlas), by 1790 Kentucky had a white population of 74,000 while the other frontier regions including Tennessee sheltered about 36,000. Ten years later, some 300,000 emigrants had traversed the Cumberland Gap, many landing in far off Missouri.
Both Daniel Boone —the Father of Kentucky — and Davy Crockett rose to prominence as gatekeepers of war and peace between the shrinking Indian villages and bloated settler compounds. Many natives and fellows had fallen dead under their blows in life. Both Boone’s and Crockett’s efforts to settle the frontier had roused some ill feelings and triggered unpaid debts. In history’s mirror, admirers of these two legendary pioneers are contrite but appreciative of the enviable qualities they shared with fellow countrymen who had persevered and built along side the paths they had blazed.
“Wild boy” and later Congressman Davy Crockett had Irish blood in him. He was born 1786 on the banks of the Nola Chucky River, in now Tennessee. He was rejected in his first youthful clumsy attempt to propose marriage, declaring after the pursuit fizzled that the news “was worse than war, pestilence or famine… But still I know I could not help myself. I saw quick enough my cake was dough, and I tried to cool off as fast as possible…. My love was so hot as mighty nigh to bust the boilers.” Davy was not educated more than probably six months in school but the backwoods made him the statesman.