Texas History Notebook

Elizabeth Patton Crocket was born in Buncombe County, North Carolina on May 22, 1788 to Robert Patton and Rebecca Cathey Patton. Robert is believed to have been born in Northern Ireland or was the child of someone born there while Rebecca was a North Carolina native. Elizabeth was the fourth of seven children born to the couple. One of her brothers was named George Patton, but from all accounts, she is no relation to the later World War II general of that name.

She was the wife of David “Davy” Crockett. Their wedding was the second marriage for each of them. Elizabeth was first married to James Patton, a cousin, who lost his life in the War of 1812. James was the son of Elijah Patton and Margaret Cathey. James had died during the Creek War theater of the War of 1812 in Blount, Alabama from injuries sustained in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. He and Crockett were serving together and as the wounded James lay dying, he asked Crockett to return his possessions to to Elizabeth. Crockett had married Polly Finley in 1809 and was married at the time of Patton’s death, though Polly later died in childbirth in 1815. After Polly’s passing, Crockett found that Elizabeth had returned to her former home in North Carolina. He began to visit and court Elizabeth and the two were married in 1815 when Elizabeth was 23 years old.

Before settling in Tennessee Crockett had also been an early resident of Buncombe and McDowell counties in North Carolina. Concerning his upbringing, he grew up in a poor farming family. As a young man, he had worked for a Quaker farmer who was a creditor of his father. Rather than collect his pay in cash, he agreed to offset his pay for cancelled notes originally made by his father until all the debts were all settled.

As noted above, Crockett and James Patton served together in the War of 1812 under future president Andrew Jackson. At the time of Patton’s fatal injury, Crockett had been Patton’s battalion commander.

After the Creek War, Crockett returned to Tennessee where he served two terms in Congress. David was said to be one who enjoyed a good joke and several Crockett anecdotes date from this period. There is a story about how he met Polly, Crockett’s first wife. It was a frontier romance. He was out hunting and spied a female walking ahead of him in the woods by herself. Though the area was settled by Anglos, there was still the threat of Native American attacks. He caught up to the young woman, convinced her that he was not a renegade or a bandit and that his intentions were honorable. The two found their way to the nearest cabin where they spent the night talking. During the conversations, they each realized that they had previously met at a party. From this chance meeting, a romance ensued and the couple were soon married.

In another tale, a congressman from Massachusetts saw some donkeys passing by him and Crockett. The congressman remarked to Crockett, “There go a bunch of your constituents; better turn them back toward home.” Crockett retorted, “Oh no. They are going to Massachusetts to teach school.” Another has him out entertaining a group of friends. Instead of cash, he traded his trademark coonskin hat for a setup of drinks for himself and his friends. In the story, Crockett was said to have retrieved the same coonskin several times and repeated the “drink for coonskin cap” exchange. He returned to the bar the next day to pay his debt, but the bar owner went along with the joke and refused any compensation.

After his marriage to Elizabeth they moved to western Tennessee. From time to time, Elizabeth and David returned to North Carolina to visit relatives. On one occasion, David was offended by land owners who had placed a toll on traffic (even foot traffic) through their property, near current day Ridgecrest. Crockett was said to be incensed and took the opportunity to find his own way through the wilderness to the property of their relatives. He was successful. The trail he forged over 100 years ago still survives as the Davy Crockett Bridle Trail, an equestrian path that is overlaid in places by a public road.

When he and Elizabeth had been married about twenty years, Crockett had come to Texas from Tennessee in the fall of 1835. After signing a pledge to the provisional Texian government he proceeded to the Alamo. Crockett died with other defenders on March 6, 1836. It took several weeks for the news to reach her, confirming that he would not return. Elizabeth was once again a widow. Elizabeth was said to taken it hard and that afterward, she wore black to signify mourning. Her oldest son by Crockett was Robert, who came to Texas and enlisted to fight. Sometime after the Mexican defeat, he returned to Tennessee.

As a result of David and possibly Robert Crockett’s service for the Republic of Texas, his heirs were entitled to around 1,300 acres of land but they did not immediately claim it. Around 1853, Elizabeth and her sons George Patton, Jr. and Robert Crockett (her oldest son by Crockett and 21 years old when his father died) came to Texas by covered wagon to claim their acreage, Land Patent number 1025. Their property was located in what is now Hood County. At the time, the area was still subject to attacks from native tribes and half the land was given to the surveyor brave enough to accompany them to it. They decided to remain and built two log cabins.

Elizabeth was described as being religious, attending old fashioned camp meetings under a brush arbor in Acton. She is remembered as someone who regularly attended on Sundays and Wednesday night prayer meetings. She also enjoyed taking her daily walk in the woods and would do so before breakfast.

Elizabeth lived on her property until her death in 1860 at age 82. Her descendants remained in possession of the property until they sold their last parcel in 1889. The land is now memorialized with a historical marker placed about seven miles northeast of Granbury under the name “Crockett’s Bounty.”

For a number of years, the Crockett family descendants held a biannual family reunion in Texas, sometimes in San Antonio at the Crockett Hotel near the Alamo. Now there is an online group for descendants of David Crockett. As of 1990, per a newspaper article, it was estimated that there were about 1,000 descendants, roughly half of which resided in Texas.

A 28 foot tall marker in Acton, Texas, near Fort Worth, was installed in 1913 to commemorate her life. In 1949 the cemetery where she is buried was officially designated as a state park. Her marker includes a woman’s figure shielding her eyes to look into the distance.

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