David ‘Davy’ Crockett (1786-1836) was an American folk hero, soldier, frontiersman and politician. Davy was the fifth of nine children born into the rough world of the American frontier. Many European immigrants changed or altered their surnames, and this is also true for the Crockett family. The name was originally Crocketagne, and the family were descendants of Huguenots that fled to England, Ireland and America.
In 1812, Crockett volunteered as part of a group of militia against the Creek Indians. His duties included reconnaissance and fighting both the Creek nation and the Red Coats (the British). Following the war with the Creek nation, Crokett became one of the principle commissioners of peace in Lawrence County, Tennessee, and was chosen by his contemporaries to be the Lieutenant Colonel of the 57th Regiment of Militia.
He ran for Congress in 1826, and was victorious. In 1827 he won the congressional seat in the election, but he was not reelected in the 1833 election due to his distaste of Andrew Jackson. Crockett had ambitions to liberate Texas from Mexico, but died at the hands of the Mexican army at the Alamo in 1836.