General Notes

All comments and corrections appreciated

ELIZABETH "BETSY" PATTON AND DAVID STERN "DAVEY" CROCKETT:  In 1815 BetsyPatton, Robert Patton's favorite among his daughters, was living inFranklin County, Tennessee. She was widowed in 1814 when her firsthusband James Patton, a first cousin, was killed in Alabama fighting inthe Creek Indian War, leaving her with two small children. He and DaveyCrockett were a part of Tennesse Militia under overall command of GeneralAndrew Jackson. James, knowing he was mortally wounded asked Davey toreturn his personal effects to Elizabeth. Crocket returned to his homenear the Pattons to find his first wife, "Polly" Finley , ill and dying.This left Crockett a widower with three children. one a year old girl.Crockett was handsome, witty and ambitious but without a sense ofdirection. Betsy was attractive, strong and well supplied with sense ofpurpose and common sense. By frontier standards she was a wealthy womanwho owned a good farm and had $800 in silver and gold. Soon Davey wascourting Betsy and escorting her to social events common on the frontier.They were married in May of 1816. In September 1816, a commission headedby Andrew Jackson signed a treaty with the Chickasaw Tribe in which theChiefs ceded to the State of Tennessee several hundred square miles ofland in Southern Tennessee, East of the Tennessee River where it turnsnorth to join the Ohio River.  The land was rich and cheap and thehunting better than in the well settled Franklin County. MOVE TO MIDDLETENNESSEE:  In the summer of 1817, Betsy and Davey moved to what is nowLawrence County, taking up a large farm on Shoal Creek. They planned ,not only to farm, but to set up other enterprises to support theirgrowing family.  With Betsy's money they built a grist mill, a gun powdermill, and a sour-mash distillery, all powered by the water of ShoalCreek. Their enterprizes flourished and Davey was elected Colonel of thelocal militia unit, Justice of the Peace, Town Commissioner ofLawrenceburg, and finally a member of the House of the Tennessee StateLegislature. In 1821, the Crockett's bright prospects for the future thatwere shattered when Shoal Creek flooded and destroyed all that they hadbuilt. In one fell swoop they were bankrupted and soon plauged with debtsthey could not pay. They decided to release their possessions, except forpersonal effects and start anew. Now the question was where to make thisnew start. Betsy thought of the 1000 acre grant given to her father,Robert Patton, by North Carolina for his services during theRevolutionary War. It lay untouched in former Indian Lands on theRutherford Fork of the Obion River in Western Tennessee and now seemed agood time to put it to use. Robert's title to the claim was cleared, whenin 1818, Andrew Jackson, ever ready to push the Indian Tribes furtherWest, had led yet annother commission to treat with the Chickasaw Nationfor the sale of West Tennessee and a large part of Western Kentucky. Intheir meeting in Tuscambia, Alabama, he bribed the Chickasaw Chiefs witha gift of $20,000. In return they sold their land for four cents an acre.
MOVE TO WEST TENNESSEE: Davey and his oldest son, John Wesley, leftLawrence County and went to scout the Patton grant. By September 1822,Davey and Betsy and their eight children; Betsy's two by James Patton,Davey's three by Polly Finley, and the three born to them, plus hismother Rebecca Hawkins; were installed in a log cabin on a plateau abovethe occasionly flooding Obion River and the mosquitos. Betsy's brotherGeorge never left North Carolina. Her brother James did, but went toMissisippi. Her five sisters and their husbands joined them. They were;Margaret and Abner Burgin; Ann Catherine and Hance McWhorter, Sarah andWilliam Edmundson; Rebecca and James Edmundson; and Matilda Caroline andPeter Trosper. Also joining the new settlement  were John and CateyEdmundson and his father Robert Edmundson, who was also father to Jamesand William, as well as George and SaS