"King of the Wild Frontier"

When I was a kid there was a movie about "Davy" Crockett called "King of the Wild Frontier."  Walt Disney chose an actor by the name of Fess Parker to play Crockett in the movie, I suppose because Parker was a really tall, good-lookin' guy (as we imagine kings to be.)  In reality, David Crockett was a smallish kinda fella, but because I grew up on Walt Disney stuff Crockett will always be Fess Parker-looking.  It was before my time, but the very first motion picture about David Crockett was a silent movie produced in 1909 - actually one of six silent movies about him.  Then, after "talkies" came out, there were ten produced between 1937 and 1960.

So, if Crockett was King of the Wild Frontier, how does one define the frontier.  I mean, how do you know when you get there?  In steps the government, of course.  Seems that beginning with the census of 1790 it was possible to draw a line on a map and say, "It starts here," because the government's line was based on census numbers.  Counties with more than two but less than six people per square mile were considered "frontier." Of course, that line moved every ten years - and with it men like David Crockett picked up and moved farther west, too.

Today we know of people who are really, really good at starting companies, but they have no desire to do the day-to-day challenge of keeping that company afloat.  So it was with men like Daniel Boone and David Crockett.  They pushed the boundaries of America westward using their talents and nature's resources, but once too much civilization accumulated, they were ready to move forward into new frontier land.


One could literally go nowhere in search of new land without an ax because the forests had never been penetrated by anyone but native Americans on foot.  (They didn't start riding horses until Europeans pushed them westward and onto the plains.)  Men like Boone and Crockett most likely headed out with just a rifle and a skinning knife to hunt and explore this fascinating new land.  Once they decided to move family, lock, stock and barrel, they probably packed the ax.

In 1784, two years before Crockett was born, one Nicholas Gentry passed away in Tennessee, and a summary of his estate was recorded:

1 cow
1 heifer
1 horse (subsequently lost by the administrator of the will) (Yeah, right)
6 sheep
1 sow
1 pot
1 pound and 3 quarts of pewter
2 small hoes and an old mattock (combines features of an adz and a pick or ax)
1 ax and 2 plane bits
1 drawing knife
1 pair of snippers and a razor
2 bridle bits
1 pair of bullet molds
1 weaving loom
1 flax wheel
2 smal piggins (small wooden pails with one stave extended up as a handle)
7 table spoons
1 bedstead and bedding
1 Bible
1 spelling book
1 fat tub

I'm thinking that Mr Gentry would have been considered a very wealthy man by frontier standards. It's interesting that it lists "7 table spoons" but no bowls, plates, forks, tankards, etc.  I also like the fact that he had a spelling book!  And I'm not at all surprised that he had a Bible - especially since it was religious persecution that brought the Europeans to America in the 1600's.