David Crockett Spectacular Full Length Signed Handwritten Letter

Spectacular and exceedingly rare autograph letter signed by David Crockett. Single page, written extensively recto and verso, 8" x 10". Dated "Steam Boat Currier near Maysville, 5 May 1830", and signed by Crockett full signature "David Crockett". Imperceptible minor repair at folds. Presented in a stunning maple frame with double-sided plexiglass to 10.5" x 12.5".

A fine if somewhat frantic letter, full of the author's typical misspellings and largely devoid of punctuation. Heading home from Washington, Crockett had reached Maysville, Kentucky, when he realized he had lost a portrait of himself after leaving Frostburg, Maryland. Crockett here enlists the assistance of a fellow legislator, Michael Sprigg of Maryland, who served with Crockett in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Congresses.

"I am getting on well and expects to reach my residence if no axident in ten or eleven days from the City—I am under the necessaty to ask you to do me a favour that is to call at the hose whare the Stage Stopes and in frostburgh enquare for a portetrate or my own likeness it was taken by Mr. Hincley and presented to me—I had it Rooled up and some news papers roud it and I had called it a map of florida[.] I had tied it up in side of the male Stage  and I was in the accommodation Stage and we got parted when I came to frostburgh whare they had changed Stages I enquerid for it and was told by the driver that he had put it into the other Stage tho I came on a few miles and over took the mail Stage and found that the fellow had not told be the truth[.] I am confidant that it was left their and it will be of no use to any other person than myself—I will take it as a particular favour of you if you will enquire and find it and enclose it to the Care of Foresyth and Dobbings at Wheeling their they will send it one to me … will you be so good as to enquire for it and write me to my post office in Tennessee[.]"

Famed as a frontiersman, folk hero, congressman and Alamo defender, Davy Crockett was one of the most celebrated and mythologized figures in American history. Crockett’s biographers often say there were actually two Crocketts: David, the frontiersman and congressman martyred at the Alamo, and Davy, the larger-than-life folk hero whose exploits were glorified in several books and a series of almanacs.

Crockett was a natural leader. He advanced from justice of the peace to two terms in the Tennessee legislature. He was elected to Congress in 1827 and 1829 as a Democrat. Then he broke with Jackson over a number of issues and was defeated in 1831; in 1833 he returned to Congress, this time as a Whig. In 1835 he was again defeated. Disgusted, he is quoted as saying, “You can all go to Hell and I’m going to Texas.” True or not, he did leave Tennessee in November 1835, and subsequently appeared in east Texas, ostensibly looking for land upon which to settle. Controversy surrounds his reason for going to the Alamo. He was there when it was attacked, however, and he died when it fell.

But his frontier lingo and tall stories attracted the attention of journalists. Books about Davy Crockett, the “ring-tailed roarer” from Tennessee, sold well. Beginning with a pseudo-biography in 1833, followed by his own autobiography in 1834 (written with the aid of Thomas Chilton), a plethora of Davy Crockett books and almanacs appeared over the next two decades. They claimed to be true stories about David Crockett. Narrated in frontier lingo and revealing the cruelty, bigotry, and racism of the frontier, they related the bigger-than-life adventures of a frontier superman. The half-horse, half-alligator hero, touched with the snapping turtle, who could wade the Mississippi and leap the Ohio and whip his weight in wildcats became a part of American folklore.

An exceptional letter of great rarity and desirability, only a scant few of this length having come to market in the last  20 years, with one of the few recently selling for over $47,000.


WE PROVIDE IN-HOUSE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE!