Mary (Polly) Crockett
A Legend in Her Own Right
Please join us for a program on the wife of the famous frontiersman and soldier David Crockett of Tennessee . The program about the life of Mary (Polly) Finley Crockett will be held at the Cowan Center for the Arts on September 11th at 4:00pm and presented by Steve Pearson of the Franklin County Historical Society.
Many stories have been written and Hollywood movies made about the life of David Crockett, but very little has been written about his first wife Mary Finley of Hamblin County , Tennessee. It is often said behind every successful man is an enterprising woman and the Crockett family is no exception.
Mary was born on January 4, 1788. She was the forth of seven children and the first of two daughters born to William and Jean Kennedy Finley. Mary’s father nicknamed her Polly. She was born in what is now East Tennessee. Mary met the David Crockett in 1805 and they were married one year later on August 12, 1806 in her parent’s home. She was 18 years old.
The Crockets lived in East Tennessee for several years, then moved to Southern Middle Tennessee; first in present day Moore County and then to Franklin County. It was while they lived in Southern Tennessee that the Creek Indian War and War of 1812 started. David volunteered for the conflicts leaving Polly at home to raise two children with another on the way. Polly lived all her life in Tennessee. She died in the early spring of 1815 in Franklin County shortly after her third child was born. She was 27 years old.
Polly Crockett embodied the frontier woman’s spirit. When her husband was away fighting for his country, Polly was left at home in the wilderness with the awesome tasks of safeguarding their children, tending the livestock, farming and foraging for food, and keeping the home fires burning.
Please join us for this 90 minute program on an extraordinary frontier lady by the name of Mary Finley.
Admission is free and refreshments will be provided. Donations are always welcome.
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