Crockett Davy - Three Men of Destiny

Table of Contents

THREE MEN OF DESTINY

ANDREW JACKSON, SAM HOUSTON AND DAVID CROCKET
2008 Billy Kennedy

The Scots-Irish Chronicles Series (1995-2008)

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or any other except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without prior permission of the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America

British spellings used throughout book

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Cover design & page layout by David Siglin, of A&E Media

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ISBN 978-1-932307-96-2

Published by the Ambassador Group

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AMBASSADOR INTERNATIONAL

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GREENVILLE, SC 29609 USA

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The colophon is a trademark of Ambassador International

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The author acknowledges the help and support of given to him in the compilation and publication of this book by Dr Samuel Lowry and Timothy Lowry, of Ambassador Productions/Emerald House, Belfast, Northern Ireland and Greenville, South Carolina, United States. Thanks are also extended to Glen Pratt, Amarillo, Texas, for his help.

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO
MY WIFE SALLY, DAUGHTER JULIE AND SON-IN-LAW COLIN.

I WILL LIFT UP MINE EYES UNTO THE HILLS, FROM WHENCE COMETH MY HELP. MY HELP COMETH FROM THE LORD WHICH MADE HEAVEN AND EARTH.

PSALMS CHAPTER 121, VERSES 1-2:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

This is the tenth book written by Billy Kennedy in the highly popular series of Scots-Irish Chronicles which details 18th century American frontier settlements by people who left the north of Ireland after emigrating from Scotland during that period.

The books have been eagerly read by tens of thousands of people in both the United Kingdom and the United States, recording as they have the incredible and fascinating story of a proud, dogged and determined people whose contribution to the establishment and development of the great American nation has been outstanding.

Billy Kennedy, who lives in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, has been a leading journalist in Northern Ireland for the past 38 years. He has been an assistant editor, chief leader writer, news editor, political analyst, columnist and churches correspondent with the Belfast News Letter, the main morning newspaper in Northern Ireland and the oldest existing English-written newspaper in the world, founded back in September, 1737 when the movement of the Ulster-Scots (Scots-Irish) to America had begun in earnest.

He is also the editor of The Ulster-Scot newspaper, a popular cultural publication with a large circulation in Northern Ireland and overseas, including the United States.

On his regular visits to the United States over the past 15 years, Billy Kennedy has lectured on the subject of the Scots-Irish diaspora at universities, colleges, historical and genealogical societies and public authorities in cities and towns in the south-eastern and east-coast northern states.

He is a regular broadcaster on news, current affairs and politics with the BBC and other leading media networks in the United Kingdom.

In 2007, he appeared as an historical contributor in the American History Channel documentary, essentially on the remarkable story and achievements of Scots-Irish settlers and their descendants in the south-eastern Appalachian region, titled Hillbilly - The Real Story. He also featured as an author in the Word on Word television series in 1995-1996, presented by John Siegenthaler, from Nashville.

His other main interest is soccer (he has for 35 years been a member of the Management Committee of Northern Irelands leading Club - Linfield and is currently the Clubs Vice-Chairman.) He has written a number of books on that sport.

He also has a great love and passion for American country music, particularly of the bluegrass and Appalachian folk brand and has interviewed many of Nashvilles top performers for his newspaper.

He is married with one daughter.

Billy Kennedy can be contacted at 49, Knockview Drive, Tandragee, Craigavon Northern Ireland BT62 2BH. E-mail address -

FOREWORD FROM AMERICA

We were on our way to the Ulster-American Folk Park in Co. Tyrone in September 2005 when our chaffeur, none other than the prolific author Billy Kennedy, pulled off the main road for a view of the countryside. He proceeded to elaborate to my late and dear wife Elizabeth and I on some points of interest regarding the history and background of that little piece of land called Northern Ireland.

As we walked along, Billy casually mentioned that Ulster was the ancient name of the land before Northern Ireland was officially established in 1921 as a part of the United Kingdom. Two out of every three people there have Scottish and English ancestors. Its a land of lush meadows and low mountains.

Perhaps as a result of my awe and local interest, Billy expanded on the history of this region and its role as the ancestral home of so many great Americans who helped to shape a new country in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Northern Ireland (population 1.7 million) is a tiny place on the northern territory of the Irish island, but its people have had a phenomenal and, we believe, unprecedented positive influence on the development of the United States into the worlds most affluent nation.

As we stood there with Billy Kennedy over-viewing the landscape, Billys enthusiasm waxed more pronounced as I marvelled that so many great, influential and world-renowned Americans emanated from this agrarian little place.

John Rice, you know that this was the home of President Andrew Jacksons people .. ? Seventeen United States Presidents were of Scots-Irish ancestry from right here in Northern Ireland, and at least six of the 56 signatories of the American Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776 had family roots here.

The land appeared as rural, rugged, and sparsely population as it must have been when Andrew Jacksons parents Andrew and Elizabeth made the decision to emigrate to America from Co. Antrim in 1765.

The signage at the ancestral Jackson cottage at Boneybefore, near Carrickfergus on the shores of Belfast Lough, indicated that Andrew Jacksons parents, described as poor country folk, lived there and that Andrew had gained renown as a military leader, lawyer, and one of Americas strongest and most influential Presidents.

Perhaps no such miniscule piece of this earth has sired so many giants in the development of America as the Province of Ulster, now known as Northern Ireland.

Two questions remained on my mind!

First, what attributes and special characteristics did these people possess that enabled them to become national, even world leaders?

The second perplexing question was: why did so many of this areas sons and daughters leave this beautiful, pastoral and picturesque countryside in the 1700s?