DAVID CROCKETT
David Crockett was born December 30, 1806 on one of the Fox Islands off the Atlantic coast of Maine. The place is called Vinalhaven and is in Knox County. The islands are covered with pine trees and the principal industry is fishing. David was the son of James Crockett and Elizabeth Brackett and the grandson of Isaac Crockett, who was also born at Vinalhaven in 1746. David married Lydia Young on December 20, 1830 in Vinalhaven, when he was 23 years old.
David was among the first people on the Eastern seaboard who accepted the Gospel as taught by missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The missionary who taught David and his family was Wilford Woodruff, when he was on his first mission, and his companion, Jonathan H. Hale. David was baptized March 19, 1836. Wilford Woodruff's missionary journal discusses the receptiveness of the people and that he was able to convert entire congregations after preaching to them. The Crocketts attended the local church for which the minister was Baptist, according to Elder Woodruff's journal.
In 1841 the Crockett family had a strong desire to be associated with the main body of the Saints, so with a team and wagon they started for Nauvoo, Illinois, at which place they arrived during October of 1841. At that time they had seven children, the oldest, Alvin was 10 years old and the baby, Wilford Woodruff Crockett, who was born in July, was only 3 months old. In Nauvoo they were eye witnesses to, and sharers of the manifold hardships that were endured prior to the great exodus to the west in 1846.
For one entire winter during their stay in Nauvoo the whole Crockett family, except for Alvin, was confined to their beds with the fever, which was probably malaria. Twelve year old Alvin took care of them as best as he could, also chopping wood in the nearby forest and bringing it home in a wagon for fuel to keep the family warm.
When the Saints were driven from their beautiful Nauvoo, the Crockett family settled in a place called Dover in Davis County, Iowa. They made their living by farming on shares until April, 1849 when they traveled to the Missouri River where they remained until July 4, 1849. On that day they left for the Great Salt Lake Valley with the Willard Richards Company. By then they had another three children, 10 in all. The baby, David William was just 15 months old, and Mother Lydia, who was 37 years old, was pregnant while crossing the plains in the heat of the summer.
As did other pioneer Saints, the Crockett family suffered many hardships as they crossed the plains, which took almost four months. They arrived in the Salt Lake City on Alvin's 18th birthday, October 19, 1849.
The David Crockett family located in the Salt Lake First Ward and after a great struggle they were successful in building a comparatively comfortable home. However, the family was called to go to Payson, Utah to help build up that part of Zion. Father David was very active in community affairs and was elected the first mayor of the town of Payson, Utah.
A short time after they settled in Payson, their twelfth child, who they named Emer, was born to them. Samuel Enos was born in 1853, but he died, as did their next son, Enos Samuel, who passed away at the age of two. The Crocketts moved south to Washington, near St. George, in "Dixie," where the fifteenth child of David and Lydia, who they named Lydia Mangum Crockett, was born on March 13, 1856.
David took a plural wife, Lucinda Sophronia Ellsworth, who he married in Salt Lake City on July 23, 1856 in the Endowment House. Early LDS Membership Data lists David's occupation as a farmer and said that in 1850 he had a household with a real wealth of $150.20 and in 1870 he had a household of seven with real worth of $700 and personal worth of $500. He was also listed on the Daily Log of Persons in Nauvoo, Illinois.
The Crockett family moved back up north and settled in Logan, in Cache County, where their eldest son, Alvin, also settled and was elected the first mayor of Logan, Utah, following in his father's footsteps.
David Crockett, a faithful Latter-day Saint pioneer, who had embraced the gospel on an island off the coast of Maine and brought his large family to Zion, across the plains of the American midwest, and endured many hardships, passed away at the age of 69 on April 12, 1876 in Logan, Utah.