Davy Crockett Cabin

David Crockett lived in this part of Gibson County from 1822 until the fall of 1835, and the cabin in downtown Rutherford is the museum that keeps his memory. It is restored using timbers from his last Tennessee home, and it holds furniture, tools, books, pictures and copies of letters from the early 1800s. His mother, Rebecca Hawkins Crockett, is buried at the site. Rutherford observes Davy Crockett Days each year, a week of events that shows how much the town identifies with him.

The Crockett of legend was a tall-tale hero, but the Crockett of record was a politician. Elected to Congress from West Tennessee in 1827, he split with President Andrew Jackson and the Tennessee delegation on several issues, including land reform and the Indian removal bill. His open opposition to Jackson cost him the 1831 election, and he lost again in 1835. He left for Texas afterward and died at the Alamo in 1836.

The county around him was carved from a Native cession. Gibson County was created in 1823 out of land the Chickasaw (Chikasha) ceded in the Jackson Purchase, and the Chickasaw were pushed west in 1837 and 1838. The cabin is a frontier home of the 1820s on land the Chickasaw had just lost.