Representative John Wesley Crockett

John Wesley Crockett (July 10, 1807 – November 24, 1852) was an American lawyer, public official, and Whig politician who represented Tennessee’s Twelfth Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives, the same district his father, David (Davy) Crockett, had represented earlier. He was born in eastern Tennessee on July 10, 1807, to David Crockett (1786–1836), frontiersman, soldier, and congressman, and his first wife, Mary (Polly) Finley Crockett (1788–1815). He was one of three children from this marriage, with a brother, William Finley Crockett, and a sister, Margaret Finley (Polly) Crockett. His early years were spent in the frontier environment of Tennessee, where his family’s movements and experiences reflected the broader westward expansion of the early nineteenth century.

Crockett received his education in the public schools of Tennessee. He pursued legal studies after his basic schooling and, upon completion of his law training, was admitted to the bar. Establishing himself professionally, he began the practice of law in Paris, Tennessee, a growing community in the western part of the state. In his personal life, he married Martha Hamilton, with whom he had a large family of fourteen children, a household that underscored both his domestic responsibilities and his standing in local society.

Before entering national politics, Crockett held numerous local and state offices in Tennessee, building a reputation as an attorney and public servant. His early public career unfolded against the backdrop of intense partisan competition in the state, particularly between Jacksonian Democrats and emerging Whigs. This environment shaped his political identity and prepared him for higher office, while also linking his name to the political legacy of his father, who had become a nationally recognized figure.

Crockett was elected as a member of the Whig Party to the Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth Congresses, representing Tennessee’s Twelfth Congressional District. He succeeded Adam Huntsman, the Democrat who had defeated his father in the 1835 congressional election, thereby reclaiming for the family the seat his father had once held. Crockett served in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1837, to March 3, 1841. During his two terms in Congress, he contributed to the legislative process as a Whig representative from Tennessee, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his constituents during a significant period in American history marked by debates over economic policy, federal power, and westward expansion.

After leaving Congress, Crockett continued his public service in Tennessee. He was elected by the Tennessee General Assembly to serve as attorney general for the ninth judicial district of Tennessee, a position he held from 1841 to 1843. In this role, he was responsible for representing the state in criminal prosecutions and other legal matters within the district, further solidifying his career as a practicing lawyer and public official.

In 1843, Crockett moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he shifted his professional focus from law and public office to commerce and journalism. He became a commission merchant in the city’s busy commercial sector, participating in the trade economy of one of the South’s principal ports. He also entered the newspaper business, reflecting both his political interests and the growing importance of the press in public life. He published a newspaper titled the National beginning on May 22, 1848, and around 1847 he established another paper known as the Crescent, contributing to the political and commercial discourse of New Orleans through his editorial work.

Later in life, Crockett returned to Tennessee, settling in Memphis. His final year was spent there, and he died in Memphis on November 24, 1852, at the age of 45. Although he died in Memphis, he was interred in Old City Cemetery in Paris, Tennessee, the community where he had first established his legal practice and from which he had risen to state and national prominence. His career, spanning law, state and local office, congressional service, and later commercial and journalistic endeavors, reflected both his inheritance of a notable political name and his own efforts to shape public life in Tennessee and beyond.