Christopher (Kit) Carson

Christopher (Kit) Carson. Dec. 24, 1809 to May 23, 1868. , Born in Madison County, Kentucky, Christopher (Kit) Carson was the ninth of fourteen children. At the age of nine, when Kit's father died, he helped support the family and at 14, he was apprenticed as a saddle and harness maker. Two years later, fascinated by the tales of Ezekiel Williams and others, he was inspired to join the Santa Fe wagon train and stayed in New Mexico, moving north to Taos. , Carson worked as a cook, errand boy and harness repairer and became fluent in Spanish. At age 21 he was fur trapping in California, becoming a mountain man and acculturated to Indian life. In 1835 he married an Arapahoe, Singing Grass, with whom he had two children – the youngest dying shortly after birth. His wife died between 1838 and 1840. When he brought his young daughter to Missouri for convent schooling and to visit his family, he met Lt. John Fremont and was hired as a guide through California, Oregon, Nevada and Utah's Great Basin. Fremont's widely-read accounts of the expeditions made Carson a national hero, popularized in fiction as a rugged mountain man capable of superhuman feats. In 1841 Carson married Making-Over-Road, a Cheyenne. She divorced him to migrate with her tribe. Two years later he married Josefa Jaramillo. They had seven children and adopted an Indian child. Carson fought in the Mexican-American War and is co-credited with sneaking through enemy lines near San Diego to bring help for pinned-down U.S. forces. In 1854 he was appointed Indian agent over the Ute and Apache nations and helped organize New Mexican infantry volunteers at the start of the Civil War. , Carson was commissioned a brigadier general in 1865, probably the only American to reach such a high military rank without being able to read or write, although he could sign his name. The next year, in poor health, he moved to Fort Lyon, Colorado, where he died in 1868. He was later buried next to wife Josefa in Taos, New Mexico.