Also Born on December 24 Who Shares Your Birthday? The Day You
Were Born The Year You Were Born 1809–68, American frontiersman
and guide. Born in Madison co., Ky. In 1811 he moved with his
family to the Missouri frontier. After his father's death, he
was apprenticed to a saddler in Old Franklin, an outfitting
point on the Santa Fe Trail, but in 1826 he ran away, joining a
caravan for Santa Fe and continuing on to Taos, N.Mex., which
became his home and his headquarters. For the next 14 years he
made his living as a teamster, cook, guide, and hunter for
exploring parties. In 1842, while returning from St. Louis by
boat up the Missouri, he met J. C. Frémont, who employed him as
a guide for his Western expeditions of 1842, 1843–44, and 1845.
He became famous as a result of Frémont's reports of his skill
and courage. After Los Angeles was taken in 1846 by U.S.
military forces, he was ordered to Washington with dispatches.
In New Mexico he met Gen. Stephen Kearny's troops, and Kearny
commanded him to guide his for