(December 24, 1809–May 23, 1868), was an American frontiersman, fur trapper, guide, Indian agent and soldier. He was a contemporary of the mountainmen explorers: Jedediah Smith (1798–1831), Jim Bridger (1804–1881) and Thomas Fitzpatrick (1799–1854); and his ventures west of the Mississippi were as famous as Daniel Boone’s were to the east.
Kit Carson was born in Kentucky, ninth of fourteen children, and moved to the Boone’s Lick district of Missouri with his family when he was about a year and a half old. At the onset of his last illness, while bringing Indian Chiefs to meet American leaders, Kit Carson stated:
Suddenly the bed seemed to rise with me—I felt my head swell and my breath leaving me. Then, I woke up at the window. It was open and my face and head all wet. I was on the floor and the chief was holding my head on his arm and putting water on me. He was crying. He said “I thought you were dead. You called your Lord Jesus, then you shut your eyes and couldn’t speak.”
I did not know that I spoke … I do not know that I called on the Lord Jesus, but I might—it’s only Him that can help me where I stand now.
I must take the chiefs to Boston. They depend on me. I told them I would. Then we go home, straight. My wife must see me. If I was to write about this, or died out here, it would kill her. I must get home, and I think I can do it.2414