(1788?-1856) - A frontiersman and trader, Becknell was born in Amherst County, Virginia around 1788 to Micajah and Pheby Landrum Becknell. he became involved in the War of 1812 and joined Daniel Morgan Boone, the son of the famed explorer, and his motivated by financial problems, he became the "Father of the Santa Fe Trail" when he he organized a trading party that crossed the Great Plains to New Mexico. He left Franklin, Missouri with four companions in September, 1821 on his first trip to the western US with a load of freight to deliver to Santa Fe, New Mexico. He traveled via what would be come known as the Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail.company of United States Mounted Rangers as first sergeant in May, 1813. Captain William Becknell died on April 25, 1856, and was buried near Clarksville.