Kit Carson grew up on the Missouri border, watching his older brothers, one-by-one, disappearing up the Missouri River or over the Santa Fe Trail. After his father died in a field accident, his mother apprenticed him to a saddlemaker in Franklin. That life didn't suit him and in 1826, at the age of 16, Kit ran away and joined a wagon train bound for Santa Fe. (The saddlemaker reported him as a runaway and offered one penny as a reward to anyone who returned Kit to his place of business in Franklin.)