Carson left the saddlemaker after less than two years and joined a party of traders on their way to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Carson worked in the West from 1825 to 1868, during a period of tremendous national growth, exploration, and colonization. He became one of the most famous men in America, renowned for his skills as a scout, warrior, and diplomat. Carson was born on April 5, 1791 in what is now Callaway County, Missouri. His father was a Scottish-American soldier who had come to America with George Washington's army and settled near the future site of St. Louis. His mother was an Indian woman. When he was five years old, the family moved to Kentucky, where his father found work as a horse trader. When Kit was eleven years old, the family again moved, this time to Tennessee, where his father managed land owned by the federal government. Here he learned to be a hunter and to ride well before becoming a slave to his own horse. In 1915, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him a deputy sheriff for the territory of New Mexico. This office allowed him to carry out scouting missions for the Army and to protect settlers against Apache attacks. In 1827, he married Margery Donner, the daughter of a wealthy California pioneer. They had three children together: Catherine, Elizabeth, and Arthur.