Early Life
William Alexander Becknell was born in the Rockfish Creek area of Amherst County, Virginia to parents Micajaha and Pheby (Landrum) Becknell. There are conflicting sources as to the year of his birth being 1787 or 1788. Young Becknell's father was a veteran of the American Revolution, as were two uncles who died in the war. Becknell married Jane Trusler in 1807 and in 1810 the young family arrived in the new Missouri Territory, homesteading west of present-day St. Charles, Missouri. During the War of 1812 Becknell served in the United States Mounted Rangers under Captain Daniel Morgan Boone, son of the famed explorer. He participated in several engagements, including the Battle of Credit Island and the defense of Fort Clemson, near St. Louis. In the latter engagement he took control of the defense after senior officers fell. For this he was promoted to the rank of Captain, and many times in the future he would be referred to as Captain Becknell. Following his discharge from Federal service in June, 1815 Becknell moved to the area around Boone's Lick and Arrow Rock in central Missouri.
Jane Becknell died of unknown circumstance around the time of William's military discharge, possibly in childbirth, and he remarried in January, 1817 to Mary Cribb. According to U.S. Census Bureau records William Becknell was the father of at least five children; Mary Jane born in 1815, John Calhoun born in 1817, William Alexander Jr. also born in 1817, Lucy born in 1818, and Cornelia born in 1827. Becknell supported his family by working as a ferryman on the Missouri river and by managing the Boone's Lick Salt Works. In early 1820 he purchased 180 acres in Howard County, Missouri and moved the family there.
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