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Historical Figures: Archbishop Lamy, Charles Bent, Kit Carson, Willa Cather, Flying Priest, Greer Garson, Geronimo, Conrad Hilton, Mable Dodge Lujan, Fred Lambert, John Gaw Meems, Robert Ollinger, Millicent Rogers, Will Schuster, Carrie Tingley, Lew Wallace

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Charles Bent

Charles Bent (1799-1847) was appointed as the first Governor of the newly acquired New Mexico Territory by Governor Stephen Watts Kearny in September, 1846. He was assassinated on January 19, 1847 during the Taos Revolt.

Bent was born in 1799 in Charleston, West Virginia, and attended the United States Military Academy at West Point. After leaving the army, he and his younger brother William in 1828 took a wagon train of goods from St. Louis to Santa Fe. There they established mercantile contacts and began a series of trading trips back and forth over the Santa Fe Trail which resulted, in 1832, in a partnership with Ceran St. Vrain, a local fur trader, called Bent & St. Vrain Company.

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