John David Albert (1806 – April 24, 1899) was a mountain man born in Hagerstown, Maryland. He was orphaned in 1812 around the age of seven. His father died in the War of 1812 and his mother soon after, leaving Albert to live with a sister in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.After working on a Mississippi keelboat in 1833, Albert went west in 1834 with a group of approximately sixty hunters to trap. He soon became part of the Western department of the American Fur Company at Fort Laramie.