Benjamin Franklin Ficklin (1827-1871) was known for his grand sense of adventure. His career was varied – surveyor, soldier, secret agent, and scout – but he is perhaps best known as one of the founders of the famed Pony Express.

Ficklin was born in 1827 in Albemarle County, Virginia, to Benajmin Ficklin (1790-1864) and Eleanor Slaughter (1793-1857). In July 1845, Ficklin entered Virginia Military Institute (VMI) where he soon became famous for his pranks and exploits, regularly disobeying the Institute's regulations. 

Ficklin was dismissed from VMI in late 1846 and rather than return home in disgrace, he enlisted in the United States Army. He served for a brief time and was wounded during the Mexican War. He subsequently petitioned VMI for readmission, and he returned to the Institute and graduated in July 1849. Following graduation, Ficklin worked briefly as a teacher but realized he was ill-suited to the profession. He then joined an express company in Alabama and then moved West. 

In the 1850s he found employment with a freight line company on the Western plains, and in 1857 began work on a series of Western surveying expeditions. Ficklin returned to the express and stage business in 1859, capitalizing on the boom in commercial transportation fed by Western expansion and the Pike's Peak Gold Rush. Along with several others, he formed the famed Pony Express courier service in January 1860 and served as a key partner in the venture until he left the company due to a conflict with a partner.

When the Civil War began in 1861, Ficklin returned to his native Virginia to assist the Confederate cause. Early in the War he saw active field service and subsequently served as a Confederate government purchasing agent in England and worked in intelligence. After the War he operated a stagecoach express business in Texas, having obtained significant government contracts for carrying mail in the Texas frontier region.

Ficklin's business venture required regular trips to Washington, D.C. to deal with the United States Post Office. In March 1871 while in the city to lobby for mail contracts, he and a friend were dining at a Georgetown restaurant when a fishbone became lodged in Ficklin's throat. He died several days later when his artery was slashed by the doctor attempting to remove the bone. He is buried in Maplewood Cemetery in Charlottesville, Virginia.