1861

Frederic Sackrider Remington is born in Canton, New York, on October 4, the only child of Seth Pierre Remington (1834–1880), owner and editor of a local newspaper, and Clara Bascomb Sackrider Remington (1836–1912), known for her exquisite needlework.^{jump to citation[x]}

1865

Major Seth Remington returns to Canton after serving with distinction in the Union army.

1873

In August, the Remington family moves to Ogdensburg, New York, near the Canadian border.

1875

In August, Remington enters Vermont Episcopal Institute, a military school in Burlington, Vermont.

1876–78

Attends Highland Military Academy in Worcester, Massachusetts.

1878–80

Attends three semesters at Yale University School of Fine Arts; discontinues his studies when his father dies in 1880.

1879

In August, Remington meets his future wife, Eva Adele Caten (1859–1918), in Canton, New York, where she is a student at St. Lawrence University.

1880

Remington and his mother move back to Canton. He subsequently obtains a political job in Albany as chief clerk in the Department of Public Instruction and relocates there.

Remington’s father dies on February 18; Frederic does not return to Yale.

1881

Travels to the West for the first time to the Montana Territory in August and September; he takes the Northern Pacific Railway to its terminus in western Dakota Territory and then the stage to Fort Keogh in Miles City, Montana. From there, he goes by horseback to visit cattle ranches and goldfields. During the trip, he pays a visit to the Little Bighorn battlefield.

1882

In August, vacations at Cranberry Lake in the Adirondacks, where he will return frequently during the 1890s.

1883

Tries sheep farming in Peabody, Kansas, financed by his inheritance; the venture lasts less than a year.

1884

In the spring, Remington moves to Kansas City, Missouri, and becomes part-owner of a hardware store and a saloon; the saloon fails by August 1885.

In October, Remington and Eva Adele Caten marry in Gloversville, New York. Eva accompanies her husband to Kansas City.

Eva returns to Gloversville in December, disillusioned by life in the West and her husband’s prospects.

1885

In March, sells the sketch Ejecting an ‘Oklahoma Boomer’ and an accompanying essay to Harper’s Weekly.

Moves with his wife to Brooklyn, New York, in September. Is hired as a staff artist at Harper’s Weekly.

1886

On January 9, The Apache War—Indian Scouts on Geronimo’s Trail (ca. 1886) appears on the cover of Harper’s Weekly.

From March through May, Remington attends Art Students League in Manhattan, where Julian Alden Weir, William Merritt Chase, and Kenyon Cox instruct students in painting.

In June, he visits Mexico and the U.S. Territories of Arizona and New Mexico for Harper’s Weekly; takes photographs of various subjects for later reference and meets Lieutenant Powhatan Clarke, who becomes a source for Remington of props for paintings and anecdotes for articles. Remington will travel to the western U.S. and Mexico almost every year for the rest of his life.

1887

In August, Theodore Roosevelt suggests Remington illustrate Roosevelt’s upcoming Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine serial Ranch Life and the Hunting-Trail.^{jump to citation[x]}

1888

Four of his paintings are published as photogravures in Picturesque California, edited by the naturalist John Muir.

In the spring, his painting Return of a Blackfoot War Party (1887) is exhibited at the National Academy of Design. Remington also wins the Hallgarten Prize for young artists. He will show his work regularly at the National Academy of Design’s spring and fall shows until 1899.^{jump to citation[x]}

In June and July, takes a monthlong trip to the Southwest on commission for Century Magazine. On July 1, while on the way home, he writes Eva:

“spent a day in Fort Worth ... —had a devil of a time—the mosquitoes like to have eaten me up— ... and oh oh oh how hot it is here—I have sweat and sweat my clothes full—I can fairly smell myself—I am dirty and look like the devil and feel worse and there is no help for me. Well you can bet I am going to make the dust fly and get through as soon as I can—This is a miserable little frontier town with a little hen coop of a hotel—I am nearly starved to death—this Texas grub is something frightful ... —I full agree with Phil Sheridan, ‘If I owned Texas and Hell, I would rent Texas and live in Hell.’”^{jump to citation[x]}

1889

Exhibits five oil paintings at the 1889 Paris World’s Fair in the spring.

That summer, he vacations at Cranberry Lake in the Adirondacks, less than 100 miles from the North Woods Club, a private association dedicated to the sporting life.

In the fall, exhibits A Dash for the Timber (1889) at the National Academy of Design; a reviewer in the New York Herald declares that it “marks an advance on the part of one of the strongest of our younger artists, who is one of the best illustrators we have.”^{jump to citation[x]}

In December, visits Montreal and the Canadian North Woods to go moose hunting with the journalist and prominent outdoor enthusiast Julian Ralph.

Purchases a house (which he later names Endion) on three acres in New Rochelle, close to New York City.