Initial Letters - Essentials at Fort Adobe - Letter T

1880

Death of his father

His father dies at fifty, receiving respectful recognition from the citizens of Ogdensburg.

1881

First trip west: Montana

At nineteen he makes his first trip west, to Montana, at first to buy a cattle operation and then a mining interest, but lacks the capital for either. He sees the vast prairies, the quickly shrinking bison herds, the still unfenced cattle and the last major confrontations of the US Cavalry and Native American tribes — scenes he had imagined since childhood. Though undertaken as a lark, the trip gave him a more authentic view of the West than some later artists and writers such as N. C. Wyeth and Zane Grey; Harper's Weekly printed his first commercial effort, a re-drawing of a quick sketch on wrapping paper that he had mailed back east.

1884

Marries Eva Caten

He goes home to marry Eva Caten. Her father had earlier turned him down — a widower, he felt he needed Eva — but after remarrying he was more amenable. The young couple immediately return to Kansas City.

c. 1885

Takes up art in earnest

With his wife gone and business going badly, Remington begins to sketch and paint in earnest, bartering his sketches for essentials. He soon sells enough paintings to locals to see art as a real profession; his inheritance is gone, but his faith in his new career is secure, and he returns home, reunited with his wife.

1898

At war in Cuba: a heroic image shattered

As the Spanish–American War takes shape, he returns to Cuba to see military action for the first time and goes through the most wrenching, disillusioning experience of his life. Witnessing the assault on San Juan Hill by American forces, including those led by Roosevelt, he sees his heroic conception of war shattered by the actual horror of jungle fighting and the deprivations of camp. His reports and illustrations on his return focus not on heroic generals but on the troops.

26. december 1909

Died