CONNECTION TO BUTLER COUNTY

Remington’s Butler County sheep ranch was located in the southwest quarter of Section 25 of Fairmount Township, near the tiny settlement of Plum Grove, about six miles from Potwin, twenty miles northwest of El Dorado.  It was purchased for $3,400 through a Yale classmate Robert Camp.  Later he also purchased the southeast quarter of section 26 for $1,250.  Peabody, about 10 miles to the north, being the only town on the railroad line, was where Remington and Camp got most of their supplies.

The property included a three-room ranch house, still standing though extensively remodeled, a corral and two barns, now gone.  The large barn, one of the last buildings razed, had an etching of a cowboy roping a steer cut into the inside wall with a knife.

Fred, as he was known here, was a big fellow, jovial, friendly and popular with the younger set, throwing bachelor parties with plenty of liquor and always ready for a horse race, wild steer riding, or any other sport.  Other residents wouldn’t have given a nickel for his chances of becoming a renowned Western artist.  A renowned hell-raiser maybe, but not an artist.

Along with sheep, Remington lost no time in also purchasing a string of horses.  He acquired an unusual half-breed Texas-thoroughbred mare, a light gold dust color with a mane and tail of Naples yellow.  Named Terra Cotta, his hired hands shortened it to Terry.  “The gallop across the prairie is glorious,” wrote Remington.  “The light haze hung over the plains, not yet dissipated by the rising sun.  Terra Cotta’s stride was steel springs under me as she swept along, brushing the dew from the grass of the range. . .”  Many remembered him riding a bucking, galloping pony, waving his sombrero with a free hand.

He also raised cattle, but never mules, as has been erroneously told by many.  Considerable remodeling of the barns was necessary for rearing sheep; he also had a sheep shed built at the top of a slope overlooking the range.

Always, Remington sketched, filling books with sketches of his ranch, his friends, animals, life on the prairies – anything that interested him.  He gave most of these early drawings away.

At 5’9” and 220 pounds, he was a proficient boxer, and often arranged boxing matches with other young men of the area, using one of his barns as a makeshift gymnasium.  Once he rode into Peabody to find the town bully picking on another man.  Remington dismounted and gave the bully a sound thrashing.

A popular local sport he discovered was “running jacks”, a sport involving mounted hunters with six-foot lances, a fleet dog, and the long-eared Kansas jackrabbit.  The dog would flush the rabbit from cover and the hunters then began the chase.  The object was to touch the jack with the lance – a feat not often accomplished.  Remington’s story, “Coursing Rabbits on the Plains,” was published in Outing Magazine in May 1887.  During the race mentioned in the story, he foolishly lost his beloved mare, Terra Cotta, in a bet with a local settler.

In July, Remington and George Shepherd of Peabody left to take a look at the country to the southwest.  Remington made another such trip and was gone most of the summer, leaving the ranch to his young employees.

With a seemingly unlimited store of pranks, the hardscrabble ranchers of the area considered him nothing but a wealthy playboy.  Resenting his extravagance, careless management, and his impact on their children, his constant pranks angered them.

At one party, Remington slipped behind an English rancher and fired his revolver in the air, only to have the unruffled Englishman say calmly, “Put up that gun.  You might hurt someone, Frederic.”

The first of November, the preacher found his buggy on top of the church and his cow inside the front door.  Just out for fun, Remington paid to get the buggy down, clean the church and paint it, and made a cash donation to the minister.