9374 Roosevelt Street Crown Point, Indiana 46307
One of the most expert machinists as well as large property
owners of Woodburn [Oregon], was Eugene Lincoln Remington, owner
and proprietor of Remington’s bicycle and gun store, recognized
as one of the reliable and necessary adjuncts of the city. This
oldest resident of the first town of Woodburn is a native son of
the golden west, and was born east of Silverton, Oregon, March 24,
1867. His father, Marquis de La-Fayette Remington, and his
grandfather, Col. Virgillius E., a physician who was born June 6,
1805, in Greenville, Hampden County, Massachusetts, were identified
with the old Mormon town of Nauvoo, Han cock County, Illinois,
where the former was born February 2, 1847, on Laharp Prairie, and
where the latter participated in the Mormon troubles which will
ever be a blot upon the fair name of the little Mississippi River
city.
Nauvoo, founded by the Mormons in 1840, became an eyesore to the
reputable citizens of the state, and the sect was driven out
through capture, and subsequent shooting at Carthage, of the chief
Mormon agitator, Joe Smith. Col. Virgillius E. Remington had the
honor of capturing this noted disciple of the church, but he was
averse to shooting him, although he ever after got the credit for
securing his ignominious end. Somewhat fearful of his fate at the
hands of the accusing Mormons, and also because of a progressive
nature which recognized superior advantages in the west, the
grandfather crossed the plains with his family in ’49 with ox
teams, locating at Roseville Junction, California. He was very
successful in mining, and became a well known figure there, and he
now sleeps under an old oak tree on the outskirts of the town.
Colonel Remington was a Master Mason.
The marriage of Colonel Remington united him with Esther E.
Doud, who was born May 3, 1808, in Can ton, Hartford County,
Connecticut. Of this union ten children were born, including
Marquis de LaFayette, the father of Eugene Lincoln Remington.
Marquis de LaFayette Remington was seven years of age when he
crossed the plains with his father. He was reared at Roseville
Junction, California, until after the death of his father, January
14, 1858, in Placer County. With his mother and two brothers he
came to Beaverton, Oregon, in 1854 and on rented land engaged in
farming until about 1863. He then moved near Silverton. There he
bought one hundred and twenty-five acres of land, working this
until 1870, when he located in Woodburn and engaged in
blacksmithing. About 1882 he started a foundry and general machine
shop, the successful operation of which netted him a fair income up
to the time of his death at the age of fifty-one years.
Mr. Remington was a mechanical genius, and was at the head of
that business in his city, contributing a remarkable inventive
talent towards the advancement of mechanical ideas. He invented and
patented the Remington traction engine, the patent of which was
sold to the Best Manufacturing Company, of San Leandro, California
Other patents of labor-saving machinery and appliances are also
attributable to his ingenuity. His plant sustained a severe loss in
the fire of 1886, when he lost about $10,000 in building and
machinery. Mr. Remington married Helen Elmyre Welch, who was born
January 14, 1850, in St. Marys, Hancock County, Illinois. On May 5,
1855, the Welch family started for California going by rail to New
York and then by steamer to the Isthmus of Panama, crossing by
rail. The steamer Golden Gate landed them in San Francisco May 31,
1855. In 1859 they started for Oregon with teams. The Welch family
lived near the Remingtons in California, and they were not divided
in Oregon, for Thomas Welch settled on a farm northeast of
Silverton. Mrs. Remington, who died in Oregon in 1893, at the age
of forty-one, was the mother of four children, Eugene Lincoln being
the oldest.
The necessity for assisting with the family maintenance at a
very early age interfered with the education of Eugene Lincoln
Remington, and his knowledge was therefore self-acquired. As a lad
of thirteen he was busily engaged in his father’s ma chine
shop, and after learning the business he continued with his sire,
becoming a partner in the firm in 1888, at the age of twenty-one.
After the fire he engaged in the sporting goods business, carrying
a complete stock of bicycles, guns, and general paraphernalia, in
1900 moving into a new store building which sup planted the
original machine shop. He had been very successful in disposing of
his superior brand of wheels, and is well versed as to the
respective merits of the wheels that come under his observation. No
one in the county turned out more satisfactory repair work, and the
line of guns, ammunition, and general sporting accessories was
complete and up-to-date in every respect.
In 1891 Mr. Remington was united in marriage to Ida May Ban
croft, a native of Lodi, Wisconsin, who came to Oregon in 1889,
locating at Woodburn. Her father, Henry L. Bancroft, lived in
retirement in Woodburn, and has to his credit a meritorious record
as a soldier during the Civil War. Three children blessed the union
of Mr. and Mrs. Remington, two sons and one daughter.
Since casting his first presidential vote, Mr. Remington was
allied with the Republican party, and had taken an active part in
local politics of his city. He was fraternally connected with
Woodburn Lodge No. 102, I.O.O.F., and was very active in that
organization, being past grand, and he had been twice
representative to the Grand Lodge. With his wife he was also a
member of Home Lodge No. 58, of the Rebekahs.
With his brother, Mr. Remington owned the Remington Hall, and
with their sister two residences; he built the one in which he
lived.
He was progressive, anxious to increase his business knowledge,
and had a keen interest in all that pertains to the welfare of his
community.
According to Jack Norbeck’s Encyclopedia of Steam Traction
Engines, the Remington Company only actively built about two steam
engines.
