Eliphalet Remington

Eliphalet Remington (October 28, 1793 – August 12, 1861) designed the Remington rifle and founded what is now known as the Remington Arms Co., Inc..

Early years
Eliphalet Remington II was born in 1793 in the town of Suffield, Connecticut. He was the second child of four surviving children (but the only son) of Eliphalet and Elizabeth (Kilbourn) Remington, whose family origins lay in Yorkshire, England.

Eliphalet II followed in his father's footsteps and entered the blacksmith trade at the family's rural forge in Herkimer County, New York. The original family home at Kinne Corners, New York, built about 1810 and known as Remington House, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

Remington Company co-founder
The younger Remington worked with his father in the forge,and at 23, he hand-made a revolutionary sporting rifle using a firing mechanism bought from a gunsmith, but constructing the barrel himself.

The gun received such an enthusiastic response that Remington decided to manufacture it in quantity. By 1840, when his three sons began to take a more active role in the family business, he formed the firm of E. Remington and Sons, which he headed until his death in 1861.

By the mid-19th century the gun had become immensely popular with American sportsmen and was one of the standard guns used in what has been called "the winning of the West".

The company continued to grow and to develop its product and gradually began the manufacture of other sporting goods, such as bicycles. At the present time, the company is known as the Remington Arms Co., Inc.

What began as a one-man enterprise has become one of the world's leading manufacturers of sporting arms. Before the Remington Company was formed, American sportsmen relied upon foreign sources for the majority of the sporting guns they used. The production of a rifle within the reach of men who wanted and needed a good gun changed the picture permanently.

Situated in the Mohawk River Valley &mdash; the eastern gateway to the expanding Northwest Territory and in the path of the still-to-be-constructed Erie Canal &mdash; the fieldstone Remington forge was astride a trade route that would bring prosperity to the family and the other inhabitants of the region. The expansion of population and wealth along that conduit of commerce would cause Eliphalet Remington to enter the arms making business.

Personal life
Eliphalet Remington was married to Abigail Paddock; they would have three sons, Philo Remington, Eliphalet Remington, and Samuel Remington, all of whom followed their father into the family business.