When Frederic was eighteen months old, his father was killed in a train wreck, and his resourceful mother, of sturdy, religious stock, opened a vest-making business. In 1861 she married William De Mott, who ran a milk and wood business.
Frederic had an early taste for reading, particularly history, and as a youngster developed his talent for writing and drawing. His graduation from the local advanced school in 1871 ended his formal education. He had worked for his stepfather as a youngster, delivering milk, but his first regular employment was with local photographers as a photographic printer and negative retoucher. His trade supported him marginally in Boston, where he went at the age of seventeen to live on the fringes of bohemianism and to try his hand at writing and painting. When he returned to Utica in 1875, he affected the role of the man of the world, smiling at the rusticities of Utica and sporting a long-tailed frock coat; but he settled for his old job of retouching negatives.
His career in journalism began later the same year, proofreading on the Utica Morning Herald.
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