Born somewhere in southern Canada, near the US Territories, Remington Brooks is the son of a bad-tempered, if consistent, Frenchman and a marginally less bad-tempered Cajun woman. For a wonder, the boy didn't inherit the temper, though he did inherit a stunning charm and a terrible accent from his mother's Cajun english.
Much of his youth was spent hunting; one of his permenant friends was Elizabeth, daughter of another French fur trapper and an Indian woman. Remy told her, early on, that he was going to marry her, but years passed and he went away with his father to hunt. The old man died in a bear attack, and Remy, sensibly, put aside the fur trade and went back for his 'beautiful Josie'.
She was gone, two years having been too long for the girl to wait. Accepting -- for there was nothing else he could do -- Remy made his way into the States, to New Orleans and then eventually turning west.
Word of mining lead him to Maddock; it was there that he found Josie again, now married to Benjamin Culver.