John Ellis Remington was born on February 14, 1897 in Durham County, North Carolina. Following World War I, Ellis was a private in the Durham Machine Gun Company, a national guard unit. In July 1920, he deployed with his unit to Alamance County on orders from the governor to protect three wrongfully accused Black men from a lynch mob. By profession, Remington worked as a printer for Seeman Printery from 1928 until his retirement in 1963. He died in Durham on May 29, 1965.