Frederick Foster Kislingbury was born in England in 1846 or 1847 and moved to the United States around 1858. He lived in Rochester, New York, and enlisted in a cavalry regiment during the Civil War. After the war, he moved to Detroit, Michigan, where he was a clerk, and he received a United States Army commission around 1873. He served as a 2nd lieutenant with the 11th Infantry at Fort Concho, Texas; Fort Standing Rock, Dakota Territory; and Fort Custer, Montana.
In 1880, Kislingbury volunteered for Adolphus Greely's expedition to the Arctic. Originally appointed second in command, Kislingbury was relieved from duty in August 1881 at his own request after refusing to comply with orders. He remained with the expedition, as the steamer Proteus , which had brought the men to Lady Franklin Bay, had already left, and only resumed duties after the death of another crew member in April 1884. He died in the Arctic on June 1, 1884.
His four surviving sons were Harry Howard Grant (b. 1867), Walter Frederick (1869-1901 or 1902), Douglas Ebstein Lohman (b. 1874), and Wheeler Schofield (b. 1876). Following their father's death, they lived with Charles Lamartine Clark, Kislingbury's estate executor, and with their uncles, John P. Kislingbury and William H. Kislingbury of Rochester, New York. Harry H. G. Kislingbury attended the Michigan Military Academy in Orchard Lake, Michigan, in the mid-1880s. He later lived in Flagstaff, Arizona. Wheeler Schofield Kislingbury later lived in San Francisco, California.
