FIRST AMERICAN IMPORTATIONS 293 



calf Chieftain, although under no legal obligation to 

 do so. Mr. Stone's letters to George Underwood on 

 this occasion show him to have been a man of ster- 

 ling moral worth. 



At the New England Fair of 1870, held at Man- 

 chester, N. H., the Underwoods gained first prize 

 for "best Hereford bull five years old or over," and 

 at the same show first and second prizes for fat 

 cattle in the Hereford class were won respectively 

 by Jonathan Slade, of Somerset, and Frank Jones, 

 Portsmouth, N. H. In the class for "working oxen, 

 four years old, ' ' Arthur Clough, Canterbury, N. H., 

 was first, and Harvey Dodge, Sutton, Mass., second. 

 These instances are cited by way of illustrating 



ply, forty cords of hardwood. The Underwood homestead contained 

 thirteen fireplaces. 



Gilbert Underwood possessed a temperament adapted to the suc- 

 cessful handling of animals, and he became an expert ox teamster. 

 The Hereford herd bulls were usually trained to the yoke and per- 

 formed a vast amount of farm work in place of oxen. The most 

 notable of these bull teams were Ontario Chief and his mate, Pride 

 of Kennebec. Both these bulls worked single as well as double, and 

 many a time Mr. Underwood has taken in the single yoke one of 

 these bulls to a steep hill near his home where a four-horse team was 

 "stuck," and the old bull would haul the discouraged horses into the 

 breeching. 



On the dissolution of the partnership of G. & G. Underwood, Gilbert 

 Underwood in 1877 constructed farm buildings convenient to his por- 

 tion of the farm lands and there established his herd. His part of 

 the breeding herd comprised four cows two sired by Wellington "Hero 

 and two by Ontario Chief. One of the Ontario Chief cows, Alberta 

 2d, is worthy of special notice. She was a strictly hay and grass 

 product, probably never in her entire life having eaten 500 pounds of 

 grain, yet she was always in first-class beef condition and when her 

 breeding usefulness was passed yielded a carcass of prime beef, dress- 

 ing 975 pounds. At the head of this herd in 1880 Gilbert Underwood 

 placed Paragon 3d, a bull bred by Frederick William Stone. Four 

 years later Paragon 3d was followed by Eastern Prince, a grandson of 

 Assurance by Longhorns, and in 1888 Eastern Prince was replaced by 

 Careful 2d, a meritorious bull of Burleigh & Bodwell breeding. The 

 next bull leaving a marked impress on the herd was Roanoke, a grand- 

 son of Sir Evelyn, by Lord Wilton, which remained in the herd until 

 1905. During the last forty years the herd bulls, with one or two ex- 

 ceptions, have represented in conformation the same general type 

 smooth, compact and low-set. The Underwood type was fine-boned, 

 filled and finished. 



Gilbert Underwood died at his home in Fayette on Nov. 22, 1907. 

 He was a man of unusual personal magnetism. Children felt at 

 in his presence, and animals were instinctively drawn to him, 



