FIRST AMERICAN IMPORTATIONS 303 



fort in an ordinary sailing vessel, rolled between 

 their native land and the. American coast. 



A granddaughter of John Humphries, Mrs. Jen- 

 nie E. Thornton, writing to the author concerning 

 this undertaking, corroborates the statement above 

 quoted from Mr. Aston 's daughter, in regard to the 

 hardships suffered. Not only was a stormy voyage 

 of seven weeks experienced, in the course of which 

 two of the Herefords were lost, but as the ship was 

 inadequately manned the male passengers were often 

 called upon to help set or furl the sails and perform 

 other work of sailors. They were on the water much 

 longer than had been anticipated and the ship's 

 provisions ran short, but thanks to the liberal sup- 

 plies brought by Messrs. Humphries and Aston, all 

 hands, as well as the surviving cattle, were fed. 

 They arrived in New York harbor early in June, 

 1852, and soon afterwards set out on their journey 

 into the west, locating as near neighbors in the vicin- 

 ity of Elyria, 0. The cattle and sheep were at once 

 divided and the stock-raising operations pursued in- 

 dependently, though always with mutual accommo- 

 dation. 



We are able to present in this connection an inter- 

 esting old portrait of Mr. Aston, but unfortunately 

 there is none available of his worthy partner in 

 this enterprise, Mr. Humphries. Moreover, we are 

 without any very explicit details as to their Here- 

 fords. 



We know that in 1852 they landed the bulls Curly 

 14, bred by Eoberts of Ivingtonbury, and Prince 



