146 



HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



CHAPTER XII. 



MORE EARLY AMERICAN HEREFORD HISTORY 



It is reported that W. C. Rives of Virginia 

 imported Herefords, the date and number of 

 which I have no account. 



The Hon. Henry Clay of Kentucky imported 

 two pair of Herefords in 1817. 



Admiral Coffin, of the Royal Navy, imported 

 and presented to the Massachusetts Society for 

 Promoting Agriculture a pair of Herefords. 

 The cow, not breeding, was slaughtered, and 

 the bull sent to North Hampton, Mass., where 

 he was kept for several years, and his produce 

 highly esteemed as work cattle, as butcher's 

 beasts and in the dairy. 



In 1839 Mr. W. H. Sotham made his first 

 importation of Hereford cattle. On his arrival 

 in New York he sold an interest in them to 

 Hon. Erastus Corning of Albany, N. Y. 



Mr. Sotham was born on the 25th of Janu- 

 ary, 1801, in the village of Wooton (ff 73a), 

 Whitechurch, Oxfordshire, England. His father 

 owned his own estate of 200 acres, which de- 

 scended to the oldest son. William Henry was 

 kept at school until fourteen years old, when 

 he took a working place on the farm for two 

 years as under teamster, having a team of four 

 horses, and a boy to drive. From that time he 

 was in charge of the sheep, the farm carrying 

 150 Cotswold ewes. He then had charge of 

 the colts, breaking and training them; thus 

 for several years having charge of the sev- 

 eral departments upon the farm, in the hand- 

 ling of the stock and marketing of the same 

 until. 1832, when he came to America with large 

 expectations, obtained from descriptions re- 

 ceived. 



Stopping a short time in New York he thence 

 went to Buffalo by the New York Canal, from 

 there to Cleveland, Ohio. He here met Mr. 

 Henry Coit, of Euclid, near Cleveland, who 

 owned a large tract of land at Liverpool, Me- 

 dina County, about twenty-five miles from 

 Cleveland. He went with Mr. Coit to look at 

 the land, finding a comfortable brick house with 

 a small farm cleared. Mr. Sotham made an 

 engagement to take charge of the farm and sales 

 of land. He remained here for two years, hav- 



ing accumulated a considerable stock of cattle 

 and horses. He took the cattle to Cleveland 

 and sold them, and the horses he took to New 

 York. 



After selling the horses and paying the pro- 

 ceeds over to a brother of Mr. Coit's, Mr. So- 

 tham returned to England. Before making the 

 importation of Herefords in 1840 he had been 

 to England four times, having brought over in 

 that time a few sheep. 



In 1840 he imported twenty-one Hereford 

 cows and heifers, a two-year-old Hereford bull 

 and two Shorthorn cows. One of the Shorthorn 

 cows, bred by Sir Charles Knightly, died on the 

 passage. The other Shorthorn cow, "Venus," 

 bred by R. Lovell of Edgecott, was sold to Mr. 

 Thomas Hillhouse for $1,000. 



He again returned to England and brought 

 out ten Hereford heifers and a bull, six first- 

 prize Cotswold ewes, shown at the Royal fair 

 in 1839, and seventeen Cotswold rams. 



A third importation was made in 1843, when 

 he took the whole steerage of the ship Hendrick 

 Hudson, which he filled with Hereford heifers, 

 one bull and several calves. He met a 

 heavy and severe storm off the bank of New- 

 foundland. The severity of the storm made it 

 necessary to close the hatches for several days, 

 and the result was the suffocation and conse- 

 quent loss of the entire shipment. 



During this time' the Hon. Erastus Corning 

 was interested with Mr. Sotham in his im- 

 portations. Mr. Corning had large business in- 

 terests and was influential in the political world. 

 Recognizing these facts, the Shorthorn breeders 

 made special efforts to detach Mr. C. from the 

 Hereford interest, and were finally successful. 

 They went still further and endeavored to pre- 

 vent the stock from going to Mr. Sotham at all, 

 but on this point they failed to carry out their 

 plans. Mr. Corning met their endeavors in 

 this particular way by saying that Mr. Sotham 

 should have such as he wished and sold to 

 him at favorable prices and terms. 



We wish here to call particular attention to 

 the chapter which precedes this, and gives the 



