CHESTER-WHITES 35 



were a coarse-grained, heavy type, and their origin is generally 

 believed to have been hogs brought over from England with the 

 original colonists of WiUiam Penn. 



In the year 1820 Captain James Jeffries, of Westchester, 

 brought over from England a boar. This animal came from the 

 neighborhood of Bedford, England, and the breed of which he was 

 a type was referred to as the Bedfordshire. This animal was also a 

 white hog, but was of a more refined type than the native Chester 

 hogs already mentioned. The crossing of this boar with his regu- 

 lar herd produced for Captain Jeffries a strain of hogs that pos- 

 sessed all the good qualities of the native stock, but had an added 

 refinement and smoothness which gave them a material improve- 

 ment in general appearance. 



Some few years later a Mr. Harvey Atwood, of Delaware 

 County, Pa., imported some Chinese hogs from England, and 

 mixed them with his native stock. He also purchased some hogs 

 from the farm of Captain Jeffries, and the blending of these two 

 improved herds formed the actual start of the Chester-White 

 breed. 



Improved Chester-Whites. — While the origin of the Chester- 

 White breed is Chester County, Pa., the improvement of the 

 strain has been largely carried on in Ohio. In 1830 Isaac and 

 Kneeland Todd moved to northern Ohio from the state of Con- 

 necticut. They had long been breeders of fancy hogs in the Nut- 

 meg State, and when they came west they brought with them some 

 of this fancy stock. These swine, brought from the New England 

 fields by the Todd brothers, were developed from the Irish Grazier 

 and Norfolk Thin Rind breeds. 



Three years later Joseph Haskins moved from the state of 

 Massachusetts to Ohio. He also was a breeder of fancy hogs. 

 He brought with him stock which was a cross of the Byfield breed 

 and Thin Rind strain. Naturally, Haskins and Todd, being pio- 

 neers in this territory, bred back and forth. The result was the 

 development of a most showy' type of hogs. The strain was fur- 

 ther added to by the Todd family a few years later by the intro- 

 duction of a boar from what was known as the Large Grass breed. 

 This animal was obtained from Joel Meade, of Norwalk, Ohio, and 

 added materially to the grazing quaUties of the stock. In 1862 a 



