The farm he started in 1872, the same year that his sisters Ellen and Phoebe went to America, became known as Humberstone Farm. Situated on marsh land by the edge of the estuary of Breydon Water, it was natural that boats and water played a part in his life, as it did with most Yarmouth people. Originally the farm had no road to it and John's wife Rosetta would row a small boat across Breydon to deliver the milk to the town. Later John built a road, which is still in use today.
When the Midland and Great Northern Railway See M&GN needed to build a swing bridge over Breydon during the 1890's to bring their railway into Yarmouth, it was some of John's land they needed for the approach to the bridge on the south side of Breydon. And it was the money from this sale that paid for the Waterfly. The bridge was opened in 1901, see the bridge