Springfield Weekly Republican

Daniel Drew, The Rival Of Vanderbilt.

Daniel Drew, the rival of Vanderbilt and the great manipulator of "Erie," was born at Carmel, Putnam county, New York, July 29, 1797, and is therefore seventy-one years of age. His early years were passed on a small farm owned by his father, where he was brought up to habits of industry and frugality. His only opportunity for education was during intervals passed at the country school. In 1812, his father died, leaving little or no property for the family. At the age of 15, Daniel began to make his own living. He spent five years in driving cattle from Putnam county to the city of New York for sale, but at the end of the period had made no money. In 1820 he removed to New York, where he entered in the cattle trade for ten months longer. Part of the time he kept the old Bull's Head tavern in the Bowery, the famous resort for drovers and butchers. His first ventures were in buying cattle in the adjoining counties of New York, but he and his partners gradually extended their operations first into Pennsylvania, and then to the great West. They brought the first large drove of cattle which ever crossed the Alleghany mountains for the New York market. The herd was purchased in the valleys of Ohio and Kentucky, and consisted of two thousand head. They were collected in droves of one hundred each, and then brought over by careful hands. The time required was nearly two months, and the cost was twelve dollars per head, with twelve dollars more for beef driven off during the journey. Now cattle are brought from Illinois in five or six days.

Accidental circumstances connected Mr Drew with the steamboat business, in which he has so largely invested his capital. Commodore Vanderbilt told Mr Drew, when the latter was about to embark in the steamboat business: "You have no business in this trade. You don't understand it. You can't succeed." Mr Drew's great success has given a very emphatic refutation to this prophecy. He has made it a rule to select the best man for each place on the boats, and then to keep him, and another is to keep the boats in perfect order. He never insures his steamboat property, holding that vigilance and just outlays are the best insurance. No traveler has ever lost his life by an accident on board of a steamboat owned by Mr Drew. During the war the government was obliged to have some of Mr Drew's boats, and on one occasion Captain Loper of Philadelphia came to New York as the agent of the government, and, going to Mr Drew's house, made such an appeal to his patriotism that he very materially reduced the rate of charter-money.

Mr Drew became a banker in Wall street in 1836, and in 1840 founded the firm of Drew, Robinson & Co. He retired in 1852, yielding his place to his son-in-law, Mr Kelly, who shortly died, however. Mr Drew returned to the firm. In 1855 Mr Drew indorsed the acceptance of the Erie railroad company for half a million of dollars, and in 1857 did the same thing to the extent of a million and a half of dollars. In the midst of the financial panic of that year he was asked "if he could sleep in these times?" He replied, "I have never lost a night's rest on account of business in my life." He became a director in the Erie road in 1857, and is still one. He is also treasurer of the company, and a large creditor. His operations in railway stocks are on a scale which is not exceeded by any other person. Mr Drew's city residence is on Union square. He has a grazing farm of nearly one thousand acres, fifty miles distant from New York, on the Harlem railroad. In 1858, out of one hundred and twenty cattle sold from this farm, one hundred weighed one thousand pounds each.

He united with the Methodist church in 1811 when fourteen years of age, but under the cares of business, "lived without God" for twenty-five years. Amidst all the scenes and temptations of a drover's life he avoided intemperance and blasphemy. Once he went with another person to Manhattanville to look at some cattle, when a thunder-storm arose, and the horse was killed while they were in the gig. This incident made a lasting impression upon Mr Drew. In 1841 he lived in Bleecker street, and united with the Mulberry Street church (now St Paul's on Fourth avenue, the most fashionable Methodist church in New York), of which he was for many years a trustee. He has built a church and established a school on his farm, which are maintained at a cost of about one thousand five hundred dollars a year. He is a trustee of the Wesleyan university, which he has largely endowed. He has been a large contributor to the missionary work, and within a short time he contributed several hundred thousand dollars for the endowment of Drew theological seminary, which has just been organized at Madison, New Jersey, under the presidency of the eminent Rev Dr John McClintock, formerly of New York.

Mr Drew is about five feet ten inches high, slender, but lithe and active for his years. His features are regular and expressive of much firmness of character, and his eyes are deep set and keen.