Daniel Drew.

Daniel Drew was born in Carmel, Putnam county New York, in July, 1797. His father, who was a small farmer, died when his son was fifteen years old. Daniel had received such education as a country school in those days could afford to a lad of his age. After the death of his father, he worked the farm for his mother three years, and then, in 1815, went to New York City in search of more lucrative employment. As is the case with thousands of young men going from country to city, seeking an easy liveli hood, this young man met with disappointment. He finally returned to the country and engaged in the business of buying cattle and driving them to the city. He gave five years to this work, without realizing satisfactory profits. In 1820, he settled permanently in New York, and became the proprietor and keeper of the Bull's Head tavern in the Bowery. This house was at that time the chief resort of drovers and butchers, and proved to be a source of considerable profit to its proprietor. Drew formed a copartnership in the "droving" business for the purpose of buying cattle in the southeastern counties of New York, and driving them to market in the city. The business being profitable, extended rapidly and soon spread into adjoining States, and finally reached the far West. Drew and his associates were the first to drive cattle from the country west of the Allegheny mountains to New York. The first attempt was made with a lot of two thousand head, divided into small droves of about

one hundred each. The trip from Ohio to New York occupied nearly sixty days, and proved to be a very profitable venture. During the fourteen years that Drew gave to this business, he accumulated a considerable sum of money, which was the foundation of the immense fortune he has since amassed.

In 1834, about the time Drew was preparing to retire from the cattle-driving firm, a circumstance occurred that wholly changed the course of his life. He was by public accident placed in a position to be assailed by a young, vigorous, rising man. Opposition called into requisition the powers of the man, and he proved himself a worthy foe. The steamer "General Jackson," owned by Jacob Vanderbilt, a brother of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and running on the Hudson river, was blown up. Drew was induced by one of his friends to invest a thousand dollars in the "Water Witch," a boat put in the trade to take the place of the "General Jackson." Cornelius Vanderbilt controlled the river business, and he was unwilling that an opposition line should be encouraged, he, therefore, resolved to drive the "Water Witch" out of the trade. He put on a new steamer, the “Cinderella,” and reduced the freight and passage between New York and Albany to a price below what was necessary to defray expenses. The "Water Witch" sank about ten thousand dollars in the first season, and was then sold to Drew, Kelley & Richards. Vanderbilt warned Drew not to invest in Hudson river boats. The warning was unheeded. Drew naturally concluded that, if the river trade was so profitable as to induce Vanderbilt to fight so vigor

ously for a monopoly, it would pay to look after. He, therefore, determined to make an effort to divide it with his rival.

This was the beginning of an opposition that will be terminated only by the death of one of these remarkable men, both of whom have lived eventful lives, and have now arrived at ripe old ages. Drew and Vanderbilt were brought face to face, and have stood so, with numerous shifting of scenes, during more than a third of a century. They stood opposed to each other in the steamboat trade, they have been rivals in railroad management, and in the fiercest battles of Wall street, where the opposing cliques fought valiantly and desperately over stocks, gold and currency. The army of "bears" was led by Drew, and the army of "bulls" was commanded by Vanderbilt. In these encounters, millions of dollars frequently changed owners in an hour. Other men were made bankrupt and disappeared, some lost heavily and dragged out a precarious living through an unceasing struggle against poverty and want, but the heroes of all these battles, Drew and Vanderbilt, have ever met with unyielding power the most withering blasts of every storm.

Drew and his associates placed a new steamer on the Hudson in 1836. Other boats were added to the new line, some making day trips and some night trips, so as to accommodate the public to the fullest extent. In 1840, Drew formed a partnership with Isaac Newton, then a successful boatman on the Hudson; the new firm placed on the river the celebrated "People's Line.' A new era was inaugurated in steamboating; new