“I want my substitute money,” said Drew to his mother, one day shortly after his return. “What are you going to do with it?” queried the old woman, for being of Scotch descent, she was quite as thrifty in looking after the pennies as her American contemporary, old Mrs. Vanderbilt. They both had the gripping sense by nature, and to this transmissible quality may probably be attributed, in a large degree, the financial success of both of their sons.
“I am going to buy cattle, and sell them in New York,” replied Daniel.
“Are you sure you will not lose money by it?” rejoined his mother.
“I am sure I will make money,” he said.
He started to purchase cattle in the country and to sell them in New York. His profits were at first very small, especially as his capital was so limited. He soon discovered that if he could purchase his cattle in Ohio he would be able to increase his profits largely, and he applied to Henry Astor, a butcher in Fulton Market, and a brother of the great millionaire, John Jacob Astor, for a loan to speculate in Ohio cattle. Astor accommodated him, though he at first thought he was running a considerable risk. He was mistaken, for Drew made money and soon established his credit on a solid basis. He bought cattle throughout Ohio, and drove them over the Alleghany mountains. He is said to have been the first drover who attempted this daring experiment. It required sixty days then to make the journey. He suffered great hardship and privation, and would sometimes lose a third part of a drove of 600 or 1,000 in crossing the mountains. Yet, as cattle were very cheap in Ohio, his profits were still very large.
One terrible night, in a terrific thunderstorm, the tree under which he took shelter was shattered to splinters, his horse was killed under him, and he himself was struck senseless for a time. But no hardship or privation could deter him in the pursuit of making money. He afterwards extended his operations to Kentucky and Illinois.
In 1829 Drew opened a cattle yard at Twenty-fourth street and Third avenue and ran the Bull’s Head Tavern. He went into the steamboat business in 1834. Vanderbilt had then been seventeen years in the business. Westchester and Emerald were the names of his first two boats, and they ran between New York and Albany, in opposition to the Vanderbilt Line. Drew reduced the fare from three dollars to one, and attempted to freeze out Vanderbilt. The war of rates became so fierce that people were carried 100 miles between these two cities for a shilling. Drew added the Knickerbocker, the Oregon, George Law, Isaac Newton and the New World to his river fleet, and became quite a formidable competitor of the Commodore.
In 1840 Isaac Newton organized the People’s Line on the Hudson, of which Drew became the largest stockholder. The boats St. John, Dean Richmond and Drew were built. The Isaac Newton was burned and the New World was sunk.
When the Hudson River Railroad was opened, in 1852, Drew refused to sell out his stock. “You can regulate your fares as you choose,” he said to the President of the Railroad Company, “but the only way you can regulate my steamboat fares is to buy the People’s Line, and this I don’t believe you have money enough to do.” The railroad line merely stimulated traffic, as the elevated railroads have done in our day, and Drew was only a gainer instead of a loser by the apparent competition. He also controlled the Stonington Line for twenty years.
Drew made his debut in Wall Street in 1844, just thirteen years prior to my first appearance on the boards of this financial theatre, and he was quite a war horse in speculation when I entered the arena. He formed a partnership with his son-in-law, a Mr. Kelly, and Nelson Taylor, as stock brokers and bankers. Their business was large and their credit good. The firm continued for ten years, until it was dissolved by the death of his partners. Drew then became one of the most daring and successful operators in Wall Street.