The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-10-02
STORIES OF A MILLIONAIRE.

STORIES OF A MILLIONAIRE.
Daniel Drew, Substitute, Cattle Driver,
Stock speculator, Methodist and Bank
rupt.
Condensed from, The Netv York Papers.
For forty years Daniel Drew was the
most grotesque figure in Wall street. He
was in middle life when he gave "the
boys" his first "pints" on "sheers." f"
When raw country lad he began to
drive cattle from his native village to the
New York market, and subsequently
opened a stock-yard, kept tavern and
made fortune in the steamboat business.
Shrewd and illiterate, reckless and timid,
good-natured and unscrupulous, some
timesgenerous and always treacherous he
made from five to fifteen millions out of
friend and foe, only to lose them all and die
bankrupt. If Hogarth could have
lived in Wall street during the past forty
years "Uncle Daniel" with scanned face
and twinkling eyes, with the stealthy
tread of cat and the bland air of a
country deacon, would have been the
central figure in his cartoons.
He was in his seventh year-the same
age at which Cornelius Vanderbilt bor-
rowed 500 of his mother, bought boat
and began to ferry marketmen from
Staten Island to the Battery. Daniel
Drew did not borrow his small capital,
he earned it by enlisting as substitute
in the State military, which had been
called into service. The regiment was
called to Fort Gansevoort, on the Hudson
River, opposite New York. About three
months after his enlistment hostilities
ceased between the United States and
Great Britain, and the regiment was
mustered out.
'I want my substitute money, mother"
said he, one morning after his return to
the farm. II am going to buy cattle and
sell them in New York"
care you sure you will not lose money
by it?" Mrs. Drew was as sagacious and
cautious as the mother whom Commodore
Vanderbilt delighted to homer all his life
long.
"I am sure I shall make money"
He did make money from the start, but
he had to work terribly hard for it. He
was in the saddle day and night, pur-
chasing cattle in Putnam and Duchess
Counties and driving them to the city
after nightfall. He was an excellent
Judge of cattle and a shrewd buyer.
When his competitors began to multiply
and cut down his profits he enlarged his
field of operations by making Ohio q
base of supply. He needed capital and
he had no securities to offer for loans.
He went to Henry Astor, John Jacob
Astor's brother, the Fulton Market
butcher, who had recently retired from
business. "I'll take the risk" said the
capitalist, after the plan had been un-
folded. 1t seemed to be foolhardy,
crackbrained scheme. 1t took nearly
sixty days to drive cattle from Ohio
across the Allegheny Mountains to New
York. Out of a drove of 300 head 200 or
300 would frequently be lost on the way
in the forests and mountain fastnesses.
Cattle. however, were exceedingly cheap
in the Ohio valley, and Drew's profits
were so large that he was able in a few
years to repay the borrowed money and
to extend his operations to Kentucky
and Illinois. He is said to have been
the first man to drive cattle over the Al
leghany Mountains.
A newspaper correspondent who visi.
ted him soon after the bankruptcy pro-
ceedings we're announced, found him ex-
ceedingly communicative. 81 had been
wonderfully blessed in money-making,"
he remarked. IT got to be q millionaire
afore know'd it hardly. I was always
pretty lucky till lately, and didn't
think I could ever lose very extensively.
was ambitious to make great fortune
like Vanderbilt, and I tried every way I
knew, but got caught at last. Besides
that, I liked the excitement of making
money and giving it away. I have Civ
en- good deal of money away and am
glad of it. So much has been saved any,
how. Wall street was great place for
making money and couldn't give up
the business when I ought to have done
so. Now / see very clearly what I ought
to have done. I ought to have left the
street eight or ten years ago and paid up
what I owed. When gave 100000 to
this institution and that l ought to have
paid the money. And 1 ought to have
provided for my children by giving them
enough to make 'em rich for life. In.
stead of that gave my notes and only
paid the interest on 'em, thinking /
could do better with the principal my
self. One of the hardest things I've had
to bear has been the fact that couldn't
continue to pay the interest on the notes
I gave to the schools and churches.
During the last year or two MIR. Drew
spent considerable part of his time in the
city. Mr.. Drew was, perhaps, the Oldest
looking man in Wall street. His eyes
never lost their fire, but his face was
scanned and scraggy. Some of the veter-
ans say that he used to drive down to his
Office in one-horse chaise, looking for
all the world like country minister.
He dressed plainly, if not shabbily. His
wardrobe is valued in the bankruptcy
schedule at 500, exclusive of great
sealskin overcoat, worth $3.50. Even as
millionaire he had the tastes and hab-
its of drover. His dry, sedate manner
seldom varied. Stock speculators were
"the boys" and the victim who came to
him for "pints on some sheers" was "my
son." He talked with nasal twang,
like countryman. Stop speckerlatin' !;
don't tech Erie with no margin" was the
consoling remark which, if rumor may
be trusted, he made to some Methodist
brethren who had taken "pints" and lost
their margins. While his wife was liv-
ing his house, at Union Square and East
Seventeenth street, was always open to
Methodist clergymen and laymen. In
the schedule of his personal property is
the eutry, "Bible, hymn books, &c.,
$780," His temperament made him a
''bear;" he was as short-sighted as Com
modore Vanderbilt was far sighted; he
aimed at immediate rather than ultimate