Editing Daniel Drew

{{short description|American businessman}}
{{other people}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Daniel Drew
| image       = Daniel Drew 1872.jpg
| alt         = Drawing of Daniel Drew
| caption     = Drew in 1872
| birth_name  = 
| birth_date  = {{Birth date|1797|7|29|mf=y}}
| birth_place = [[Carmel, New York]], U.S.
| death_date  = {{death date and age|1879|9|18|1797|7|29|mf=y}}
| death_place = [[New York City]], U.S. 
| nationality = 
| other_names = 
| known_for   = Stock market speculation and manipulation
| occupation  = Finance
| years_active = 1840–1875
| spouse      = Roxanna Mead
| children   = Catharine D Drew (1821-1883)<br>Josiphine Drew (1836-1837)<br>
William Henry Drew (1843-1912)<ref>{{cite web |title=Putnam County, New York Genealogy and History |url=https://genealogytrails.com/ny/putnam/obits.html |website=Genealogy Trails History Group |access-date=7 November 2024}}</ref>
}}

'''Daniel Drew''' (July 29, 1797 &ndash; September 18, 1879) was an American businessman, steamship and railroad developer, and [[financier]], one of the "[[robber barons]]" of the [[Gilded Age]]. Summarizing his life, [[Henry Clews]] wrote: "Of all the great operators of Wall Street ... Daniel Drew furnishes the most remarkable instance of immense and long-continued success, followed by utter failure and hopeless bankruptcy".<ref>Clews, Henry. Fifty Years in Wall Street. Hoboken, N.J.: J. Wiley & Sons, 2006, p. 183.</ref>

==Biography==
Drew was born in [[Carmel, New York]], to Gilbert Drew and Catherine Muckleworth. He was poorly educated and saw hardship after his father, who owned a small cattle farm, died when Daniel was 15 years old. Drew enlisted in the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] during the [[War of 1812]] but he did not see combat. After the war, he spent some time with a traveling zoo and then built a successful [[droving|cattle-droving]] business.

In 1820, he moved to New York City, where he ran the [[Bull's Head Tavern]] in the [[Bowery]] section of [[New York City]], a location frequented by drovers and butchers doing business in the city. While running the tavern, he formed a partnership with two other drovers, buying cattle from neighboring counties and bringing them to New York for sale.<ref name=McCabe>[https://books.google.com/books?id=VByzIgmXSh0C&pg=PA144 McCabe Jr., James D., ''Great Fortunes and How They Were Made'', Trillarden] {{ISBN|9781450524193}}</ref> In 1823, he married Roxanna Mead.

In 1834, he entered the [[steamboat]] business, purchasing a share of a boat operating on the [[Hudson River]]. Competing with [[Cornelius Vanderbilt]] against the [[Hudson River Steamboat Association]], he ran numerous profitable lines outside of [[New York City]].<ref name="NYTimes">{{cite news |title=Death of Daniel Drew |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1879/09/19/archives/death-of-daniel-drew-the-career-of-the-wellknown-financier-his.html |newspaper=New York Times |date=1879-09-19}}</ref>

Around this time, Drew began to speculate in stocks. He founded the [[brokerage firm]] of Drew, Robinson & Company in 1844, which dissolved a decade later with the death of his partner. Following this, operated as an independent trader.<ref name="NYTimes" /> In 1857, Drew became a member of the board of directors of the [[Erie Railroad]] and used his position to manipulate the railroad stock price. He joined forces with Vanderbilt to rescue the Erie from bankruptcy, and also became a director of the [[New York and Harlem Railroad]], where he again collaborated with Vanderbilt to prop up that company's finances.<ref name="NYTimes" />

In 1864, Drew once again struggled with Vanderbilt, speculating on the stock of the New York and Harlem. Drew was [[Short selling|selling the stock short]], but Vanderbilt and his associates bought every share he sold, ultimately causing the stock price to rise from 90 to 285 in five months. Drew lost $500,000.<ref>Browder, Clifford. ''The Money Game in Old New York: Daniel Drew and His Times''. Lexington: University of Kentucky, 1986.</ref>

In 1866 to 1868, Drew engaged in the [[Erie War]], in which Drew conspired along with fellow directors [[James Fisk (financier)|James Fisk]] and [[Jay Gould]] to issue stock to keep Vanderbilt from gaining control of the Erie Railroad.<ref>{{cite book |last=McAlpine |first=Robert W. |title=The Life and Times of Col. James Fisk, Jr. |url=https://archive.org/details/lifeandtimescol00mcalgoog |year=1872 |publisher=New York Book Co |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/lifeandtimescol00mcalgoog/page/n56 46]–152}}</ref> Vanderbilt, unaware of the increase in outstanding shares, kept buying Erie stock and sustained heavy losses, eventually conceding control of the railroad to the trio.<ref name="White" />{{rp|207–232}}

In 1870, Fisk and Gould betrayed Drew, manipulating the stock price of the Erie Railroad and causing him to lose $1.5 million<ref name="White" />{{rp|364–379}} Fisk was killed in January 1872 by a jealous rival over a mistress;<ref>{{cite news |title=James Fisk Murdered |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1872/01/07/79010690.pdf |newspaper=New York Times |date=1872-01-07}}</ref> Gould was later swindled out of $1,000,000 worth of Erie railroad stock and never controlled the Erie Railroad. The [[Panic of 1873]] cost Drew still more, and by 1876, he filed for [[bankruptcy]], with debts exceeding a million dollars and no viable assets.<ref name="NYTimes" /> He died in 1879, dependent on his son, William for support.<ref name="White" />{{rp|423}}

==Legacy==
Drew left behind a controversial legacy, but few written records. Many details about his life come from [[Bouck White]]'s 1910 ''Book of Daniel Drew''. White, a socialist activist, claimed to have "found" Drew's journal, publishing it as an autobiography. Drew biographer Clifford Browder has called the book "an enduring fake."<ref>Clifford Browder, ''The Money Game in Old New York: Daniel Drew and His Times'', (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1986; 2014),p. 279</ref> Daniel Drew's son also contested the authenticity of the work when it was published.<ref>Clifford Browder, ''The Money Game in Old New York: Daniel Drew and His Times'', (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1986),p. 2</ref>  

In the introduction to White's 1915 ''Letters from Prison: Socialism a Spiritual Sunrise'', the editor similarly notes that ''The book of Daniel Drew'' was "a work from his [White's] pen" and "a freely rendered biography of Daniel Drew".<ref>Bouck White, Letters from Prison: Socialism a Spiritual Sunrise (Boston: Richard G. Badger, 1915), p. 6</ref> Despite having been established as a forgery, many details and inaccurate quotes from ''The Book of Daniel Drew'' are still mistakenly regarded as factual. The longevity of the work's influence is also in part due to fabulations in the 1937 film adaptation of the book. The film ''[[The Toast of New York]]'' starred [[Edward Arnold (actor)|Edward Arnold]], [[Cary Grant]], [[Frances Farmer]], and [[Jack Oakie]].

Details of Drew's life may be gleaned from other sources. At the zenith of his career as a financier, his personal fortune was estimated at $13 million and he was respectfully called "Uncle Daniel" on Wall Street. Drew's business tactics caused him to often be vilified, however, with White claiming that newspapers depicted Drew as "one of the curses of the market for years past. If he has now received such a blow as will result in his being driven from the Street altogether, no one will be sorry for him", and "he holds the honest people of the world to be a pack of fools".<ref name="White" />{{rp|399}}

A devout [[Methodism|Methodist]], Drew built churches in [[Port Jervis, New York]], Carmel, and [[Brewster, New York]].  He also contributed to the founding of Drew Theological Seminary in [[Madison, New Jersey]], which is now part of [[Drew University]], and Drew Seminary for Young Ladies in his home town of Carmel (which burnt down and closed in 1904).<ref>{{cite book |last=Cunningham |first=John T. |title=University in the Forest: The Story of Drew University |year=2002 |edition=3rd |publisher=Phoenix Color Corp |isbn=0-89359-017-7 }}</ref>

Drew Street, in eastern [[Baltimore]], is reportedly named after him due to Drew's involvement as an investor in the Baltimore Canton Company, which owned and developed much of the area through the early 1900s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Jones |first=Carleton |title=Streetwise Baltimore: the Stories Behind Baltimore Street Names |year=1991 |publisher=Bonus Books |location=Chicago |isbn=9780929387277 }}</ref>

Drew is popularly credited with introducing what would be called "[[watered stock]]" to the [[New York Stock Exchange|Wall Street]], to describe company [[Share (finance)|shares]] that were issued by false means including counterfeit [[stock certificate]]s and unauthorized stock release, resulting in a dilution of ownership.<ref>Dodd, David L. ''Stock Watering: The Judicial Valuation of Property for Stock-Issue Purposes''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1930.</ref> The term came from his time in the [[livestock]] business, when he would have his cattle lick salt and drink water before selling them, to increase their weight.<ref name="White">{{cite book |last=White |first=Bouck |title=The Book of Daniel Drew |url=https://archive.org/details/bookofdanieldrew00whit |year=1910 |publisher=Doubleday, Page & Co |location=New York }}</ref>{{rp|44–54}} The watered stock tactic was used in the [[Erie War]] of the 1860s, when Drew along with [[James Fisk (financier)|James Fisk]] and [[Jay Gould]]  blocked arch rival [[Cornelius Vanderbilt]] from getting ownership of the [[Erie Railroad]].<ref>[[John Steele Gordon|Gordon, John Steele]]. ''The Scarlet Woman of Wall Street: Jay Gould, Jim Fisk, Cornelius Vanderbilt, the Erie Railway Wars, and the Birth of Wall Street''. New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988.</ref> Drew biographer Clifford Browder warns that "not all the Uncle Daniel stories should be believed," and many stories about his business tactics—especially those recounted by White—should be read with skepticism. <ref>Clifford Browder, ''The Money Game in Old New York: Daniel Drew and His Times'', (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1986;2014), p. 118</ref>

Drew is credited, perhaps apocryphally,  with an expression that describes the nature of [[short selling]]: "He who sells what isn't his'n, must buy it back or go to pris'n."<ref>{{cite news |title=Betting against shorts isn't wise |first=John |last=Waggoner |url=https://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/columnist/waggon/2005-11-24-short_x.htm |work=USA Today |date=2005-11-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090206165755/https://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/columnist/waggon/2005-11-24-short_x.htm |archive-date=2009-02-06 |url-status=dead}}</ref>{{efn|This quote is not listed in any of the standard reference works of quotations, nor do any of them cite any quotations attributed to Drew at all, raising the probability that this attribution is apocryphal.  The quote has also been attributed to author [[John Brooks (writer)|John Brooks]], from his 1969 book of collected essays from ''[[The New Yorker]]'', [[Business Adventures|''Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street'']].}}

==See also==
*[[List of railroad executives]]

==References==
'''Informational notes'''
{{notelist}}

'''Citation'''
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Find a Grave|16210327}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drew, Daniel}}
[[Category:1797 births]]
[[Category:1879 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Carmel, New York]]
[[Category:19th-century American railroad executives]]
[[Category:Erie Railroad]]
[[Category:Bankruptcy in the United States]]