Daniel Drew
Daniel Drew (born July 29, 1797 in Carmel , New York , † September 18, 1879 ) was an American businessman.
After poor schooling, Drew fought in the British-American War after the death of his father in 1812 . After the war he was a successful drover.
In 1823 he married Roxanna Mead and in 1829 they moved to New York, where Drew ran a successful cattle trade. Jacob Astor is said to have helped him here. He bought cattle and sheep in New England and the Midwest that sold to New York slaughterhouses. It was rumored that Drew gave the animals plenty of water to drink before they were sold, both to make them look good and to add a pound or two. Drew is also credited with introducing the term "watered stock" in the New York financial district to describe stocks in a company whose price has been manipulated at times.
In 1834 he entered the steamship business - in unsuccessful competition with Cornelius Vanderbilt - but operated numerous profitable lines outside of New York. Ten years later, in 1844, he founded the banking and brokerage business Drew, Robinson & Company, which dissolved after the death of his business partners in 1854. Vanderbilt apprenticed his son William to Drew. That did not last long, however, as William was ailing and his father bought him a small farm to work in in New Dorp, Staten Island. Drew continued to work as an independent broker, preferably in railroad stocks. In 1857 he took advantage of the financial panic and made himself a board member at the Erie Railroad . This in turn put him in direct competition with Vanderbilt, who had also developed an interest in the railroad.
Drew fought Vanderbilt again in 1864 when he began speculating in stocks on the New York and Harlem Railroad . He went short , but Vanderbilt and his associates bought all of the shares Drew sold, increasing their value from $ 90 to $ 285 a share in five months. Drew lost $ 500,000 as a result. To prevent Vanderbilt from gaining control of Erie Railroad, Drew, along with James Fisk and Jay Gould, issued fake stocks. Vanderbilt suffered heavy losses and had to give the three of them control of the company.
But Fisk and Gould betrayed their partner in 1870 by selling Railroad shares in England and manipulating them in such a way that Drew lost $ 1.5 million. The stock market crash of 1873 cost him even more. In 1876, Drew's debt exceeded $ 1 million with no additional assets and he was declared bankrupt.
He had converted to Methodist as a teenager and was a member of St. Paul's Church. He was a religious person. When John McClintock was pastoring the Church in 1867, Drew decided to start a theological seminary in the 1860s, with McClintock as its leader. In 1866, Drew donated $ 500,000 to found Drew Theological Seminary (now Drew University ). Although nearly half of his donation was lost when Daniel Drew was financially ruined in the 1870s, he continued to be a trustee of the seminary until his death in 1879.
Daniel Drew eventually died in dependence on his son William H. Drew in 1879.
literature
- Bouck White: The book of Daniel Drew . Publisher: George H. Doran Co., New York 1910 - on the Internet Archive - online
Web link
- Business Magnates, Industrialists, Railroad Tycoons, Capitalists, Financiers . - Daniel Drew - Bio
Individual evidence
- ↑ A Brief History of Mead Hall ( Memento of the original from October 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Daniel Drew biography
- ^ A short History of Drew University
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Drew, Daniel |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American businessman |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 29, 1797 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Carmel, New York |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 18, 1879 |