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Daniel Drew and the Saratoga & Hudson River

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Daniel Drew and the Saratoga & Hudson River MADE AVAILABLE BY THE GREENE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY'S VEDDER RESEARCH LIBRARY A PUBLICATION OF THE GREENE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, INC. 90 County Route 42 Volume 36 Numbers 1+2 Coxsackie, N. Y. 12051 ISBN 0894-8135 Spring & Summer 2012 UNCLE DANIEL'S WHITE ELEPHANT: DANIEL DREW AND THE SARATOGA & HUDSON RIVER RAILROAD BY DANIEL W. BIGLER Daniel Drew, shown here in an engraving from the Library of Congress, represented the American romantic ideal of the self-made man, rising from humble beginnings to a position of great wealth and power. He worked in a number of fields over the years, ranging from cattle-driving to the stock market to steamboats and railroads. Over the years Drew frequently found himself involved with Cornelius Vanderbilt, and in 1864 a joint railroad venture between them would bring Drew to the town of Athens in Greene County. This venture, officially known as the Saratoga & Hudson River Railroad, would become known colloquially as the "White Elephant Railroad." Drew was a prime example of the larger-than-life Romantic hero (or anti-hero), who would do whatever was necessary to get ahead, while the "White Elephant" represented the grand dreams of one particular community. Its dramatic end served as a fitting symbol of the end of its era. continued on page 02 DOUBLE EDITION: SPRING & SUMMER 2012 TOGETHER! VEDDER RESEARCH LIBRARY 90 COUNTY ROUTE 42, COXSACKIE, NY 12051 MADE AVAILABLE BY THE GREENE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY'S VEDDER RESEARCH LIBRARY UNCLE DANIEL'S WHITE ELEPHANT ... from page 01 FROM BOY TO MAN the Sixty-First New York State Militia Daniel Drew was born on a farm in Carmel, Regiment. Although he never saw New York, in what became Putnam County on action in battle, his short military career July 29th, 1797, the first child of his sixty-five­ brought him to New York City for the year-old father's second marriage. 1 His father first time. When his three-month term died in 1812 at the age of eighty, leaving in the militia came to an end, Drew was fourteen-year-old Drew and his brother Thomas honorably discharged and returned eighty dollars each; his estate was to be kept and home to Putnam County with his improved to provide for the education of Daniel military career earnings of $9.33. 4 and Thomas until the age of twenty-one.2 This He would not stay long, however: apparently proved insufficient, however, as the soon after, he would return to New brothers had both left school soon afterward, to York City with the money he earned as work full time on the farm. 3 a militia substitute. His intention was to In 1814 Drew and his brother hired enter the cattle business, selling cattle themselves out as militia substitutes for the he brought from upstate to slaughter­ ongoing War of 1812. Drew became a private in houses in Manhattan. 5 Drew's business as a cattle drover got off to a slow start, but soon he was enjoying a degree of success. Entering business with Henry Astor, butcher and older brother of fur magnate John Jacob Astor, Drew supposedly swindled Astor by "watering the stock." According to Drew's "memoir," The reene County Historical Society, Inc. Book of Daniel Drew by Bouck White, Robert A. D'Agostino, Journal editor Drew gorged his cows on large Members of the Publications Committee: Robert D'Agostino, chairman quantities of salt before selling them to Jennifer Barnhart Astor. This caused them to drink Harvey Durham excessively. And that in tum led the Robert Hallock animals to gains of large amounts of Thomas Satterlee water weight - perhaps fifty pounds per Subscription to The Greene County Historical Journal is animal - before sale. The temporarily- only one of the member benefits of the Greene County Historical Society. The Society is headquartered at the continued on page 03 Bronck Museum Complex, Route 9W, Coxsackie, New 01. Clifford Browder, The York 12051. Memberships are available as follows: student membership $15 per year; library membership Money Game in Old New York., $25 per year; individual membership $20 to $29 per Daniel Drew and His Times year; dual/family membership $30 to $59 per year; (Lexington, Kentucky: supporting membership $60 to $109 per year; patron University Press of Kentucky, $110 to $249 per year; benefactor $250 to $499 per 1986): p 05. year; silver benefactor $500 to $999 per year; gold benefactor $1,000 and up per year; business basic 02. Ibid, p 09. membership $25 per year; business friend $50 per year; 03. Ibid. business supporter $100 per year. Membership 04. Ibid, pp 09-12. inquiries and change of address should be directed to 05. Ibid, pp 13-17; Edwin G. Thomas Satterlee, Financial Secretary of the Greene County Historical Society, at 164 High Hill Road, Burrows & Mike Wallace, Catskill, New York 12414. Gotham: A History ofNew York Copyright © 20I2 to 1898 (Oxford: Oxford Greene County Historical Society, Inc. University Press, 1999): p 659. -oz- VEDDER RESEARCH LIBRARY 90 COUNTY ROUTE 42, COXSACKIE, NY 12051 MADE AVAILABLE BY THE GREENE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY'S VEDDER RESEARCH LIBRARY UNCLE DANIEL'S WHITE ELEPHANT ... from page 02 increased weight of the animals translated he became a private banker, cashing notes to increased value at market. and extending credit for butchers and As the story goes, Drew was able to drovers who made up the Bull Head's elude the angry Astor after his ruse was patronage - and charging an interest of discovered; yet, despite this, Astor later 1%. 9 He also served as a banker, taking referred him to a competitor. Working the deposits from patrons and storing them in a same scheme on him, Drew continued vault in the tavern's taproom. 10 repeating the process as he was passed As Clifford Browder writes, "Money along from butcher to butcher! 6 management came natural to Drew, [sic] (It should be noted here that White's who became the banker of more than half Book of Daniel Drew is a complete the drovers in the city, one of several fabrication and - like most of its contents - circumstances that led directly to his Wall the well-known story of Drew's swindling Street career." 11 Drew would leave the 7 of Astor likely has little basis in fact. ) Bull's Head in 1839, following the death of Clifford Browder spends a number of his son-in-law Roswell Willcox pages debunking White's book in his own Chamberlain. At that point he and his work on Drew, pointing out that, in the case family took up residence on Bleecker Street of the Astor story, Drew would certainly and he had an office on Wall Street. 12 have been too shrewd a businessman to But how did this banker become jeopardize his reputation amongst the New involved with the financing of railroads? York butchers with such a scheme. The answer is steamboats. In fact, his reputation indeed had to be ENTER THE COMMODORE, excellent. The proof is that within a few CORNELIUS VANDERBILT years he had been made the proprietor of In 1832, while still at the Bull's Head, the Bull's Head Tavern on the Bowery, Drew invested a thousand dollars into a owned by an association of butchers. 8 steamboat called the Water Witch, which Though apocryphal, this Astor chestnut ran between New York and Peekskill. This is worth mentioning both as led to the first contact between Drew and foreshadowing Drew's later dealings that Cornelius Vanderbilt. 13 brought him his greatest fortune, and to Vanderbilt, originally of Staten Island show how his later reputation led to his and, like Drew, the son of a farmer, had first casting as a classic Romantic-era risen to prominence as captain of a ferry. "confidence man" even in his early years: if During the War of 1812 Vanderbilt had he sold watered paper stock on Wall Street garnered considerable profits delivering in his later career, White's book suggests, supplies to the blockaded Manhattan and to surely he must have done the same with the forts of New York Harbor. 14 cattle stock in his early days on the Bowery. After the war Vanderbilt got into the As previously noted, Drew's next steamboat business, and by the 1830s had venture was as the manager of the Bull's already amassed a fortune of half a million Head Tavern, a post he took in 1830. Here continued on page 04 06. Bouck White, The Book 09. Burrows & Wallace, p 658. of Daniel Drew (New York: 10. Browder, p 26. George H. Doran Company, 11. Ibid. 1910): pp 53-60. 12. Ibid, p 31. 07. Browder, pp 279-286. 13. Ibid, pp 34-35. 08 Ibid, p 21. 14. Burrows & Wallace, p 432. •03• VEDDER RESEARCH LIBRARY 90 COUNTY ROUTE 42, COXSACKIE, NY 12051 MADE AVAILABLE BY THE GREENE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY'S VEDDER RESEARCH LIBRARY UNCLE DANIEL'S WHITE ELEPHANT ... from page 03 dollars, becoming one of New York's fleeced the public but also fleeced each wealthiest citizens - and earning him the other," writes Browder. nickname Commodore. 15 When Drew This was a game Drew could play invested in the Water Witch, he found well. 20 He soon became interested in "fancy himself in direct competition with stocks." These were volatile stocks that Vanderbilt's enterprise: Drew's boat left promised great risk but potentially great New York for Peekskill and returned to profit - and in particular, his interest was New York daily, following the same route piqued by "fancy" stocks in mismanaged as Vanderbilt's boat, the Flushing (later railroads:21 "We fellows in Wall Street had replaced by the smaller Cinderella).
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