Religion: Pious Pirate

Of the four unsavory titans of 19th Century Wall Street, by far the meanest and most rascally was Daniel Drew (1797-1879), who was now with, now against rough “Commodore” Cornelius Vanderbilt, flamboyant James Fisk, piratical Jay Gould. Born on a farm near Carmel, N. Y., Dan Drew enlisted in the War of 1812, became a cattle drover, later a cattle trader. Sharp-witted, grasping, unscrupulous, he was credited with inventing the “watering” of stock. This trick to up the weight of cattle just before a sale consisted of feeding the animals salt and then giving them all the water they could drink.

Extending his operations. Drew settled in Manhattan, entered the steamboat business first in competition, later in partnership with Yanderbilt. Drew it was who put the Commodore into railroads. In 1853 began Drew’s association with the Erie Railroad which culminated in the scandalous “Erie War” of 1866-68. Allied with Gould and Fisk, Dan Drew dumped “watered” Erie stock on the market, sheared Vanderbilt of millions while selling Erie short. When their arrest was ordered. Drew, Gould and Fisk took $6,000,000 in greenbacks, retreated to a fortified Jersey City hotel. While the Press gasped at such, blatant rascality, the three used their vast profits to launch an assault upon bank credit, foreign exchange, stock prices, to the ruination of thousands of investors.

A sly scoundrel, Dan Drew was finally cornered in 1870, by Gould and Fisk who caused an unexpected rise in Erie shares. Drew’s fall thereafter was rapid. In 1876 he was bankrupt, his liabilities exceeding $1,000,000. Old, ignorant and despised, Daniel Drew spent his last years dependent on his son. But he had one consolation—religion. He was a pious Methodist whom Wall Street called “Deacon Dan.” In the days of his wealth he endowed Drew Theological Seminary (now University) at Madison, N. J. He also contributed heavily to a young ladies’ seminary and three churches near his birthplace—Brewster Methodist Episcopal Church, Mt. Carmel Baptist Church, Daniel Drew Methodist Episcopal Church. Last week, still grateful to “Deacon Dan,” Methodists gathered at Carmel to honor his unsavory memory.

The problem of what to say about Pirate Drew may have bothered them in advance but the Methodists carried through admirably. At Drew’s weedy grave in Drew’s neglected private cemetery, Drewsclift, to which some 75 pious people made pilgrimage last fortnight, Rev. Earl S. Scott of the Drew Church took the line that “he lived in a different way than ours,” that “some of his money was nobly used.” Dr. Philip S. Walters, onetime president of Drew University alumni, praised Drew’s philanthropies but went so far as to say: “I would not ask you to copy all that Daniel Drew did.”

Last week as the celebration reached its climax on the joth anniversary of the Drew Church’s dedication, speeches were made by President Arlo Ayres Brown of Drew University, President Herbert E. Wright of Drew Seminary for Young Women and Methodist Bishop Francis John McConnell of New York, whose Leftish liberalism has affrighted many a present-day Wall Streeter. Bishop McConnell delivered a tactful address on the change in Christian ideals, particularly within the Methodist denomination. That chore done, the Bishop proceeded to the easier task of relaying the Church’s cornerstone.