Daniel Drew Biography

Daniel Drew

Having begun his career in the cattle-driving business, he was keenly aware of emerging opportunities and became successively (and successfully) involved in railroads, steamboats, and his own brokerage firm. Truly a man of his time, he was known for his infamous role in the “Erie War” in which he conspired with James Fisk and Jay Gould to prevent Cornelius Vanderbilt from gaining control of the Erie Railroad. He was later outsmarted by Fisk and Gould in the beginning of his financial downturn that ruined him in the Panic of 1873. He contributed to the founding of Drew Theological Seminary, now part of Drew University.