One of the better known drovers of the 1820’s was Daniel Drew, later
to become involved in the operation of the New York and Erie Railroad.
Born on a farm in Carmel, Putnam County in 1797, Drew was not overly
particular about the age limit and enlisted in the state militia.
Three months after he was paid his one hundred dollars enlistment
bounty, news of the Treaty of Ghent reached New York City and with it
the War of 1812 was over. Drew decided there was a good living to be made
as a cattle drover, using his army pay as starting capital.
Bouck
quaintance
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crossed the
White in his “Book of Daniel Drew” tells of Drew’s early ac­
with Rockland County when his droves of cattle, three or four
a time went through the gap west of Suffern where all traffic
Ramapo Liver.
“It was rich country, and even before the railroad was thought of,
beyond Pierson’s Iron Works, Major Jake Sloat had put up a big cotton
mill. It was in a Dutch settlement. Sloat was very anxious to keep a good
tone in his settlement. He had a grocery and general store, and wouldn’t
allow a smitch of rum or intoxicating drink to be sold anywhere in the
place. The mill was in a beautiful grove. Dutch girls worked in the mill.
Their homes were back in the woods all around, here one and there one,
very cozy little cottages. It was a God-fearing people. Judge Pierson also
kept liquor out of his village So that all the way through that section it
was a poor place for drovers to stop off in. Because, since they weren’t
allowed to sell liquor, no one would put up a tavern. They figured that with­
out a tap-room, a tavern wouldn’t pay expenses. So we drovers would plan
to go through that section in the daytime and reach some tavern further on.”
Some of Drew’s earlier droves on the east side of the Hudson brought
his herds within a short distance of New York City where he had become
acquainted with Henry Astor, the butcher. By a combination of a liberal
supply of salt followed later by as much water as the thirsty animals could
drink when they reached a small stream at about where East 77th Street
is now located, they appeared in prime shape when Astor finally inspected
and purchased the herd. Years later Drew watered the corporate stock of
the Erie Railroad as unscrupulously as he had the cattle. His popularity
with Astor declined very quickly but when Drew wanted funds for his first
drive from the west, Astor, now a retired private banker, supplied what was
needed and Drew and a Mr. Robinson, with their cow-dogs, started out
by stage coach for Ohio.
Drew’s cattle driving in Rockland County had acquainted him with
the profitable possibilities of the Erie Railroad as it was built from Piermont
to Goshen. At a time when the milk business in New York City was un­
regulated, the railroad was pushing into the thriving dairy section of Orange
County and then on to Lake Erie. A hundred years before the modern
refrigerated tank trucks, milk cans for New York City from Orange County
— full or empty — were one of the principal sources of revenue for the Erie
and its New York ferry, operating out of Piermont.