He owns a fine grazing farm on the Harlem Railroad, about fifty miles from New York.  It is situated in Carmel, in Putnam County; is nearly one thousand acres in extent, and includes the old farm on which he was born.  He has made it one of the finest and most profitable in the State, and, it is said, values it above all his other possessions.  He has improved and beautified it upon an extensive scale, and near the old grave-yard, where his parents lie sleeping, he has built one of the most beautiful churches in the land.

In 1811, Mr. Drew became a member of the Methodist Church, but for twenty-five years this connection was merely nominal.  During all the years of his drover’s life he kept himself free from the sins of intemperance and swearing.  Once while riding out in a buggy with a friend, to look at some cattle, a thunder-storm came on, and his horse was killed in the shafts by lightning.  This narrow escape from death made a deep impression on his mind, and in 1841 he united with the Mulberry Street Methodist Church, of which he became an active member and a trustee.  The elegant marble structure now standing at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Twenty-second Street attests his liberality to this congregation.  He is a trustee in the Wesleyan University, and has largely endowed that institution; and within the past few years has contributed several hundred thousand dollars for the endowment of the Drew Theological Seminary, which has been established at Madison, New Jersey, for the education of candidates for the Methodist ministry.  He gives largely in aid of missionary work, and is one of the most liberal men in his denomination.  It is said that he gives away at least one hundred thousand dollars annually in private charities, besides the large donations with which the public are familiar.  He selects his own charities, and refuses promptly to aid those which do not commend themselves to him.

His property is estimated at twenty millions of dollars, and he is said to earn at least half a million of dollars every year.  He has two children, a son and a daughter, the latter of whom is the wife of a clergyman of the Baptist Church.

Mr. Drew is about five feet ten inches high, and slenderly made.  He is very active and vigorous for his age, and looks a much younger man than he is.  His expression is firm, but withal pleasant.  His features are regular, but dark and deeply marked, while his black hair is still unstreaked with gray.  He is courteous and friendly in his intercourse, and is very much liked by his acquaintances.

CHAPTER XI.

JAMES B. EADS.

James B. Eads was born in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, in the year 1820.  His father was a man of moderate means, and was able to give him a fair English education.  From his earliest childhood he evinced a remarkable fondness for all sorts of machinery and mechanical arrangements.  This fondness became at length a passion, and excited the surprise of his friends, who could not imagine why a mere child should be so much interested in such things.  His greatest delight was to go to the machine shops in his neighborhood, in which he had many friends, and watch the workings of the various inventions employed therein.