owner--Vanderbilt endeavors to discourage him--He perseveres--His
success--Formation of the "People's Line" on the Hudson River--The
floating palaces--Forms a partnership with George Law, and establishes
the Stonington line--Opening of the Hudson River Railway--Drew's
foresight--Room enough for the locomotive and the steamboat--Buys out
the Champlain Company--Causes of his success as a steamboat
manager--Becomes a banker--His success in Wall Street--Indorses the
acceptances of the Erie Railway Company--His courage and calmness in the
panic of 1857--He saves "Erie" from ruin--Elected a director of the Erie
Road--Is made Treasurer--His interest in the road--His operations in
Wall Street--His farm in Putnam County--Joins the Methodist Church--His
liberality--Builds a church in New York--Founds the Drew Theological
Seminary--Estimate of his wealth--His family--Personal appearance.


CHAPTER XI.

JAMES B. EADS.

Birth--Childhood--Fondness for machinery--Early mechanical
skill--Constructs a steam engine at the age of nine years--His
work-shop--Death of his father--Works his way to St. Louis--Sells apples
on the streets--Finds employment and a friend--Efforts to
improve--Becomes a clerk on a Mississippi steamer--Undertakes the
recovery of wrecked steamboats--Success of his undertaking--Offers to
remove the obstacles to the navigation of the Mississippi--Failure of
his health--Retires from business--Breaking out of the war--Summoned to
Washington--His plan for the defense of the western rivers--Associated
with Captain Rodgers in the purchase of gunboats--His first contract
with the Government--Undertakes to build seven ironclads in sixty-five