LOUIS BRYANT
TUCKERMAN, M.D.
(15 Feb. 1850 - 5
Mar. 1902)
TUCKERMAN,
LOUIS BRYANT:
A reformer
dubbed the "Father of Cleveland Liberalism" by
TOM L. JOHNSON, was born in Rome, Ashtabula
County, Ohio, to Elizabeth Ellinwood and Jacob Tuckerman. He graduated
from Amherst College, attended Yale Theological Seminary, and received
his medical degree from Long Island in 1877. He organized the
FRANKLIN CLUB, where municipal affairs, public
ownership of utilities, and public health were discussed. Tuckerman
claimed the club, through its petitions and delegations to city
officials, was responsible for progressive reforms; while their weekly
discussions, reported in the Citizen and conservative dailies,
spread their progressive message far beyond the club.
An idealist
and moderate, Tuckerman promoted third-party campaigns of various
working-class parties before supporting the Populist party in the 1890s
(see
POPULIST PARTY). In 1885 and 1889 he ran for
local office, campaigning for better hospital facilities, more adequate
health services, labor representation on the Police Board, public
ownership of utilities, and an improved school system. Though he
received few votes, he generated public interest in the issues.
Beginning
1885, Tuckerman edited the Workman, a $.01 labor journal
discussing important issues before the state legislature relating to
labor, selling the paper after 3 years to devote more time to his
medical practice; the paper collapsed a few months later. As a pioneer
member of the Cleveland
ACADEMY OF MEDICINE OF CLEVELAND, Tuckerman
stirred up his colleagues on urban public-health issues; and heading the
organization's committee on legislation, lobbied in Columbus for
public-health laws.
Tuckerman married Mary Ellen
Hopkins and had four sons: Louis B., JACOB E, Warren H., and William C. He died
of malaria and was buried in LAKE VIEW
CEMETERY.
Clevelanders had
not accepted their inefficient government with absolute apathy. Only a
very small minority, however, advocated any changes which did more than
scratch the surface. One of the most fascinating reformers in the Forest
City during the last quarter of the century was Dr. L. B. Tuckerman.
Contrary to the accepted belief that all left-wing leaders were
immigrants, the doctor was thoroughly American. Coming from a family
which was Protestant and had lived here since the seventeenth century,
his ideas were inspired by America and Jefferson, not Europe. Tuckerman
was no radical but a pioneer progressive in the days when the spirit of
the robber baron was rampant and progressivism was not fashionable.
In no sense an
exclusive American phenomenon, he was the Cleveland representative of a
vigorous minority who began agitating progressive reform almost twenty
years before it was in vogue. It was a progressivism rooted in the
humanitarian impulses of a kindly physician from Ashtabula. Moving to
Cleveland, he observed iniquities which accompanied the rapid
urbanization of so many American cities, and unlike so many of his
compatriots, he was unable to remain complacent in the face of the
violations of human rights which had been traditional in agrarian
America.
Dr. Tuckerman was
interested primarily in local affairs; as a participant in politics he
saw abuses of power which he could not accept in silence; as a
physician, and particularly as a public health officer, he was acutely
conscious of hardships and suffering which reflected an outrageous lack
of concern for the welfare of the underprivileged. Since he represented
a distinct minority, discretion might have been the better part of
valor, but Dr. Tuckerman possessed a different sort of courage and
fought against malignant sores which accompanied urban
industrialization--fought in spite of discouraging failures and in spite
of the abuse and ridicule heaped upon him and his entire family.
Sincere, unassuming, without personal ambition, and an effective orator,
the doctor became the leader of a small coterie of reformers. He was
admirably fitted for the role for two other reasons: a sense of humor
helped him maintain his perspective, and a disciplined mind influenced
the often confused, inarticulate thinking of the men who formed the core
of the early revolt against the old order.
Dr. Tuckerman
became the leader of a perennial third party which differed from many of
the other independent political movements of the time in that the
inspiration for its platform was almost exclusively local. The Forest
City had its share of labor parties and prohibition parties, and
Tuckerman often cooperated with labor leaders, but essentially he was
interested in correcting abuses in municipal politics. The platform for
1885, which was typical of his interests, advocated better hospital
facilities, more adequate health service, labor representation on the
police board, public ownership of utilities, and an improved school
system.38 Although the little party often drew large audiences, it
collected few votes. Undoubtedly many enjoyed hearing the bold
campaigners call a spade a spade. In the campaign of 1889 a Tuckerman
address ended in a near riot when the doctor's caustic remarks aimed at
the Democrats resulted in a stoning. In the election, however, the
reformers polled only about one hundred and seventy votes, indicating
how few were induced to desert the major parties. A second and perhaps
more effective reform organization was Dr. Tuckerman's Franklin Club.
Organized in 1889, it was a free forum without enrolled membership where
anyone was permitted to participate in discussions ranging from
municipal to national subjects. A small gathering of progressive spirits
met faithfully every Sunday afternoon and the club became a Cleveland
institution.
The dominant
personality in the Franklin Club was Dr. Tuckerman, the Leader
commenting that the "club never attempts to do anything but talk in the
absence of the doctor. When the head center did arrive the discussion
ceased. Since the doctor's major interest was municipal
affairs, he frequently interrupted more general discussions to lead the
group back to the Cleveland scene. Flagrant abuses by officeholders,
necessity for more adequate health measures, greater municipal control
of public utilities--such ideas were generally supported by club
petitions or delegations to the city council. The immediate
success of the club is difficult to measure. The newspaper reports in
the conservative Leader reflected a spirit of amused tolerance
for a collection of crackpots. Dr. Tuckerman, on the other hand,
maintained his following was responsible for some progressive measures
such as the reduction of gas rates in 1891. Undoubtedly the major
contribution of this pressure group was a long range one--it helped
prepare minds for subsequent acceptance of its reform program. Perhaps
of more immediate importance was the fact that the little doctor
attracted a group of able reformers, many of whom played vital roles in
the labor movement or as progressives in Cleveland at the turn of the
century. He undoubtedly inspired them with his own idealism, his
unselfish humanitarianism, his patience and persistence, his faith in
people and democracy, and his loyalty to reform which stayed within the
limits of American traditions.
