Dr. Trudeau

"Doctor Trudeau" by Pat and Tom Willis, photo of display taken 2/2009. Click on the image to enlarge the display.

DR. EDWARD LIVINGSTON TRUDEAU

Original Text by Pat and Tom Willis

Edward Livingston Trudeau was born October 5th, 1848, in New York City. His older brother, Francis, contracted tuberculosis and Edward, at age 17, took care of him for four months until he died. Edward later wrote, “…it nearly broke my heart…it developed in me an unquenchable sympathy for all tuberculosis patients…”

E.L. Trudeau received his medical degree and married Charlotte Beare in 1871. In 1873, now father of a little daughter and with his wife pregnant again, Dr. Trudeau was himself diagnosed with TB. As he worsened, he decided to go to the Adirondacks to Paul Smith's Hotel where he had enjoyed hunting and fishing on two summer vacations. He was expected to die, and was so frail that guide Fred Martin, who carried him to his room, said, “Why, Doctor, you don’t weigh no more than a dried lambskin.” This remark made E.L. laugh - his first dose of “medicine.”

Dr. Trudeau gradually improved due, as he reasoned, to the fresh air, rest, and good food. He learned of experiments with similar care in Germany, using these elements as part of a medically supervised regimen. After his second summer at Paul Smith’s, he and his family stayed on all winter as well, the only guests of Paul and Lydia Smith who kindly accommodated them at the hotel. Though they lived winters in Saranac Lake, for the next 40 years, Dr. Trudeau and his family stayed at Paul Smith’s Hotel every summer as E.L. worked at keeping his TB at bay.

Soon after arriving in the Adirondacks, Dr. Trudeau began his practice again, treating TB cases sent by Dr. Loomis from New York City, and he continued to study the disease. He read Robert Koch’s work proving that a germ, the tubercle bacillus, causes TB. Trudeau worked on his own theory that the outdoor lifestyle, with fresh air, rest, and good food helps the body counteract the disease. His rabbit experiment, on Rabbit Island in the St. Regis Lakes, showed that infected rabbits could throw off the infection when kept in fresh air and fed well, where as those kept in poor air and with poor food could not.

Starting in 1884, with great effort over many years, E.L. Trudeau established his Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium in Saranac Lake. He spent his life helping TB sufferers to work toward remission and cure. A sensitive and kindly doctor, he was always thoughtful of others despite many sorrows in his personal life (he saw three of his four children die, one of TB). This beloved physician finally died of TB at age 67, having beaten the early death sentence the dread disease could have meant.

Sources:

  • E.L. Trudeau, An Autobiography
  • Philip L. Gallos, Cure Cottages of Saranac Lake.

The Harriman/Trudeau Cottage at Paul Smith's

The practice of establishing curing facilities as in Saranac Lake (homes with cure porches) does not seem to have spread to Brighton. One exception was perhaps the Harriman Cottage on the grounds of the Paul Smith’s Hotel. Harriman Cottage was built in the 1890’s and was named after Edward Henry Harriman (1848-1909), the railroad magnate and early hotel patron. In 1879 Harriman married Mary Williamson Averell, daughter of an Ogdensburg banker and railroad president. Soon thereafter, Harriman began a career as a rebuilder of bankrupt railroads. Perhaps the nearness to Mary’s home was one reason to visit Paul Smith’s Hotel.

E.H. Harriman spent most of the month of August with E.L. Trudeau in 1873 on Trudeau’s first visit to Paul Smith’s Hotel after the diagnosis of tuberculosis. Harriman remained a life-long friend of Trudeau’s and became a trustee of the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium in 1891, remaining on the board until his death in 1909. It is likely that at some time Harriman gave up use of his cottage to Dr. Trudeau. An 1898 hotel brochure shows a picture of the Harriman cottage with the caption “Cottage of E. L. Trudeau, MD, from Lower St. Regis Lake.” A 1915 Paul Smith’s Hotel inventory list in the Paul Smith’s College Museum collection describes the cottages, and places “Trudeau Cottage” in order of where Harriman Cottage would be. It describes the building as a four bedroom, 2 story building with a “second floor sleeping porch.” Ruth Hoyt, founder and curator of the museum believes that it is likely that the cottages were built by Paul Smith and named for the family who usually rented them year to year. Dr. Trudeau spent 40 summers at Paul Smiths. He was never able to completely cure himself of TB, but kept it under control. The second floor sleeping porch on the Harriman cottage was probably made for his use. It is apparently the only such porch built in Brighton.

The cottage has since been destroyed by Paul Smith's College.

Sources:

Doctor Trudeau, continued by Pat and Tom Willis, photo of display taken 2/2009. Click on the image to enlarge the display.

Trudeau’s cottage plan sanitarium in Saranac Lake became a model for later sanatoriums. He wrote later of his “little village.” He said, “I had no knowledge whatever of what sort of buildings to plan for…although at that time tuberculosis was not looked upon as a transmissible disease…I felt that aggregation should be avoided and that…the cottage plan would be preferable for many reasons…an abundant supply of fresh air could be secured…the irritant of constant close contact with…strangers…avoided, and I knew it would be easier to get some…patients to give a little cottage…rather than…money towards…larger buildings.” 1

In the 1880s, D.W. Riddle came to the Adirondacks for his health and became Dr. Trudeau’s patient. Mr. Riddle became very interested in Trudeau’s sanitarium and as he was an experienced businessman, he helped Trudeau immensely by becoming the sanatorium’s treasurer. He kept the books, made reports, kept the fledgling san on a good financial basis when it was struggling at first, and set up an endowment fund which greatly benefited it in the long run. Trudeau wrote of their “strong friendship” over the years from the beginning until D.W. died in 1913. 2

Mrs. Whitelaw Reid, of the Upper St. Regis Lake Camp Wild Air in Brighton, was a builder of hospitals, was a founding member of the London Chapter of the American Red Cross, and was the donor of funds to build a nurses’ cottage at the Trudeau Sanitarium which became the start of the D. Ogden Mills Training School for Nurses and which she later donated $150,000 to enlarge. Source: Rinehart, Portrait of Healing.

St. John's in the Wilderness Church in Paul Smiths, Town of Brighton: E.L. Trudeau spearheaded the drive to have this chapel built, raising the necessary money. Paul Smith donated the land and logs; many others contributed. The church was consecrated in 1877 and seated about 40. Soon thereafter it was enlarged to seat 150. 3

Brighton History Days have been held one weekend each summer since 1994, sponsored by the Brighton Architectural Heritage Committee.

Footnotes

1. Trudeau, An Autobiography.
2. Trudeau
3. Trudeau, An Autobiography.

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