Tim Sullivan

One key figure who was instrumental in the long-lasting success of Tammany Hall was “Big” Tim Sullivan. Tim Sullivan, who came from nothing on the streets of New York, had an eye for business and displayed leadership and entrepreneurship traits at an early age. He owned five newspapers by the time he was eighteen and it was not long after that he bought his first saloon.¹ Sullivan, a man who never wanted to be the boss of Tammany, but he did want his voice to be heard and he made it heard throughout the halls of Tammany and the streets of the “Bowery”.  

Richard Croker after taking the helm of Tammany Hall needed the right person to take over the third Assembly district. This district was made up of immigrants from Italians and Eastern Europeans to the older Irish and German populations that had already established there.² This district was not a part of the Tammany political machine yet and with over 300,000 people living within its general area the Bowery was New York’s most congested district.³ Tim Sullivan came into this district and created a machine within the machine. Sullivan put his extended family around him, and his organization ran on fealty as it was called the “Sullivan Clan.”⁴ Sullivan, being Irish and coming from nothing built a sense of rapport with his new district and provided patronage to his constituents in return for winning at the polls.  

Tactics employed by Sullivan resembled that of Boss Tweed whether it was having repeat pollers show up on election day to using gangs for intimidation or merely overseeing law enforcement. Sullivans word was law at police headquarters that not even Croker could undermine.⁵ He was the king of the lower east side and everything and anything that went on went through Tim Sullivan. From the start he welcomed everyone in his district and listened to their problems and people respected him for it. Tammany Hall presented itself as the voice of the low- and middle-income groups and the provider of opportunities and Sullivan took that and ran in his district. He got so good at his job he went on to be a representative in the house and still managed to retain that power in the Bowery.  

The New York Times with help of other small news cycles and republican support they published details of Sullivan’s assets scattered around the city. The list is as follows:  

-400 Poolrooms each paying $300 a month for protection ($1,400,000 annually) 

- 500 crap games paying out to Sullivan each game  

- 200 small gambling houses with a kickback of $30,000 a month  

- Sullivan also controlled boxing around the city that netted him $50,000 annually⁶

It was reported that Sullivan used the police as a collection agency to secure revenue from the gambling houses and all other ventures.⁷ Although his name does not appear to the magnitude of Tweed or Croker, Tim Sullivan was an instrumental part of the Tammany Machine and undoubtedly contributed to its long-lasting success much at the expense of the city of New York.  

Footnotes 

1. Richard F. Welch, King of the Bowery: Big Tim Sullivan, Tammany Hall, and New York City from the Gilded Age to the Progressive Era (Albany: Excelsior Editions/State University of New York Press, 2008). (36) 
2. Abid, 41 
3. Abid, 42 
4. Abid, 43 
5. Abid, 63 
6. New York Tribune, September 19, 1901, pp. 1-3. 
7. Luc Sante, Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York (New York, NY: Farrar, Straus Giroux, 2003). 172