November 19 in A.A. History

In 1840, the Washingtonian Temperance Society held its first public meeting, setting off the rapid growth of the movement. They received widespread and enthusiastic support from thousands of existing temperance societies, as the Washingtonians successfully mobilized public attention for temperance through their “experience sharing” of alcoholic debauchery, followed by inspiring accounts of personal reformation [left: Washingtonian pledge card].
    One of the movement’s leaders remarked,

    There is a prevalent impression, that none but reformed drunkards are admitted as members of the Washingtonian Society. This is a mistake. Any man may become a member by signing the pledge, and continue so by adhering to it.

In 1912, Bill W. hurried into the chapel at Burr and Burton Academy and took his seat with the other students, believing that his first love, Bertha Bamford, was in New York City with her family. Nothing could have prepared him for what was to come. His later recollections included the following:

    The principal of the school came in and announced with a very grave face that Bertha, the minister’s daughter and my beloved, had died suddenly and unexpectedly the night before. It was simply a cataclysm of such anguish as I’ve since had but two or three times. It eventuated in what was called an old-fashioned nervous breakdown, which meant, I now realize, a tremendous depression [right: Bertha’s obituary, The Bennington (Vermont) Evening Banner, 19 Nov 1912, p. 1].…
    Interest in everything except the fiddle collapsed. No athletics, no schoolwork done, no attention to anyone. I was utterly, deeply, and compulsively miserable, convinced that my whole life had utterly collapsed.…
    The healthy kid would have felt it badly, but he would never have sunk so deep or stayed submerged for so long.…
    The upshot was that I failed German and, for that reason, could not graduate. Here I was, president of my senior class… and they wouldn’t give me a diploma! My mother arrived, extremely angry, from Boston. A stormy scene took place in the principal’s office. Still, I didn’t get that diploma.…
    I could not be anybody at all. I could not win, because the adversary was death. So my life, I thought, had ended then and there.

In 1935, Ebby T. came to live with Bill and Lois W. at 182 Clinton Street in Brooklyn [left, c. 1940].

In 1939, Cleveland, Ohio’s first Spanish-speaking meeting, Grupo Serenidad (Serenity Group), was founded—just three days after the Borton Group, the city's longest-running A.A. group and the first anywhere without a connection to the Oxford Group. There are no known records of Grupo Serenidad's subsequent activities or its demise.

In 1941, The Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) published “New Way Out for Hopeless Drinkers” [right] by Edith Johnson. It began,

    Because they known just how it feels to be befogged and sick and thoroughly miserable through days or weeks or months of intoxication Alcoholics Anonymous are having success in helping others to discard the drink habit that is no less than startling.

November 18 in A.A. History

In 1912, Bill W.’s schoolmate and first love, Bertha Bamford [left, with Bill], 18, died from a hemorrhage following surgery to remove a tumor at Flower Free Surgical Hospital [right, c. 1890s–1910s] on York Ave (nee Eastern Blvd) between 63rd and 64th Sts. in New York City. She was the daughter of Julia Read and Rev. Walter H. Bamford, the rector of Zion Episcopal Church in Manchester, Vermont.

In 1946, the first meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) in Ireland—and indeed in Europe—was held in the home of one of the S. brothers in Rathmines [left, c. 1940s], a suburb of Dublin. It is believed that seven members attended this inaugural meeting: Conor Flynn, Richard P., Jimmy R., Jimmy the Teacher, brothers Matt S. and Leo S., and another man.

    Conor F. [right] had immigrated to the U.S. from County Roscommon, Ireland, and had gotten sober in 1943 in Philadephia, Pennsylvania. He and his wife were on vacation in Ireland when she read an Evening Mail interview with  Father Tom Dunlea, who was also vacationing, from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. In addition to discussing his “Boys Town Home” project, he spoke at length about the success of the Sydney A.A. group with which he was involved. This interview marked the first introduction of A.A. to the general public in Ireland, prompting Conor’s wife to suggest that he take action to start A.A. in Ireland.
    While in Derry, Conor tried to generate interest but was told that there were no alcoholics in the north and that he should try the south. In the south, he was advised that problem drinkers should join the Pioneers (Pioneer Total Abstinence Association of the Sacred Heart, an international association of Roman Catholic teetotalers). He also gave an interview to the Evening Mail, providing a box number for the paper to share with anyone interested in contacting him. He received a letter from a man requesting that his brother be contacted. The brother was reached, but he replied, “He’s the one you should talk to,” i.e., the letter writer.

    Just as Conor was about to accept defeat, he met Eva Jennings, who was staying at his hotel, the Abbotsford Hotel [left: advertisement] on Harcourt Street in Dublin. They met for breakfast, and he confided in her about the difficulties he was facing in starting A.A. in Dublin. She was sympathetic and advised him to meet with Dr. Norman Moore, head of St. Patrick’s (psychiatric) Hospital [right] , where a close relative of hers was under his care. Conor met with Dr. Moore, who had read about A.A. in Reader's Digest, and gave him a copy of Alcoholics Anonymous (the “Big Book”). Dr. Moore remarked about one of his patients, Richard P., “whom he feared he might be saddled with for life,” saying, “If you [Conor] can help this man, I’ll believe in A.A. 100 percent!” Dr. Moore introduced Conor to Richard, who expressed interest and was then escorted to Conor’s hotel. The two men ‘clicked,’ and Richard P. was subsequently discharged from the hospital.
    Together, the two men arranged the first closed meeting in Dublin. Both brothers Matt and Leo S., who had each considered the other alcoholic, but not themselves, joined; ironically, the first public meeting of A.A. was held in one of their homes.

November 17 in A.A. History

In 1943, the first meeting of the Board of Trustees of The Alcoholic Foundation, Inc. was held. Originally incorporated as a trust, it would later be reorganized as a membership corporation. The number of trustees was increased from seven to nine. Leonard Harrison [near right] was the first President. A. LeRoy Chipman [far right] joined the board as a Class A Trustee and served until December 1954. He continued to serve as Trustee Emeritus from January 1955 until his death in December 1964.

November 16 in A.A. History

In 1939, the first meeting of the Borton Group—the longest continuously meeting group in Cleveland, Ohio, and the first Ohio group ever to be unaffiliated with the Oxford Group—was held at 2427 Roxboro Rd. [right, Sep 2009] in Cleveland Heights. The location was the home of a well-known non-alcoholic financier, Thomas E. Borton. A.A. had sobered up one of his alcoholic employees, and out of gratitude, he offered his home for meetings.
    Clarence S. started the Borton Group after being expelled from the original Cleveland Group—which he also founded, naming it the “Alcoholics Anonymous Group,” after the Big Book title—after only six months. He was removed for secretly inviting Elrick B. Davis, a reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, to meetings, which sparked an explosion of local interest in A.A. following the publication of Davis’ articles about the organization. Warren C. (A.A. #12) later recalled that the original Cleveland Group met at the home of Albert “Abby” G.

    … was a mixture of Oxford Group plus those who came in new like myself. That was the first group where the Oxford Group people and the A.A.’s [sic] weren't mixed.
    … there were probably half a dozen Akron people who came up to Cleveland—Doc S—– [Dr. Bob], the S—– boys [Paul and Dick], Bill D—– [A.A. #3], and so forth. Not every week, but once in a while. We sort of supported each other in the beginning.

In 1939, Lois W. wrote in her diary:

    Drove to Cleveland [Ohio] for meeting. Tremendous gathering. Clarence [S.], Jack [perhaps Jack D. of New York, one of Bill’s pigeons], and Bill [W.] spoke. Then, Bill and I dashed to a second meeting. Met Mr. Lupton, Unitarian minister who is to give sermon on Nov. 26, and Elrick Davis, who wrote [the Cleveland] Plain Dealer articles.

    Whatever Bill W.’s feelings about the Cleveland split were, he showed no favoritism and attended both meetings.

 

In 1940, late in the evening, Father Ed Dowling [left] unexpectedly arrived at the 24th St. Clubhouse in New York City. He asked for Bill W., and Tom, the caretaker of the clubhouse, informed Bill. Bill then told Tom to bring the unidentified man up to his upstairs bedroom cubbyhole, where Father Ed and Bill met for the first time.
    [This date has long been undetermined. In 1960 Bill described the weather on the night they met as “wild” and “wintry” and says that “hail and sleet beat on the tin roof.” He also described Fr. Ed’s black hat as “plastered with sleet.” By looking at weather records, it appeared that the most reasonable date was 26 Nov 1940. 

    However, when I shared this with Dawn Eden Goldstein, author of Father Ed: The Story of Bill W.’s Spiritual Sponsor, she in turn shared information from the relevant pages from Father Ed’s personal calendar, which she had seen. These pages show that on the 16th, Dowling left Baltimore, Maryland at 4 pm, and arrived in New York City at 8 pm. He left New York City at midnight on the 17th, arriving the morning of the 18th in Springfield, Massachusetts. There he participated in sessions of the Proportional Representation League, which was holding its meetings in conjunction with the National Municipal League’s annual convention. This convention and these meetings began on the 18th as noted in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat of 17 Nov 1940, shown right.]

In 1944, Charles Fletcher Welch [far left], the non-alcoholic founder of Vancouver, British Columbia’s first A.A. group, began running an advertisement [near left] in The Vancouver Daily Province. Similar ads would later be published in The Vancouver Sun and The Vancouver News-Herald into 1952.

In 1950, Dr. Robert “Bob” S., 70, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, died at noon in City Hospital in Akron, Ohio. Just before dying, he serenely remarked to his attendant, “I think this is it.” He was cremated in Cleveland, Ohio, and his remains were interred in Mount Peace Cemetery in Akron, next to those of his wife, Anne [near right: gravestone]. Rev. Walter Tunks [far right] officiated the service.

    During his 15 years of sobriety, Dr. Bob treated more than 5,000 alcoholics, never accepting a fee for his professional services. In his eulogy, Bill W. described Dr. Bob as “the prince of the Twelfth Steppers.”

November 15 in A.A. History

In 1952 , a memorial service for Dr. Bob S. was held at the 24th Street Clubhouse [right: interior] in New York City. A recording of his last talk was played, and a portrait of him was unveiled. Bill W. then addressed the gathering, beginning with the words:

    Dr. Bob’s recorded voice has come down to us across the air since he died in 1950. Some may say that his actual voice is still forever, but you and I know that is not so and that his spirit will be with us so long as this well loved society of ours endures. Now, I happen to be one who believes that people never die, that on beyond death there is another life and it could be that Dr. Bob is looking down upon us now, seeing us, hearing what we say and feel and think and have done in this meeting. I know his heart will be glad.
    Dr. Bob was a chap who was modestly and singularly against taking any personal acclaim or honor but surely now that he is no longer with us he can’t mind, I don’t believe and for him I wish to thank everyone here who has made this occasion possible and the unveiling possible, with all the work and love that that has entailed. Again, I wish to thank each and everyone.

In 1960, Bill W. wrote to Howard C. explaining why A.A. rejected the Oxford Group. He specifically cited its emphasis on the Four Absolutes [left: cover of The Principles of Jesus, by Robert E. Speer, in which the Four Absolutes were first described]:

    … As you so well understand, we drunks are all-or-nothing people.
    In the old days of the Oxford Groups [sic], they were forever talking about the Four Absolutes—Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness, and Love. There we saw people going broke on this sort of perfection—trying to get too good by Thursday.
    … There is another factor, too, which perhaps you have overlooked.
Absolutes in themselves are not necessarily destructive. Every sound theological system contains them. When we say that our destiny is to grow in the likeness and image of God, we are stating a healthy relation between a relative and an absolute state of affairs. Therefore when writing the Twelve Steps, it was necessary to include some sort of absolute value or else they wouldn’t have been theologically sound.…The could have been unfortunate. However, we couldn’t make them as promising and as misleading as we found them in the Oxford Group emphasis. So in Step Six and Seven, and in the use of the word God, we did include them.

In 1967, with the approval of the General Service Board, Bill W. sent a letter proposing a “World Service Meeting” to representatives from 13 countries and zones:

Australia	Belgium	Central America	Finland	France	Germany	Holland*
Mexico	New Zealand	Norway	South Africa	South America	United Kingdom

    The letter said, in part:

    … I am proposing that A.A. take first steps toward forming a world service conference. The time will come when our overseas population may well exceed that of the United States and Canada.…
    There are many problems of growth and relations that call for an international exchange of experiences. The problems of public relations, of anonymity, of self-support, of relations with medicine and religion—these are all keenly felt in many A.A. countries. The problem of printing and distributing literature is another one that can best be solved by exchange of experiences and policies.
    … I propose a World Service Meeting—not a conference, since it would not be fully representative of world A.A. This meeting could be held in New York so that delegates would have access to the experience of staff members and board members, and delegates would have the opportunity of seeing a 30-year-old service office at work.…

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^*I believe Bill was referring to the Netherlands, since Holland is defined as only two of twelve provinces in the Netherlands.

November 14 in A.A. History

In 1939, New York City A.A. members, spouses and at least one non-alcoholic Trustee—more than 50 in all^*—sign a letter to Bill W.:

    We all know that, like the rest of us, you are confronted with the necessity of making a living… We feel that we owe a debt to you which can be measured only in terms of life itself and therefore, perhaps, it is hardly appropriate that we should ask that you to continue to make the sacrifices which you have in the past for the benefit of ourselves and others yet unknown. Yet we ask you, if you find it possible to do so, to continue for the benefit of ourselves and others yet unknown. Yet we ask you, 
    if you find it possible to do so, to continue for a time with the work of Alcoholics Anonymous. We feel that the loss of your guidance at this most critical period in the development of the movement would be nothing less than a major catastrophe. On our own part, we pledge ourselves to do whatever we can in every way to help you carry the load.

^*Including Jimmy B., Bert T., Morgan R., Tom B., and Leonard V. Harrison [right, respectively]

In 1940, the Alcoholic Foundation office in New York City mailed the first issue of the A.A. Bulletin to groups to inform them of important events. Bulletin #1 included a list of cities [left] categorized by the color of pins (or “stars”) used to mark them on a large office wall map.

    Twenty-two cities were classified as White Star (indicating well-established groups), five as Red Star (indicating several members who were just beginning), and sixteen as Green Star (indicating isolated members). Less than 5½ years after its founding, Alcoholics Anonymous had expanded to 43 cities and 1,400 members in the United States.

	In 1943, at an open meeting at Veterans’ Theater [right] in Los Angeles, California, Bill W. told 600 attendees (the theater seated up to 1,526) how Alcoholics Anonymous had enabled 10,000 alcoholics to recover. The Los Angeles Times reported [left] on the event the next day.

In 1945, Bill W. wrote to Rev. Sam D., co-founder of A.A. in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1941. At that time, Sam was living in Rome, Georgia, and Bill sought his assistance in stopping Carl K. from misrepresenting Alcoholics Anonymous and creating significant controversy. Carl was the editor of his own magazine, The Empty Jug [right: September 1945 issue, p. 1], at which Sam had been designated Associate Editor and contributed a column titled “Sam Talks Sense.” Bill praised Sam’s column but noted that it was “completely surrounded by a whole page of hate,” adding that Carl had engaged in a “50 round bout with demons of the liquor industry.” Bill emphasized the importance of avoiding topics related to “politics, religion, and reform.”
    In the June 1945 issue of The Empty Jug, a section titled “The Editor’s Personal Column” featured an article by Carl called “Let’s Get Untangled,” which read, in part:

    [T]he liquor interests are guilty of misrepresentation in advertising and… they are not putting up a fair fight.…
    Through the power of suggestion in attractive settings, the liquor interests are influencing the subconscious minds of children into forming opinions that are disastrously incomplete—in this instance a malicious ulterior and purposeful practice no less contemptible than Japan’s stab in the back at Pearl Harbor.

    Karl would republish this same article in October 1945, which apparently caught Bill’s attention shortly afterward.

November 13 in A.A. History

In 1939, Charles B. Towns [near right], owner of Towns Hospital [far right], where Bill W. [left] had gotten sober and was now helping other alcoholics without charge, offered Bill a job as a “lay therapist” for $700 a month [~$16,300 in 2025]. Stunned, Bill told Charlie he would have an answer the next morning.
    On the subway ride back to Clinton St., he began mentally preparing a speech to deliver the news at that night’s A.A. meeting. What seemed a very appropriate phrase came to him: “Laborers are worthy of their hire.” At the meeting, he presented the facts of Charlie’s offer and then began to outline the implications. 
    Suddenly, he realized he was speaking to impassive faces that just stared up at him. After a while, his voice trailed off. As he paused, an old-timer raised his hand. He was sure he spoke for the others, he said. He admitted they were worried about Bill’s finances and knew something had to be done. But what Bill was suggesting didn’t seem right; he foresaw complications. Others began to speak, with kindness, with apparent understanding of what this offer meant. They all agreed. They spoke as a body. And they were articulate about the nature of the problems they foresaw. 
    Finally, a short, stocky man who hadn’t been with them long stood up. He wanted to appeal to Bill, he said, and to something he didn’t have the words to describe. It was the “thing” that bound them together, one to another, and he knew that if groups like theirs were to exist and continue, that thing simply had to prevail. Bill himself had told them that the good is often the enemy of the best. What Bill was proposing just wasn’t good enough. Others spoke up. Their points were clear and well taken, and Bill knew—or sensed before he knew—that they were right. Still, he kept hammering home his position. 
    And then, abruptly, he stopped. There were to be no bosses in a group. The only authority would be the group conscience, and all decisions would be made by the group. This was something he and Bob had talked about from the beginning. They had exchanged endless letters on the subject. Now he, Bill Wilson, was being asked to put this belief into practice.
    In the morning, he called Charlie Towns and told him he couldn’t accept the offer.

In 1941 , Clarence “C.C.” A.^* led the first A.A. meeting in Columbus, Ohio. Before that, Rev. Floyd a non-alcoholic pastor of the Broad Street Church of Christ, had hosted a daily radio show to “help people find a spiritual way of living… and surmount problems… in their daily lives…” A parishioner showed him an article about A.A. in a medical journal that included contact information. Faust recalled, “I wrote to all ten contacts, praying for an answer from one. To my surprise, I received a response from all ten!” One of those responses was from C.C., who traveled all the way from Cleveland, Ohio, to meet with Faust and “six individuals with alcohol problems” at Ohio’s State Fair [near right: entrance; far right: student ticket] in August. Faust began announcing on his radio program that there was “help for anyone who had a drinking problem… if they wanted help,” and within three months, Columbus had its first A.A. meeting.

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^*There is some evidence that Clarence S., founder of the first group in Cleveland, used the name “C.C. A.” at times.