October 20 in A.A. History

In 1928, Bill W. wrote and signed a pledge [right] in the family Bible: “To my beloved wife that has endured so much, let this stand as evidence to you that I have finished with drink forever.” This would be the first of four such pledges.

	In 1945, Dr. William Silkworth [left] was appointed as the director of the 19-bed alcoholics’ ward at Knickerbocker Hospital [right] in New York City. This facility was the first general hospital in the city to establish such a unit, having opened it on Easter Sunday, April 1.

    The opening of this ward is significant because, at that time, many general hospitals refused to admit alcoholics directly; their doctors often had to use false diagnoses for admission. Silkworth likely had been involved with the Knickerbocker ward from its inception and would go on to dedicate the rest of his life to treating an estimated 7,000 alcoholics at both Knickerbocker and Towns Hospitals.

	In 1963, Ethelred Frances Folsom [left], better known to A.A. members as Sister Francis—having renamed herself after her favorite saint—died in Litchfield County, Connecticut. In 1926, she had purchased farmland in Kent, Connecticut, and named it Joy Farm. She had later renamed it High Watch Farm [right: part of High Watch Farm], which some claim was the world’s first 12-step treatment center.