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.”