October 21 in A.A. History

1862:  Bill W.’s maternal grandfather, Gardner Fayette Griffith [right], enlisted in Brattleboro, Vermont, for nine months with his military unit, Vermont’s Company B, 14th Regiment [left: a Company B sergeant, c. 1863], under Colonel William T. Nichols. The unit spent most of those nine months—until July 3, 1863—stationed near Fairfax Court House, Virginia, where they frequently encountered guerrillas and Mosby’s rebel cavalry. They played a crucial role in defeating the Confederate Army at the Battle of Gettysburg.

When Bill was 17, Griffith took him to a large 50th-anniversary reunion in Gettysburg.

1939: The Cleveland Plain Dealer (Ohio) published the first [right] in a series of five articles by Elrick Boyle Davis, titled “Alcoholics Anonymous Makes Its Stand Here”:

By now it is a rare Clevelander who does not know, or know of, at least one man or woman of high talent whose drinking had become a public scandal, and who suddenly has straightened out “over night,” as the saying goes—the liquor habit licked. Men who have lost $15,000 a year jobs have them back again. Drunks who have taken every “cure” available to the most lavish purse, only to take them over again with equally spectacular lack of success, suddenly have become total abstainers, apparently without anything to account for their reform. Yet something must account for the seeming miracle. Something does.

Alcoholics Anonymous has reached the town.

The publication of this series attracted a surge of newcomers, and soon Cleveland A.A. had more members than both Akron, Ohio, and New York City. Bill Wilson would later write,

The Cleveland pioneers had proved… the tremendous fact that A.A., when the word really got around, could now soundly grow to great size.

1985: The 8th World Service Meeting (WSM) took place in New York City with the theme “The World Service Meeting Takes Its Inventory.” Thirty-eight delegates attended. Two recommendations for future WSMs were made: (1) to hold a similar sharing session between WSM delegates and the trustees of the U.S./Canada General Service Board at the Tenth WSM in New York; and (2) to include a Delegates Only Meeting on the agenda for the Ninth WSM, scheduled for Guatemala in 1986. A third recommendation was discussed and forwarded to A.A.W.S. for implementation, namely, that:

A.A.W.S. prepare a booklet briefly highlighting the purpose and history of the World Service Meeting and include recommendations from 1969 to the present. Recommendations will be updated as practicable, and information about interim meetings will also be included.

October in A.A. History—day unknown

1946: The A.A. Grapevine published an article [right] by Grace O. [left] titled “Women in A.A. Face Special Problems”, which read, in part,

Now that women form an increasing membership in Alcoholics Anonymous, there seems to be a general feeling that they not only have a specialized problem, but, like the purple cow we’d rather see, they are one!… Here, then, is a list of perplexities and snags.

1. The percentage of women who stay with A.A. is low. Too many of them drop out after the novelty wears off…
2. Many women form attachments too intense—bordering on the emotional.…
3. So many women want to run things. To boss, manage, supervise, regulate and change things.…
4. Too many women don't like women.
5. Women talk too much. Gossip is a cancer to all A.A. groups and must be constantly watched. …
6. Women are a questionable help working with men and vice versa.…
7. Sooner or later, a woman-on-the-make sallies into a group, on the prowl for phone numbers and dates.…
8. A lot of women are attention demanders. Spotlight sisters. They want to be spoonfed [sic], coaxed, babied, encouraged, teased, praised and personally conducted into recovery.
9. Few women can think in the abstract.…
10. Women's feelings get hurt too often.…
11. Far too many women A.A.s cannot get along with the non-alcoholic wives of A.A. members.…

October 20 in A.A. History

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.

1945: Dr. William Duncan Silkworth [left] was appointed 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, 1 April. This is significant because, at that time, many general hospitals refused to admit alcoholics directly; their doctors often had to use false diagnoses to get them admitted. Silkworth had likely 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.

1963: Etheldred Frances Folsom [left], better known to members of Alcoholics Anonymous as Sister Francis—having renamed herself after St. Francis—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], which some claim was the world’s first 12-step treatment center.

October in A.A. History—day unknown

1945: The A.A. Grapevine published an unsigned article titled “Evidence on the Sleeping Pill Menace,” [left] summarizing material from the press, magazines and medical journals that stressed the dangers involved in “pills,” especially for the alcoholic.

1945: The A.A. Grapevine published an article [below left] by Bill W. [right: with a hospital patient, 1942] titled “The Book is Born,” which included the following excerpt:

During the first three years of A.A. no one gave a thought to public relations. It was a time of “flying blind,” when we feverishly sought the principles upon which we might stay sober and assist the few alcoholics who came wanting to do likewise. We were entirely preoccupied with the life and death question of personal recovery. It was strictly a man to man affair. We hadn’t even agreed upon a name for our movement. There was no literature.

By the fall of 1937 we could count what looked like 40 recovered members.… The realization that we “had found something” began to take hold of us. No longer were we a dubious experiment. Alcoholics could stay sober. Great numbers perhaps!

Once this spectacular notion gripped us, our thinking underwent a sudden change.…

Publicity? Why of course! Millions of words! Money? Sure! It would take millions, naturally. The matter of money and publicity would be a cinch—just a campaign of high powered selling directed at our American tycoons and editors would quickly settle that question. How could they resist when they saw what we had? Just watch us drunks.

October 19 in A.A. History

1948: Paul H. [left, 1956], a practicing attorney and Rhodes Scholar, wrote to Bill W. [right, 1955], asking him to confirm the details of a story Bill had recounted, which Paul had documented in a memo dated October 12, titled “BILL’S STORY OF THE EVOLUTION OF THE ‘TWELVE STEPS.’”

On 31 January, Paul and Eileen B.^* had accompanied Bill and his wife, Lois, on a train ride from New York City to Washington, DC [right: the B&O Railroad's Marylander, which ran between New York City and Washington DC from 1890s–mid 1950, image from early 1940s]. The following night, Bill, Lois, and Paul had attended an A.A. banquet where Paul had spoken about the late Fitz M. [left]. During the train ride, Bill shared a verbal account of his writing of the Twelve Steps. In his letter, Paul reminded Bill,

I said that this was the first time I had ever heard the story and that I believe it was of sufficient importance to commit to writing. I am still of that opinion.

Paul enclosed two copies of the memo, stating that if it “needs amplification or clarification, please let me know.” If not, he asked Bill to initial one copy and return it. Paul concluded his letter by saying,

As soon as we reached Washington… I dictated my version of Bill’s story to Eileen B―― who agreed with my version as outlined. This memorandum has been compiled from the original draft, which is now before me, and also from a subsequent conversation with Bill.

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^*Ms. B. may have been Paul’s secretary, as he “dictated” the story to her; little else is known about her, although she does seem to have been well-known in A.A. circles.

October in A.A. History—day unknown

1944: Father Richard “Dick” James Francis Murphy invited three non-alcoholics to help him establish a better way of life for suffering alcoholics by starting Alcoholics Anonymous in Australia. The three were Dr. Sylvester John Minogue [right], who would later become a member of A.A. and who had been in contact for two years with Margaret “Bobbie” B. [left], the second National Secretary of the Alcoholic Foundation in New York City; Father Thomas “Tom” Vincent Dunlea [right], parish priest of Sutherland, New South Wales, and founder of Boys’ Town; and Archie V. McKinnon [left], a nurse at a Sydney mental hospital with “advanced” knowledge of alcoholics and alcoholism.

They set up a tent city in a national park, outside the jurisdiction of the local town council, near Boys’ Town in Engadine [right, c. 1940s], New South Wales. It was described as “a sort of a camping holiday, to keep them away from the Pub and keep them off the Grog.” This approach proved satisfactory at first. Father Dunlea tried to help the down-and-out alcoholics of Sutherland through preaching, concerts, and gifts of money and clothing. Every day, he…

would have a bottle of good wine which he shared out and it was not hogged. This kept down the desire to drink plonk [cheap or inferior everyday wine] and metho [methylated alcohol]. As far as the Alcos were concerned it was a terrific long holiday camp in a pleasant setting away from the slums of Sydney.…

One day while the Father was away someone brought some Metho along and gave it to them. It was either a very poor joke, or a deliberately [sic] an act of wickedness for they all got blithered [drunk] and caused trouble which involved the police having to go up and quell the trouble.

In the end, the attempt was an abject failure.

October 18 in A.A. History

1952: The Saturday Evening Post [left: cover] published an anonymous article titled “I’m a Nurse in an Alcoholic Ward” [right: first two pages]. The author was Theresa “Teddy” R., a nurse at Knickerbocker Hospital [below left, c. 1940; below right: ambulance at Knickerbocker entrance] in New York City. Dr. William Silkworth, a colleague, referred to her as a “red-headed powerhouse.” The teaser for the article read:

The author—a onetime alcoholic—has nursed 5,000 drunks through the fading hours of their most spectacular sprees. Here is what she has faced in salvaging doctors, lawyers, ministers, priests, housewives, and stenographers from drink and the devil.

At the end of her article, Teddy explained her motivation: 

After a month of daily increasing happiness I was struck with an overwhelming sense of gratitude. I was grateful to that lonely handful of men who formulated the AA principles of recovery and set them down; grateful to the thousands of alcoholics who, in the face of every conceivable difficulty and temptation, had picked up these tenets and doggedly clung to them, fighting to hang on to their sobriety so it could be passed on to me. I felt I must do something in return.

When I learned about the A.A. ward at Knickerbocker I knew what that something would have to be. I was a trained nurse. During all the years I had frittered away, that training had seemed meaningless. Now it made sense—I was meant to work in that ward. I bombarded the supervising nurse with telephone calls by day, and prayers to God at night, and three months later I got the job.

These five years have brought deep satisfactions. I can’t convey how much it means to see the transformation in people. They come to us physical, mental and moral wrecks. They leave encouraged but still uncertain. Then, months later, they come back–bright-eyed, rosy-cheeked, eager to help; job back, family back, going concerns again, ready to pass on, with dividends, what’s been given to them. To know that I had some small part in this rebirth is a blessing far beyond what I deserve. The failures, the lost ones? Well, they’re sad of course. However, we must accentuate the positive. But for the grace of God, all of us might have been lost.

October in A.A. History—day unknown

1944: The Central Bulletin, a monthly newsletter for A.A. members near Cleveland, Ohio, reported [right: article] that a local Young People’s Group had been started this month. This is believed to be the first young people’s A.A. group anywhere.

1944: In Wichita, Kansas, near the center of the state, Sally E. wrote to the Alcoholic Foundation in New York City to request a copy of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, for her husband, Sid. Around the same time, Otis P. from the Kansas City, Missouri group moved to Wichita and reached out to Sid, whose name he had obtained from the Foundation. Together, they started Wichita’s first permanent A.A. group, holding meetings in several hotels and an art studio in the Butts Building [left, c. 1930s].

1944: The A.A. Grapevine published an editorial titled “On Simplicity, of Faith, of Living, of Outlook,” [right] written by Earl T. of Chicago, Illinois. The editorial also includes information about the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism (NCEA), explaining, among other things, why Marty M., one of its co-founders, chose to break her anonymity.

October 17 in A.A. History

1935: Edwin “Ebby” T., the man Bill W. called his sponsor, moved in with Bill and his wife, Lois, at 182 Clinton Street [right: c. 1940, 2009] in Brooklyn.

1940: Toledo, Ohio’s first meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous took place at the home of Ruth Haviland T., located at 2222 River Rd. [left] in Maumee Township. The attendees included Ruth, Clinton “Duke” P., who led the meeting, Charlie “CJ” K., Walter C., Chet M., Bill W.^*, Pete B., Ed B., and Ernie G.^†, one of the first 100 members of A.A. All nine had previously traveled to Akron, Ohio, to learn firsthand about A.A.

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^*Not A.A.’s co-founder.

^†Not the Ernie G. who married Dr. Bob and Anne S.’s daughter, Sue.

October in A.A. History—day unknown

1941: An unsuccessful attempt was made to start an A.A. group in Des Moines, Iowa. Emil W. reported to the Alcoholic Foundation office in New York City that there had been four attendees. The Foundation responded by sending him inquiries it had received from the area. However, the group was apparently unable to sustain itself.

1941: The first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in Bridgeport, Connecticut [left: low aerial view of wharves, 1941] occurred when members of the New Haven, Connecticut, A.A. group traveled there to help start it. Not long thereafter, a group was started in Westport [right, c. 1940s–50s].

1942: Margaret “Bobbie” B. [left] and Bill and Lois W. visited the Alcoholics Anonymous group in Milwaukee, Wisconsin [right: 1940 skyline], giving them a “shot in the arm.” Dr. Gilbert “Gib” K., a dentist, had written to the Alcoholic Foundation office in New York City in October 1940 asking for help. He was put in touch with the groups in Madison, Wisconsin, and Chicago, Illinois. Within three or four months, Gib had gathered three more members and began holding meetings in his home. Spouses were usually included, together with members from Madison and Chicago, for support. On 30 April 1941, a meeting open to the public was held at the Plankinton Hotel, with about 50 in attendance, including out-of-towners. By January 1943, the group had 25 members with a year or more of sobriety.

1942: Members of Alcoholics Anonymous in Cleveland, Ohio, published the first issue [right: p. 1] of their local newsletter, the Central Bulletin.

1942: Clarence S. [left] stirred controversy in Cleveland, Ohio, after discovering that Dr. Bob S. and Bill W. were receiving royalties from Big Book sales. In light of this revelation, Bill and Dr. Bob re-examined their financial situation and concluded that receiving royalties from the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, appeared to be the only solution to their financial difficulties. Bill also sought the advice of Father Ed Dowling [right, 1940], who recommended that Bill and Bob refrain from accepting money for 12th Step work but suggested that they could accept royalties as compensation for their special services to Alcoholics Anonymous.

October 16 in A.A. History

1937: Bill and Lois W. left Akron, Ohio, at 4:30 p.m. and traveled with Sterling P. (who drove) and his wife, arriving in Newark, New Jersey, at 5:30 a.m. the next morning, about 13 hours later [probably via US 22, a likely total of 480–500 miles or 770–800 km]. The four of them had breakfast at a local restaurant before Bill and Lois took the subway home to 182 Clinton St. in Brooklyn, where they presumably collapsed into bed.

1941: The Downtown Group of Detroit, Michigan, which met at the Cass Avenue Methodist Church [left, 1911] community center at 4242 Cass Avenue and comprised about forty members, split into three, creating two new groups: the Eastside (or East) Group,^* which would meet at the Mack Avenue Business Men’s Club^† [right: see footnote]; and the Westside Group, which would meet at a barber shop on Hamilton and Puritan Avenues [left: interior, undated] for about a month and then move to Richard’s Card Shop at 10216 Plymouth Road, near Ilene Street, and change their name to the Northwest Group.

Before Ontario, Canada, had A.A. meetings (in Toronto from 13 January 1943 and in Windsor from 22 October 1943), recovering alcoholics from Windsor could come to the Detroit meetings. An early Windsor member said about going to the Detroit meeting on Plymouth Road:

We used to have to drive our car to the tunnel (gasoline was rationed), park the car, drop a nickel in the fare box for the tunnel bus, ride thru the tunnel, walk several blocks to the Grand River Street Car, ride the street car for an hour out to Plymouth Road, then walk about half a mile to Plymouth and Ilene [right: 1947 map of Detroit and environs showing all locations mentioned here].

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^*However, another source, who compiled “many small notes and information on this group, much of [which] appeared to be inaccurate and confusing,” said that the group was started by Archie T. and Mike E. on 2 February 1941 in a men’s club that Mike regularly attended at Cadillac Boulevard (apparently incorrectly identified as Cadillac Avenue) and Mack Avenue, above a furniture store. This location is just over a mile southwest of the Mack Avenue Men’s Club. This group faced two issues: (1) “attendance began to swell immediately” and, perhaps more significantly (2) “women alcoholics were very hesitant to go into a private Men’s Club to attend an alcoholic recovery program.” So by October they moved to St. Columbia [sic, should be “Columba”] Episcopal Church [far left, c. 1930], 1021 Manistique Street, in Detroit, and at the same time decided to split in two, the the new group calling themselves the Grosse Pointe (Memorial) Group, meeting at Grosse Pointe Memorial Church [near left, recent], 16 Lake Shore Drive (<600 ft [183 m] from Lake St. Clair), in Grosse Pointe Farms.

^†This club’s history is very poorly documented. It still exists as a registered public nonprofit organization based in Shelby Township, in Macomb County, Michigan (nonprofit status was recently revoked). It was originally located in Detroit where Mack Avenue crossed the Detroit Terminal Railroad (DTR), between Connor and St. Jean Streets (documented in a request to the Common [City] Council on 30 September 1924 for grade separation where Mack Avenue crossed the DTR tracks). That part of Mack Avenue was converted to an overpass (seen at the extreme ends of the panoramic image above) over the railroad tracks in the early 1950s. The former Mack Avenue road surface was renamed Mack Service Road and can be seen extending east to Connor Street in the right half of the panorama. This panorama comprised a series of images from the same location at the far western end of Mack Service Road, toward the WSW at the left end and toward the SSE at the right end. The 1950s overpass is behind the middle of the image, and the location of the former DTR railroad tracks can be seen in the leftmost third of the panorama above right.

1943: Nearly 200 people attended the third anniversary of Alcoholics Anonymous in Toledo, Ohio, at the A.A. clubrooms on Superior Street. Among them were six of the nine founding members [right: article from the 18 October 1943 Toledo Blade, p. 20].

1962: L. Earle T. [far left], 62, died in Sarasota, Florida. He would be buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio [left: middle—obituary, near—gravestone].

1971:^* The North Rustico Group, located in North Rustico, Prince Edward Island, Canada, presented Louis H. with an engraved coin [near right] to commemorate his one-year anniversary.

1976:^* The North Rustico Group, located in North Rustico, Prince Edward Island, Canada, presented Louis H. with an engraved coin [right] to commemorate his five-year anniversary.

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^*One of three things must have occurred: (1) Louis H. slipped on the day of his 1st anniversary; (2) at least one of the years reported is incorrect; or (3) at least one of the anniversary numbers is wrong. The period 1971–1976 is 5 years, while a 5th anniversary would come 4 years after the 1st, if there were no slips.

2012: The U.S. National Park Service designated Stepping Stones, the home of Bill and Lois W. from 1941 until their respective deaths, as a National Historic Landmark. The official marker [left] says,

Bill and Lois W—— lived here from 1941 until their deaths. Bill co-founded Alcoholics Anonymous, and Lois co-founded Al-Anon Family Groups. Their pioneering work advanced the treatment of alcoholism and inspired addiction recovery programs throughout the world.

The State of New York also erected a similar historical marker outside Stepping Stones [right].

Today in A.A. History—October 16–18

1974: The 3rd World Service Meeting (WSM) of Alcoholics Anonymous took place at the Gloucester Hotel [right] in London, England, marking the first time the event was held outside the United States. The theme for this meeting was “Sharing.” Thirty-three delegates attended, representing nineteen countries [left: report from Box 4-5-9, 1974 Holiday issue]:

Argentina*	Australia	Belgium (Flemish)	Canada
Germany	Central America (north zone)*	Central America (south zone)*	Colombia
Finland	France	Ireland	Mexico
New Zealand	Norway	South Africa	Sweden*
United Kingdom	United States
*First time represented.

Nicaragua was represented at the 2nd WSM but did not attend the 3rd WSM.