January 15 in A.A. History

"Fitz" M.

In 1937, John Henry Fitzhugh “Fitz” M. [left] began trying to start an A.A. meeting in Washington, DC. He would do so for much of the next 2½ years. His sister lived in Washington, and he stayed with her for at least part of that time. He had minimal success at first, but by the fall of 1939 he had established the nucleus of a small group.

In 1941, Bill W. asked Ruth Hock to get him a copy of what he called a “spook book”: The Unobstructed Universe, by Stewart Edward White.

In 1942, Jeanne C. held the first A.A. meeting in Springfield, Missouri.
    While living temporarily in Kansas City, Missouri, during World War II, she had seen an advertisement for Alcoholics Anonymous in the classified section of The Kansas City Star. She had written to the P.O. Box, then joined the Kansas City Number One group and got sober. After returning to Springfield, she stayed sober for two years by making frequent trips to Kansas City, despite gas rationing, and by corresponding with Bobbie B. at the Alcoholic Foundation office in New York City.
    Eventually she wrote an article about A.A. for the local Springfield paper and got a post office box. When she had a dozen names, she set the place and date for the first meeting in Springfield: at her house on 15 January.
    Later, Jeanne would help A.A. get started in Joplin, Missouri, after receiving a call from Jim S. asking how to start a group. Jeanne would respond by gathering several carloads of members from Springfield and Kansas City and descending on Joplin.

In 1945, Newsweek magazine published  “It’s Fun to be Sober” in its MEDICINE section, about Joe, a seaman, who formed his own “club”—the A.A. Seamen’s Group in the clubhouse on W. 24th St. in New York City, the site of the original A.A. clubhouse.

In 1946, the Times-Herald of Washington, DC reported,

    Eight new patients and six who were formerly treated at the Force School presented themselves as willing subjects for an alcoholic cure when the Polk Health Center Alcoholic Clinic for Negroes went into operation January 15. Co-operating with the new clinic is the Washington Negro Group of Alcoholics Anonymous, which meets Fridays and Sundays at 8:30 p.m. in the Y.M.C.A. at 1816 Twelfth St. NW. The group supplies volunteer clerical help for the clinic, and alcoholics who require group therapy are referred to the organization by the doctors.

In 1958, Ernest Jacoby died in Boston, Massachusetts. He had been the founder of the Jacoby Club, which helped alcoholic men and indigent older men in Boston, Massachusetts. His wife, Alice G. Hovey Jacoby, died about a day later.

In 2005, Esther C., 95, died in Kissimmee, Florida, with her family by her side. She got sober on 23 Jul 1943, when she was 12th-stepped by Clarence S. and four other A.A. members in Cleveland, Ohio. She used to ride from Cleveland to meetings in Akron on a “Little Indian Scout” motorcycle.