October 6 in A.A. History

1937: Paul [left] and Hildreth S. wrote to Bill and Lois W. [right, mid-late 1930s] about their upcoming visit to Akron, Ohio, on October 10. The letter said, in part:

Dr. Smith just told me that we are to expect a visit from you over the week-end, and that two other couples, the Parkers and the Ruddells, are coming with you. Needless to say, we are looking forward to this visit with a great deal of anticipation and pleasure, as are all the folks with whom we spend so much time…

We have made arrangements for a little dinner party at our house on Sunday. There may be a few of us who will be tied up in a little meeting for an hour or so. Then we are planning on having an evening session at T. Henry [Williams]'s house after that.

We hope we are not laying out a program that would seem to be too strenuous for you, but we feel certain that you will be amply repaid for the inconvenience that such a trip may cause by the pleasure that you will afford us by your coming.

1941: A dinner honoring Dr. Bob S. [right], attended by 900 guests, was held in Cleveland, Ohio.

1944: The first A.A. meeting in Maine took place at Chan R.'s house in Cape Elizabeth [left: U.S.S. Constitution passes Portland Head Lighthouse in Cape Elizabeth on 23 July 1931], attended by Chan, Jim M., Clint W., and one other person. Chan had gotten sober in A.A. in Florida before relocating to Cape Elizabeth. Clint had written to the New York City Alcoholic Foundation office for help; they referred him to Chan. Meanwhile, Jim M. from Newport, Maine, had attempted a geographic cure by moving in with his sister in Brooklyn, New York, but his drinking only worsened. In desperation, he contacted Kings County Hospital in 1942, and they directed him to A.A. He attended meetings in New York City for two years before returning to Newport in 1944.

October in A.A. History—day unknown

1939: Membership in the Alcoholics Anonymous Group in Cleveland, Ohio, surged from 12 to 100 in the month following the publication of “Alcoholics and God” [far left] by Morris Markey [right], which appeared in the September issue [near left: cover] of Liberty magazine.

1939: Clarence S. [right, 1942], who founded the first group in Cleveland, Ohio, and named it “Alcoholics Anonymous,” began to identify himself as a “founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.” This may have been partly in response to the positive publicity from Morris Markey’s article “Alcoholics and God,” which appeared in the September issue of Liberty magazine, and partly because he wanted to be associated with the successful group he had started.