AA
Timelines
The
Real Time Lines —Two of Them—That Marked the Beginning of A.A.
April 12, 2012
By Dick B.
Copyright 2012
Anonymous. All rights reserved
Akron
Events
September 1931
Russell Firestone gets saved
and healed of alcoholism with the help of Rev. Samuel Shoemaker on the train
back to Akron from the 50th triennial General Convention of the
Protestant Episcopal Church—a General Convention of the Episcopal Church—held
in Denver, Colorado, September 16-30, 1931.
October 1931 through January
1933
Russell and his friend James
D. Newton travel widely for the Oxford Group in the ensuing months, giving
their testimony in the United States and elsewhere.
January 1933
At the request of Russell
Firestone’s father, Harvey Firestone, Sr., Dr. Frank N. D. Buchman—founder of
“A First Century Christian Fellowship” (also known as “the Oxford Group”)—and
other Oxford Group members, hold a series of meetings in Akron from January
19-23, 1933. Rev. Walter F. Tunks, rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, is
actively involved in hosting the meetings. Russell Firestone attends and speaks
at several of the many Akron meetings, which are heavily covered by the Akron
papers . He and others give testimony as to their Oxford Group life-changes
through Jesus Christ.
January 1933
Henrietta Seiberling (of the
well-known rubber dynasty family), Dr. Bob’s wife Anne, and two other ladies
who attended the large, January 1933 Akron Oxford Group events, soon start
attending the small, weekly, Thursday night West Hill Oxford Group meeting,
persuading Dr. Bob to join the group. He attends Oxford Group meetings
regularly until Mothers Day, May 12, 1935, when he met Bill W. (and for several
years thereafter).
January 1933 through May 1935
During this period, and while
still drinking, Bob feels it necessary to “renew” his familiarity with the
Bible in which he said he “had had excellent training” as a youngster in
Vermont. He reads the Bible three times from cover to cover. He joins a
Presbyterian Church. He reads all kinds of Christian literature (which is still
available for view at Dr. Bob’s Home in Akron as to one part, and at Brown
University as to the other). Bob said he read all the Oxford Group literature
he could get his hands on.
Late April, 1935(?)
Henrietta Seiberling feels
guided to have a meeting for Dr. Bob and asks Oxford Grouper members T. Henry
and Clarace Williams if their home could be used for the meeting. Henrietta
then gathers some Oxford Group members to attend. She wants them to share
things that were very costly to them to make Dr. Bob lose his pride. She warns
Anne Smith about the meeting and tells her: “Come prepared to mean business.
There is going to be no pussyfooting around.” But she doesn’t tell her the
meeting was for Dr. Bob. At this meeting, Dr. Bob shares: “I am going to tell
you something which may cost my profession. I am a secret drinker, and I can’t
stop.” The other group members ask if he would like them to pray for him. Dr.
Bob says, “Yes,” so they pray for him. That was the beginning of the Wednesday
night meetings at the Williams’ home.
The next morning, Henrietta
says a prayer for Bob and says, “God, I don’t know anything about drinking, but
I told Bob that I was sure that if he lived this way of life, he could quit
drinking. Now I need Your help, God.” She said: “Something said to me—I call it
‘guidance’; it was like a voice in my head—‘Bob must not touch one drop of
alcohol.’” Henrietta calls Bob and tells him she had guidance for him. He comes
over at ten in the morning, and she tells him that her guidance was that he
mustn’t touch one drop of alcohol. [See DR.
BOB and the Good Oldtimers, pages 53ff. for these details.]
Bob continues to drink
excessively until he meets Bill W. He would say to Henrietta Seiberling: “’. .
. I think I’m just one of those want-to-want-to
guys.” And she’d say, “No, Bob, I think you want to. You just haven’t found a
way to work it yet.” [DR. BOB and the
Good Oldtimers, 59]
May 1935
Two weeks later, Bill Wilson
arrives in Akron.
May 1935
Bill Wilson had failed in a
business venture and was tempted to drink. Instead, he calls Dr. Walter Tunks
from the Mayflower Hotel in Akron
May 1935
Henrietta thinks Bill W. is
“manna from heaven.” She arranges to have Dr. Bob come to her home at the
Seiberling Gate Lodge to meet with Bill W.
May 12, 1935
Bill W. and Dr. Bob meet on
Mother’s Day, May 12, 1935. After talking with Bill W. for six hours, Dr. Bob
concludes that, despite his and Bill’s association with the Oxford Groups, only
Bill had grasped their idea of “service”—helping others get well. Something Dr.
Bob said he had never thought of, considered, or done.
June 1935 through August 1935
Bill W. moves into the Smith
home and lives there over the summer of 1935. Bill and Bob listen each day as
Dr. Bob’s wife Anne reads the Bible to them. They particularly favor the Book
of James. The two men stay up until the wee hours of the morning studying the
Bible, discussing a possible program, and developing their ideas for recovery.
June 10, 1935
After one more binge in
Atlantic City, New Jersey, at the annual American Medical Association
conference, Dr. Bob quits drinking for good—something he had never been able to
do. Henrietta and he feel his cure (which is what he called it) was in answer
to the prayers.
Late June, 1935
Dr. Bob and Bill W. decide
they had better get busy, find another drunk, and help him. And they phone the
nurse at Akron City Hospital. Dr. Bob tells her they have found a cure for
alcoholism. And they meet Bill D. (A.A. Number Three-to-be). Bill D. tells them
he already believes in God, was a Deacon in his church and a Sunday school
teacher, and doesn’t need to be sold on religion. Bill W. and Dr. Bob tell him
to give his life to God and that he must help another once he is cured. Bill D.
gives his life to God, is immediately healed, and steps from the hospital a
free man. He participates in A.A. meetings and service for the rest of his life.
July 4, 1935
A.A. Number Three, Bill D.,
is discharged from the hospital on July 4, 1935; and Bill W. declares that that
is the founding date of the first A.A. Group—Akron Number One. As Bob said
later, at that time, they had no Steps and no Traditions. There was not yet a
Big Book. And there were not yet drunkalogs or meetings as we now know them.
1935-1939
From that point forward, they
have daily meetings. Dr. Bob calls their meetings a “Christian fellowship.” All
the early AAs are hospitalized. All read the Bible with Dr. Bob in the
hospital, are asked to confirm their belief in God, are asked to get out of bed
and on their knees, and are asked to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
1935-1939
Every morning the AAs, their
wives and families gather at the Smith Home for a Quiet Time led by Dr. Bob’s
wife. Anne would open with a prayer, read from the Bible, have group prayer,
have a group quiet time, and then usually share from her personal journal [See
Dick B., Anne Smith’s Journal, 1933-1939] and have discussions on it.
Copies of The Upper Room—a quarterly Christian devotional—are distributed
by Mother G.
1935-1939
On Wednesdays, there is one
regular meeting of the “self-styled alcoholic squad” at the home of T. Henry
Williams. Sometimes the few Oxford Group people would hold their meetings in
one room, and the alkies in another. Every single member is required to make a
“real surrender.” This means he is taken upstairs with two or three members
(usually Dr. Bob and T. Henry). The newcomer would kneel. The others would pray
with him and over him. He would ask Jesus Christ to become his Lord and Savior.
He would ask God to take alcohol out of his life and guide him to live by
Christian principles. Because these meetings are characterized as “old
fashioned revival meetings” focused on healing drunks, they are referred to as
a “clandestine lodge” of the Oxford Group and distinguish themselves from the
Oxford Group which held other kinds of meetings and were focused on teams’
doing “world changing through life changing.”
1935-1939
The daily meetings begin with
prayer. There is reading from the Bible, group prayer, group Quiet Time, and a
period when newcomers are taken upstairs with two or three old-timers to do a
full surrender. In their homes, AAs read Christian devotionals like The
Runner’s Bible, My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers, The Soul’s
Sincere Desire by Glenn Clark, and The Christ of the Mount by E.
Stanley Jones. These are circulated among them by Dr. Bob and read. So are
innumerable Christian books Dr. Bob and Henrietta Seiberling and Anne Smith
were reading—Kagawa’s Love: The Law of Life; Henry Drummond’s The
Greatest Thing in the World, Healing in Jesus’ Name by Ethel
Willitts, Christian Healing, Soul Surgery by Walter, Studies in the Sermon on the
Mount by Oswald Chambers, Twice Born Men and Life Changers
by Harold Begbie, and many many others.
November 1937
In November 1937, Bill and
Bob “count the noses” of the recoveries and find that 40 alcoholics they
personally know—men who have gone to any lengths to follow the path—have
maintained sobriety. Twenty have never had a drink since committing to Bill W.
and Dr. Bob’s “program.” And early A.A. claimed a 75% success rate among these
“seemingly-hopeless,” “medically-incurable,” “real” alcoholics who had
thoroughly followed the early A.A. program and had been cured.
February 1938
Frank Amos, a representative
of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., sends to a report to Rockefeller resulting from
Amos’ investigation of Dr. Bob’s work in Akron. The reports presents a
seven-point summary of the highly-successful Akron program. [See DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, 131.]
May 11, 1939
Clarence S., Dr. Bob’s
sponsee, founds the third A.A. Group in the world in Cleveland. It is the first
meeting called “Alcoholics Anonymous.” Clarence said he brought to Cleveland
the Big Book and its 12 Steps, the Four Absolutes, the Bible, and “most of the
old program.” The work grew in one year from one group to 30 groups. It took
people through the Twelve Steps in a day or so. And its records disclosed that
they had attained a 93% success rate with no relapses!
New
York Events
1926
Rowland Hazard had developed
a serious alcoholism problem. He treats with Dr. Carl Jung in Switzerland. But
he relapses. He returns to Jung, who tells him he cannot help him because he
has the mind of a chronic alcoholic. Jung suggests that a real conversion might
relieve Rowland.
By the summer of 1934
Rowland joins the Oxford
Group, begins associating with Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, makes a decision for
Christ, and thoroughly masters Oxford Group ideas.
Summer of 1934
Ebby Thacher, Bill W.’s
childhood friend and soon-to-be “sponsor,” meets Oxford Group members Shep
Cornell, Cebra Graves, and Rowland Hazard. Ebby decides to get sober in
Manchester, Vermont. His three Oxford Group friends tell him about the Oxford
Group’s Christian principles and about the power of prayer.
Late Summer/Early Fall, 1934
Ebby accompanies Rowland
Hazard to New York and stays for a short time with Shep Cornell. He then moves
into Calvary Mission in New York which is run by Rev. Sam Shoemaker’s Calvary
Episcopal Church.
September 1934
Bill’s third stay at Towns
Hospital: Dr. William D. Silkworth, a top psychiatrist, tells Bill that if he
does not stop drinking, he will die or go insane. Dr. Silkworth, who is a
devout Christian, also tells Bill that Jesus Christ, the Great Physician, can
cure him of his alcoholism.
November 1, 1934
Ebby Thacher makes his
surrender—i.e., he accepts Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior—at Calvary
Mission in New York.
Late
November, 1934
Ebby
visits Bill W. at his 182 Clinton Street home in New York. He tells Bill about
the Oxford Group’s Christian message, about the power of prayer they advocated,
and about his own rebirth at Calvary Mission, and that God has done for him
what he could not do for himself. Bill concludes that Ebby had been born again.
Early December, 1934
Ebby comes back to Bill’s
home again, this time bringing with him Shep Cornell of the Oxford Group.
About December 6, 1934
Bill goes to Calvary House
(run by Rev. Sam Shoemaker’s Calvary Episcopal Church) and hears Ebby give his
testimony.
About December 7, 1934
The next day, Bill W. goes to
Calvary Mission. Bill kneels at the altar and accepts Jesus Christ as his Lord
and Savior. Bill writes to his brother-in-law that he had “found religion.”
Years later, Bill writes in
his autobiography [Bill W., My First 40
Years, 147] and in another manuscript saying, “For sure I’d been born
again.”
December 11, 1934
On his way to Towns Hospital,
Bill decides that he should probably call on the Great Physician for help.
December 11, 1934
Bill arrives at Towns
Hospital for his fourth and final visit.
While there, he says: “If
there be a God, let Him show Himself!”
This is when, Bill says, his
hospital room filled and blazed with an “indescribably white light.” He says he
experienced the presence of God, and he declares that this must be “the God of
the Scriptures.”
He declared this, after this
event, he never again doubted the existence of God.
He is released from Towns
Hospital, permanently cured, on December 18, 1934. He then scours New York City
with a Bible under his arm—going to the Bowery, to Calvary Mission, to flea bag
hotels, to Towns Hospital, etc.—telling drunks his story (that the Lord had
cured him of the terrible disease of alcoholism), and that they too could get
healed of their alcoholism by giving their life to God.
May 12, 1935
Bill W. and Dr. Bob meet on
Mother’s Day.
June 10, 1935
Bill W. and Dr. Bob identify
this date—on which Dr. Bob took his last drink—as the date on which Alcoholics
Anonymous was founded.
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