Extended Version

A Study of Synchronic Events Between Years 1926 and 1935 which Culminated in the Birth of Alcoholics Anonymous

Bob S.

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Forward To Second Edition The purpose of this book is to present a brief sketch of AA pre-history in hopes of attracting an interest in the exciting past of Alcoholics Anonymous. This book does not attempt to delve deeply into pre-AA, but includes a number of short snippets that may be interesting for the casual type reader. There are many wonderful books on this subject which are Approved by the General Service Office of Alcoholics Anonymous of which, I have made much use during this writing, as well as many outside books too numerous to mention, so I will not try. . . . But thank you! I have had very much research help in writing this book; I would like to thank Bruce C., and Dan R., from Muncie, Indiana, who helped dig up important facts from Manchester, VT, in 2008. I would like to thank Ron F., from Bloomington, IN, for purchasing a long 100’ tape measure to authenticate a location in Manchester, VT, last year, as well as Jay S., from Redondo Beach, CA and Barefoot Bill, from NJ, who repeated the same project to doubly assure authenticity. Also, I have learned much about early AA in Manchester, via email, from Les C., from Colorado. Arthur S., from Texas, sent important documents and pictures. And of course, Mel B’s book, “Ebby, The Man Who sponsored Bill W.” was more helpful than I can say. But I must say, Thanks to everyone! Although the exact address of the Thacher residence on Taconic Road is listed in the appendix pages, it is requested that AA history buffs not approach the owners with AA questions. The owners have requested this; plus, they know nothing about AA history. This book is of my own doing and is not endorsed by any Alcoholics Anonymous group, District, Area, General Service Office or other AA agency. Notable changes in this second edition, printed in 2016, is the information concerning Bill Wilson’s medical treatment on page 18, also, that Tex Francisco was in charge of Calvary Mission when Ebby Thacher was a resident (p. 19). AA history seems to flow with a stream of ever-changing information. It is hoped that readers will print it not only for their own research, but also as a gift for an AA newcomer. Your Aunt Maud would probably not be thrilled by this volume. My hope is that your will find the included information inspiring as to continue your own search into the exciting history of Alcoholics Anonymous.

2014 This book is registered with the United States Copyright Office (Library of Congress)

Printed 2016

A Picture Page of Pre-AA History

1931 (maybe 1926) Dr. Carl During this period the Ox- Rev. Sam Shoemaker, from Jung informs businessman, ford Group, started by Rev. the Calvary Church, 21st & Rowland Hazard that his Frank Buchman, helped Park Ave. S., NYC, headed sobriety is contingent on a many members obtain spiri- the OG in the United States. spiritual experience tual experiences. Roland joined the ranks here.

1934 Ebby Thacher was in hot water for Ebby faced six months confinement at Brattlebeing drunk (again) and shooting pi- boro Asylum (above), however, Oxford Grouper, geons at his parents ‘summer cottage’ at and Broadway actor, Cebra Graves (the judges 110 Taconic Ave. in Manchester, VT. son) got Ebby off the hook and to the care of (then-sober) businessman Rowland Hazard.

Ebby closed the family ‘cottage’ and lived in Grouper, Shep Cornell’s prestigious Manhattan apt. for two Late summer 1934— Ebby’s new quarters became weeks, but then . . . the Calvary mission at 246 E. 23rd Street, in Lower Manhattan—what a revoltin’ development!

Bleak Late Nov. Day 1934

Ebby remembers his soused -up friend, Bill Wilson, and carries the sobering OG message at the famous Kitchen Table Meeting (p. 9 May 12, 1935— Bill carries his drinking of the Big Book). and recovery experience to Doctor Bob Smith. AA begins the following month.

Bill Wilson Letter to Dr. Carl Jung—January 23, 1961 My dear Dr. Jung:

This letter of great appreciation has been very long overdue. May I first introduce myself as Bill W., a co-founder of the Society of Alcoholics Anonymous. Though you have surely heard of us, I doubt if you are aware that a certain conversation you once had with one of your patients, a Mr. Rowland H., back in the early 1930’s, did play a critical role in the founding of our Fellowship.

Though Rowland H. has long since passed away, the recollections of his remarkable experience while under treatment by you has definitely become part of AA history. Our remembrance of Rowland H.’s statements about his experience with you is as follows: Having exhausted other means of recovery from his alcoholism, it was about 1931 that he became your patient. I believe he remained under your care for perhaps a year. His admiration for you was boundless, and he left you with a feeling of much confidence. To his great consternation, he soon relapsed into intoxication. Certain that you were his “court of last resort,” he again returned to your care. Then followed the conversation between you that was to become the first link in the chain of events that led to the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous.

My recollection of his account of that conversation is this: First of all, you frankly told him of his hopelessness, so far as any further medical or psychiatric treatment might be concerned. This candid and humble statement of yours was beyond doubt the first foundation stone upon which our Society has since been built.

Coming from you, one he so trusted and admired, the impact upon him was immense. When he then asked you if there was any other hope, you told him that there might be, provided he could become the subject of a spiritual or religious experience – in short, a genuine conversion. You pointed out how such an experience, if brought about, might remotivate him when nothing else could. But you did caution, though, that while such experiences had sometimes brought recovery to alcoholics, they were, nevertheless, comparatively rare. You recommended that he place himself in a religious atmosphere and hope for the best. This I believe was the substance of your advice.

Shortly thereafter, Mr. H. joined the Oxford Groups, an evangelical movement then at the height of its success in Europe, and one with which you are doubtless familiar. You will remember their large emphasis upon the principles of self-survey, confession, restitution, and the giving of oneself in service to others. They strongly stressed meditation and prayer. In these surroundings, Rowland H. did find a conversion experience that released him for the time being from his compulsion to drink.

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Returning to New York, he became very active with the “O.G.” here, then led by an Episcopal clergyman, Dr. Samuel Shoemaker. Dr. Shoemaker had been one of the founders of that movement, and his was a powerful personality that carried immense sincerity and conviction.

At this time (1932-34) the Oxford Groups had already sobered a number of alcoholics, and Rowland, feeling that he could especially identify with these sufferers, addressed himself to the help of still others. One of these chanced to be an old schoolmate of mine, Edwin T. (“Ebby”). He had been threatened with commitment to an institution, but Mr. H. and another ex-alcoholic “O.G.” member procured his parole and helped to bring about his sobriety.

Meanwhile, I had run the course of alcoholism and was threatened with commitment myself. Fortunately I had fallen under the care of a physician – a Dr. William D. Silkworth – who was wonderfully capable of understanding alcoholics. But just as you had given up on Rowland, so had he given me up. It was his theory that alcoholism had two components – an obsession that compelled the sufferer to drink against his will and interest, and some sort of metabolism difficulty which he then called an allergy. The alcoholic’s compulsion guaranteed that the alcoholic’s drinking would go on, and the allergy made sure that the sufferer would finally deteriorate, go insane, or die. Though I had been one of the few he had thought it possible to help, he was finally obliged to tell me of my hopelessness; I, too, would have to be locked up. To me, this was a shattering blow. Just as Rowland had been made ready for his conversion experience by you, so had my wonderful friend, Dr. Silkworth, prepared me.

Hearing of my plight, my friend Edwin T. came to see me at my home where I was drinking. By then, it was November 1934. I had long marked my friend Edwin for a hopeless case. Yet there he was in a very evident state of “release” which could by no means accounted for by his mere association for a very short time with the Oxford Groups. Yet this obvious state of release, as distinguished from the usual depression, was tremendously convincing. Because he was a kindred sufferer, he could unquestionably communicate with me at great depth. I knew at once I must find an experience like his, or die. Again I returned to Dr. Silkworth’s care where I could be once more sobered and so gain a clearer view of my friend’s experience of release, and of Rowland H.’s approach to him.

Clear once more of alcohol, I found myself terribly depressed. This seemed to be caused by my inability to gain the slightest faith. Edwin T. again visited me and repeated the simple Oxford Groups’ formulas. Soon after he left me I became even more depressed. In utter despair I cried out, “If there be a God, will He show Himself.” There immediately came to me an illumination of enormous impact and dimension, something which I have since tried to describe in the book “Alcoholics Anonymous” and in “AA Comes of Age”, basic texts which I am sending you. My release from the alcohol obsession was immediate. At once I knew I was a free man.

Shortly following my experience, my friend Edwin came to the hospital,

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bringing me a copy of William James’ “Varieties of Religious Experience”. This book gave me the realization that most conversion experiences, whatever their variety, do have a common denominator of ego collapse at depth. The individual faces an impossible dilemma. In my case the dilemma had been created by my compulsive drinking and the deep feeling of hopelessness had been vastly deepened by my doctor. It was deepened still more by my alcoholic friend when he acquainted me with your verdict of hopelessness respecting Rowland H.

In the wake of my spiritual experience there came a vision of a society of alcoholics, each identifying with and transmitting his experience to the next – chain style. If each sufferer were to carry the news of the scientific hopelessness of alcoholism to each new prospect, he might be able to lay every newcomer wide open to a transforming spiritual experience. This concept proved to be the foundation of such success as Alcoholics Anonymous has since achieved. This has made conversion experiences – nearly every variety reported by James – available on an almost wholesale basis. Our sustained recoveries over the last quarter century number about 300,000. In America and through the world there are today 8,000 AA groups.

So to you, to Dr. Shoemaker of the Oxford Groups, to William James, and to my own physician, Dr. Silkworth, we of AA owe this tremendous benefaction. As you will now clearly see, this astonishing chain of events actually started long ago in your consulting room, and it was directly founded upon your own humility and deep perception.

Very many thoughtful AAs are students of your writings. Because of your conviction that man is something more than intellect, emotion, and two dollars worth of chemicals, you have especially endeared yourself to us. How our Society grew, developed its Traditions for unity, and structured its functioning will be seen in the texts and pamphlet material that I am sending you.

You will also be interested to learn that in addition to the “spiritual experience,” many AAs report a great variety of psychic phenomena, the cumulative weight of which is very considerable. Other members have – following their recovery in AA been much helped by your practitioners. A few have been intrigued by the “I Ching” and your remarkable introduction to that work.

Please be certain that your place in the affection, and in the history of the Fellowship, is like no other.

Gratefully yours, William Co-founder Alcoholics Anonymous

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Dr. Carl Jung to Bill Wilson—January 30, 1961

Dear Mr. W.

Your letter has been very welcome indeed.

I had no news from Roland H. anymore and often wondered what has been his fate. Our conversations which he has adequately reported to you had an aspect of which he did not know. The reason that I could not tell him everything was that those days I had to be exceedingly careful of what I said. I found out that I was misunderstood in every possible way. Thus I was careful when I talked to Roland H. But what I really thought about was the result of many experiences with men of his kind.

His craving for alcohol was the equivalent, on a low level, of the spiritual thirst of our being for wholeness, expressed in medieval language: the union with God.*

How could one formulate such an insight in a language that is not misunderstood in our days? The only right and legitimate way to such an experience is that it happens to you in reality and it can only happen to you when you walk on a path which leads you to higher understanding. You might be led to that goal by an act of grace or through a personal and honest contact with friends, or through a higher education of the mind beyond the confines of mere rationalism. I see from your letter that Roland H. has chosen the second way, which was, under the circumstances, obviously the best one.

I am strongly convinced that the evil principle prevailing in this world leads the unrecognized spiritual need into perdition, if it is not counteracted either by a real religious insight or by the protective wall of human community. An ordinary man, not protected by an action from above and isolated in society, cannot resist the power of evil, which is called very aptly the Devil. But the use of such words arouses so many mistakes that one can only keep aloof from them as much as possible.

These are the reasons why I could not give a full and sufficient explanation of Roland H., but I am risking it with you because I conclude from your very decent and honest letter that you have acquired a point of view above the misleading platitudes one usually hears about alcoholism . You see, “alcohol” in Latin is “spiritus” and you use the same word for the highest religious experience as well as for the most depraved poison. The helpful formula therefore is spiritus contra spiritum.

Thanking you again for your kind letter. I remain, Yours sincerely 6

First Pre AA Founding Event

Dr. Carl Jung’s House at Bollingen, Lake Zurich, Switzerland

The Big Book relates the story of an alcoholic American business man who placed himself under the care of Dr. Carl Jung; however, the doctor’s treatment was unsuccessful. Jung advised Rowland that his only hope for sobriety was a spiritual experience (pp 26 and 27).

AA lore has this event taking place during 1931 – Cebra Graves told Bill Wilson that Rowland informed him that the meeting took place in 1930 or 1931.* However, later researchers have come to different conclusions:

Dubiel showed in this book, that although A.A. tradition said that Hazard was a patient of the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung for a year Rowland Hazard in 1931, he could have spent two months with Jung at most during the course of that year, and even that would have been difficult, based on his study of the Hazard family papers.

But in the period immediately following the publication of this book, two other researchers, Amy Colwell Bluhm, Ph.D., and Cora Finch, working independently, established that Rowland actually arrived in Zurich in May 1926 (five years earlier than the traditional A.A. date).

See Bluhm’s article “Verification of C. G. Jung’s analysis of Rowland Hazard and the history of Alcoholics Anonymous” in the American Psychological Association’s journal History of Psychology in November 2006. * Culture and Society Quarterly, Vol 3, No. 7 (April-June 2008) PROGRESS REPORT: THE MESSENGERS TO EBBY: CEBRA G.

7 Rowland Hazard in his sixties 1881-1945

Rowland’s Continued Search In effort to find the spiritual help suggested by Dr. Jung, Rowland attended the Oxford Group meetings in New York City, located in the Calvary Episcopal Parish House in the upscale Gramercy Park section of lower Manhattan. This spiritual group was started by Reverend Frank Buchman in 1921 with the title of, A First Century Christian Fellowship (That name was changed to Oxford Group in the Rowland late 1920s). Reverend Samuel Shoemaker was Minister of the adjacent Calvary Hazard Church. This was virtual American headquarters for the Oxford Group during the 1930s. Reverend Sam was known nationwide via radio and his writings.

Calvary Episcopal Rev. Frank Buchman Calvary Parish House Rev. Sam Shoemaker Church-21st St. 1878-1961 is adjacent to the church and Park Ave. South

From this group Rowland learned about their Four Absolutes: Honesty, Unselfishness, Love and Purity, plus their practical living tenets. However, it would seem that Rowland did not recover at this point. Here is an excerpt from Cora Finch’s long account of Rowland Hazard’s life and struggles with alcoholism. stellarfire.org.:“Since Rowland was a typical alcoholic, however, it took him seven more years of denial and misery — as he continued to refuse to take Jung’s prescription seriously — before he met Courtenay Baylor from the Emmanuel Movement and began seeking a spiritual solution to his alcoholism..” Bluhm’s and Finch’s work corroborated the A.A. tradition that Rowland Hazard was Carl Jung’s patient for a considerable length of time, and the two of them discovered a good deal of detail about Rowland’s relationship with Jung and the general background. Jung ended up telling Rowland that he had never seen alcoholics of his type recover until they became willing to commit themselves to the spiritual life.

Rowland was on and off the wagon for several years after his visit with Dr. Jung, but he was sober during the late summer of 1934 and able to offer Ebby Thacher much needed spiritual assistance.

The Common Sense of Drinking, by Richard Peabody, (1931), was a popular alcohol recovery book during the 1930s. Richard Peabody found sobriety through the Emanuel Movement with the help of Courtney Baylor, however, his abstinence was not permanent. 8 Richard Peabody

Rowland’s Treatment by the Emmanuel Movement COURTENAY BAYLOR — The only surviving photo of Baylor, the famous alcoholism therapist from the Rev. Elwood Worchester’s Emmanuel Movement, who had both Rowland Hazard and Richard R. Peabody as his patients, and was thus an important indirect influence on early Alcoholics Anonymous. Baylor was the author of Remaking a Man: One Successful Method of Mental Refitting (1919).

Photo discovered by Mitchell K. in September 2012, after spending years looking for a verifiable likeness of Baylor in countless archives and libraries.

Bluhm’s and Finch’s work corroborated the A.A. tradition that Rowland Hazard was Carl Jung’s patient for a considerable length of time, and the two of them discovered a good deal of detail about Rowland’s relationship with Jung and the general background. Jung ended up telling Rowland that he had never seen alcoholics of his type recover until they became willing to commit themselves to the spiritual life. Since Rowland was a typical alcoholic, however, it took him seven more years of denial and misery — as he continued to refuse to take Jung’s prescription seriously — before he met Courtenay Baylor from the Emmanuel Movement and began seeking a spiritual solution to his alcoholism

From Courtenay Baylor’s book: Remaking A Man – …in the glorious certainty that he need never fail again – he finds perfect freedom and happiness. (From August to September 1934, Baylor treated Rowland H. in Mass. – Rowland brought the message of the Oxford Group to Ebby T., who in turn brought the message to Bill).

The Emmanuel Movement was begun in 1906 by the Rev. Elwood Worcester at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Boston, which is located at 15 Newbury Street, where this avenue runs into the Boston Public Gardens at its east end. The gardens, together with Boston Common, form a vast open area of green grass and beautiful flower beds right in the heart of downtown Boston. —Thanks to writings by Glenn F. Chesnut 9

Edwin Throckmorton Thacher The stage is now set for the next important Pre-AA History person to appear in this sequence of events: Edwin Throckmorton Thacher. “Ebby” came from a well respected family; three members of his family had become mayors of his home town of Albany, NY. His eldest brother, Jack Thacher, was a 1932 Democratic Nominee for Governor when the then-presiding Governor, FDR, was making his sweep into the White House. Ebby, was highly intelligent, although he had problems at school and never earned a college degree. Through the years, he became involved in the sort of hi-jinx of which his politically motivated family hardly approved. Ebby stated that he had been reprimanded by the local authorities because of his drinking and probably wasn’t doing his brother [Jack] any good [definitely an understatement]. Jack had been Mayor since 1926. In the fall of 1932 (Probably near election time!) Ebby moved to his Ebby (1896-1966) family’s vacation resort town of Manchester, VT, where he knew people. He lived in the Brattenkill Inn for the next two years, but he then took residence at the Thacher families summer home, at 110 Taconic Road , in an upscale neighborhood of Manchester [Robert Todd Lincoln., president Lincoln’s son, had lived directly across the street at the turn of the century].

Ebby recalls an early 1929 drinking episode when he and Bill Wilson convinced an Albany ‘barnstormer’ pilot, Ted Burke, to fly them to Manchester, Vermont. They had learned that the Manchester, VT, Airport was to about to open and it might be a fine idea if they would be the very first to land; to be certain that this feat would not go unnoticed they phoned Manchester officials of their intention. They had been drinking all night, consequently, when they disembarked from the plane they both fell drunkenly on the ground before the amazed crowd of well wishers, including the town band. Bill spent the next day writing apologies. Page 83, Dr. Bob and the Good Old timers. . . . *Please read the Manchester Journal newspaper article about the airport’s opening in the Appendix section to consider the validity of this story.

It is also AA lore that drunken Ebby ran his car into the side of a kitchen; when the shocked owner came out , he asked her for a coffee. She phoned the authorities instead!

Albany Mayor “Jack” Thacher Historic Aircraft Brattenkill Inn 1930s 1926-1940 10

“Taking A Trip, Not Taking A Trip” Ebby’s family doubtless hoped that the relative tranquility of the Manchester resort community would bring about at least some moderation of his drinking sprees, and it did – sort of. After a few months, Ebby joined a group who spent the entire winter clearing the trails of the Green Mountains.. He claimed to have drank two pints of gin on the first day, but there was no more to be had for the next six months of pseudo isolation. He spent the winter of 1932–33 enjoying the rugged work and doing lots of hunting on the weekends. Upon return to the village of Manchester Depot [two miles from Manchester] he continued to stay dry for a few more months; but soon thereafter his drinking bouts resumed. Ebby moved into one of the furnished rooms of the large family residence on Taconic Avenue in Manchester during the spring of 1934.

Ebby’s sprees brought about two slight brushes with the Manchester authorities; he was fined only five dollars on each occasion, but with the warning that the third time it could go hard on him. Perhaps it was remorse that led to Ebby to follow his brother’s urging to paint the huge family summer ‘cottage’ that summer. But not surprisingly that task was too much for one person, so a professional helper was hired for added assistance and the job was finished that summer. He must have felt a great satisfaction, for who wouldn’t be proud of such a large scale accomplishment! Ebby claims he embibing more than a little hooch when he noticed a flock of ungrateful pigeons on the roof. Out came his shotgun—and doubtless the neighbors, as well — as loud blasts shattered the tranquility of this calm and peaceful community. He said he fell back and in that prone position kept banging away. Dr. Carl Jung coined the word synchronicity in his book, “An Acausal Connecting Principle.” AA history abounds with examples of just the right set of circumstances [people] who turn up at just the right time to cause a notable event [beginning link of AA]. Cebra Graves, Shep Cornell and Roland Hazard arrived to help Ebby at the exact time of his life to formulate an example of Jung’s Acausal Connecting Principle!

Symbols of Synchronicity 11

Off The Hook! Ebby remained in a state of reoccurring drunk- Shep Cornell enness and depression during the summer of 1934, although he was residing in his family’s beautiful summer Manchester home in one of the finest resort areas in the country. As his sadness loomed that July afternoon, one time Broadway actor and current State Senator, Cebra Graves, happened by Rowland Hazard’s Ebby Thacher home near Arlington, just a few miles south, where several happy Oxford Groupers were making use of the swimming pool. When the conversation turned to missionary work, Cebra remembered his old golf acquaintance, Ebby, and invited Sheppard Cornell to come along; Rowland opted to stay by the pool.

Ebby was sitting with his head in his hands; his suit was a bit dirty. “Having a good time Ebby?’ was returned by a few angry words. “You don’t have to live like this,” quipped, Cebra. They cleaned his suit and got him to eat, then they spoke about the principles of the Ox- Cebra Graves ford Group. Although, Ebby was not ready to quit drinking, Cebra found a professional painter to help him finish the house painting project.

The pigeon shooting incident took probably place in late August or in September. Resultantly, Ebby was escorted to the Bennington Courthouse where he faced a possible Six months confinement in Brattleboro Asylum. Luckily, Cebra’s father was the judge and Rowland Hazard offered to take Ebby under his wing via the Oxford Group program of recovery. The judge agreed that if Ebby came back to court Monday morning sober, he would be off the hook! Brattleboro Asylum It was Saturday and Ebby felt the shakes coming on strongly. He remember that there were three bottles of Ballantine’s Ale cooling down in the cellar. “Go ahead!” he thought “My God, you are shaking apart!” He picked them up . . . He later stated, “Well, I just couldn’t do it. It wouldn’t be playing the game square the way I looked at it.” Luckily for all of us, he took those tempting bottles of ale three doors down the street and gave them to a neighbor. Otherwise, than Ebby Thacher’s sense of honesty at that moment, we wouldn’t have AA today!

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Ebby’s Miraculous Release Ebby was let ‘off the hook’ on the following Monday. Judge Collins Graves (Cebra’s father) released him from his impending commitment to the dreaded Brattoboro Asylum; instead, he was given over to the benevolent sponsorship” of millionaire Oxford Group member, Rowland Hazard. But more importantly, he was also let “off the hook” by a mysterious release from his deadly obsession to drink! This miracle happened directly after giving up those three bottles of ale to his neighbor and sincerely prayed. This release lasted more than two and a half years, allowing Ebby time to carry the Oxford Group message to Bill Wilson which eventually, of course, allowed many thousands of alcoholics to also get Bennington Court House “off the hook.” Thank you God! Ebby closed the family house for the winter and stayed with his assigned ‘Sponsor,’ Rowland, in nearby Shaftsbury for a week or so. He then accepted Shep Cornell’s invitation to reside at his Manhattan apartment. But he soon thereafter took up residence at the Calvary Mission at 246, East 23 Street. Most AA historians I have read or talked with agree with this fact. However, Cebra Graves remembers that Ebby moved into the plush Oxford Group’s headquarters building, The Calvary House, rather than the dismal Calvary Abe Lincoln’s son, Robert Todd Lincoln, once occupied this house Mission. directly across from the Thacher’s

It does not escape my notice that Ebby was not yet a practicing member of the Oxford Group. Consequently, his unlikely release was probably not the result of the Four Absolutes, the OG tenets, or even consistent and sincere prayer. What might have caused this astounding and unlikely event? Of course, Dr. Jung might have interjected his word: synchronicity. Others may have considered it simply a coincidence. (Whatever that means!) Yet others, such as yours truly, consider this miraculous event as a blessed’ interjection from God who, in His mercy, decided that it was high time to send down an angel of relief for all those poor suffering alcoholics. Edwin Throckmorton Thacher was chosen to be a major participant in this magnificent endeavor.

A 1920s photo of the Calvary Episcopal church at 21st and Park Avenue South. Reverend Sam Shoemaker was the rector of this church and leader of the Oxford Group for the United States. The Calvary House is adjacent to the right of the church. Prestigious Gramercy park is directly across the street from Calvary House. Calvary Parish House

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Ebby: On Again, Off Again! Wall Street 1929 Francis Shepard Cornell (1899-1985) was a non -alcoholic drinker who was not without prestige. (Please note that most of Ebby’s benefac- Shep Cornell tors were of the same ilk!). ‘Shep” had a seat on the NY Stock Exchange, in 1940 ran for Congress from NY’s 22nd District (Upper Manhattan/Harlem) and was a Lt. Col in the USAAF. Ebby stayed in Shep’s Manhattan apartment for a short period, then moved in with one of the “brotherhood” who ran Calvary Episcopal Mission. The “brotherhood” was a group of twelve men who ran the mission and administered to the ever revolving patronage. Ebby had a great personality when sober and helped the newly sober men make their “surrender,” doubtless using procedures from the Oxford Group. Searcy W., Ebby’s Texas sponsor during the 1950s, stated that Ebby was quite good talking over problems with the patients at his Texas Clinic. Skid Row in NY

Ebby’s own mission style “surrender” took place November 1, 1934. So he had been dry for maybe two months, or Nell Wing so, by this time; perhaps this sort of deflation helped him maintain his sobriety for the longest period since becoming an alcoholic many years previous: two years and seven months! But that wasn’t all; Ebby lived thirty-one years after his alcoholic release and was sober approximately half that time! After his slip, April of 1937, Ebby was on-again, off-again through the years and often being enabled by none other than the NY Central Office. Nell Wing, Bill’s Wilsons long time secretary, told how Ebby would arrive at the Office, 415 Lexington Ave., to borrow money from Bill, or sometimes drunk, he would fall asleep on the couch. I would suppose, even drunk, he was considered an AA hero, of sorts, and it would be hard to say no—for after all . . . !

Ebby loved children, was a charming conversationalist and very witty. His friends stuck with him; thusly, Cebra Graves arranged for him to move to Searcy Ws drunk farm in Dallas; with Searcy’s sponsorship he stayed sober for nearly seven years. Then on and off the wagon he died of a stroke, March 21, 1966, nearly 70 years old, at McPikes farm and treatment center Ebby during facility. He was two and a half years sober. the 1960s 14

The Water Street Mission (Jerry McAuley Launched New York’s First Mission For Alcoholics)

Photo Approx. 1913

The McAuley Mission has moved several times. It is now called the NEW YORK CITY RES- This is a later reconstruction of the Water CUE MISSION. It’s This is the original mission at 316 Street Mission, still at 316 Water Street, unpresent location is 90 Water Street. Started by Jerry der the Brooklyn Bridge. Pictured is a Lafayette Square. McAuley, his wife and friends breadline for the immigrant poor.

“Samuel Hopkins Hadley took over as Superintendent of the McAuley Rescue Mission at 316 Water Street in 1886. From that time until his death in 1906 he helped convert hundreds, if not thousands, of hopeless drunks. Sam’s son, Henry Harrison Hadley II, named after Sam’s brother Coronal Henry Harrison Hadley, would also sober up and be converted after his father’s death. Harry Hadley would later collaborate with Sam Shoemaker in opening the Calvary Mission on 23rd Street in Manhattan and become its first superintendent. At The Calvary Mission both Ebby Thacher and Bill Wilson would separately answer calls to come to the rail, kneel at the mercy seat, and experience the Power of conversion.” – Excerpt from The Golden Road of Devotion.

Calvary Mission 246 E. 23rd Street, NY (1926-1936) This 57-bed mission provided two meals a day and aided more than 200,000 homeless in its ten years.

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“Beneath The Brooklyn Bridge” Beneath the Brooklyn Bridge Ebby Thacher: “What a Revoltin’ Development!”

Just imagine! Ebby, who grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth, probably with servants, thank you; whose brother, Jack Thacher, served as Mayor of Albany, NY. (Jack was in the running for NY Governor when FDR became president in 1932). Poor Ebby, who just last month was living in a large and beautiful house in upscale Manchester, VT, ends up in a joint such as this. The picture below is not of the Calvary Mission, where he actually landed, but of a much earlier drying out establishment from the 1800s – perhaps the interior of McAuley’s Mission.

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Kitchen Table Talk Has Good Effect

Ebby learned of Bill Wilson’s troubles from his Wall Street friends and in the spirit of the Oxford Group he set out to ‘witness’ to his old friend. He called Bill’s wife, Lois, and the project was okayed, so on a bleak November day, Ebby showed up at 182 Clinton Street; their kitchen table talk lasted for hours.* Probably the most helpful part of Ebby’s messages was—of course, that he was amazingly sober—but also, the Oxford Group’s simple religious idea (vital spiritual experence) and a practical program of action (The Four Absolutes and the OG tenets). This message must have been conveyed in a straightforward simple manner as Bill was doubtless a bit soused up, over his continually filled glass of pineapple juice 182 Clinton Street in and gin. Brooklyn Hts., near the Brooklyn Bridge. Bill and Bill, at this time, was very depressed and even thought Lois lived here from 1930 to be suicidal; they moved his sleeping quarters to a to 1939. lower room for fear of him jumping from the window. Ebby’s message must have given Bill good hope because shortly thereafter he visited Calvary Mission to see what was what! But he met Alex the Finn en route and they both arrived all boozed up. But Bill—being who Bill is—gave a lecture from the podium anyway! Reverend Sam Shoemaker, who became Bill’s spiritual mentor, later commented that Bill was an exceptional man.

A few days afterward, Tuesday, December 11th, 1934, Bill was headed for Towns Hospital at 293 Central Park West in Manhattan. He had been previously treated three times in the past year, or so, by Dr. Silkworth. At this point AA (or not AA) was skating on thin ice, because Bill picked up four bottles of beer on credit en route to the subway entrance—he had only six cents in his pocket! Lore has it that he arrived carrying two philosophy books in one hand and waving his last beer with the other. He was shouting to Dr Silkworth: “I’ve got the answer! I’ve got the answer! The good doctor put Bill to bed, induced barbiturates to sedate him, and belladonna for calming his stomach. But one might be sure that Bill finished his beer first!

Bill had been drinking for only one month this time, so he was not ailing as badly as on earlier such occasions. When the effects of Pictured here is the historic kitchen table where Ebby first “witnessed” to Bill Wilson. This alcohol faded away, he fell into a deep depression, but he never table is now on display at Stepping Stones drank again! Museum in Bedford Hills, NY. * Big Book, pages 7-9 17

Seven Days in December On a bleak day in November 1934, Ebby Thacher, sat at Bill Wilson’s kitchen table, explaining how his shocking new found sobriety was derived from a spiritual experience. Bill was dismayed because he had hoped Ebby would share his pineapple juice and gin while recalling old times. At any rate Bill knew his gin would outlast Ebby’s presumed preaching. But Ebby did not preach; rather, he told of a simple religious idea (a vital spiritual experience) and a practical program of action (Oxford Group tenets). Bill was very impressed by Ebby’s sobriety, however, the pineapple cocktail held precedence during this jubilant occasion. Ebby visited again with his Oxford Group friend, Shep Cornell. But Bill was not impressed, however his waxing curiosity inspired him to check out what the Calvary Mission was all about. So the next day, Friday, December 7th, found Bill in a drunken state “testifying” from the podium of Calvary Mission. Amazingly, Bill lost all desire to drink on the way home; but then, he spent Saturday and Sunday, December 8th and 9th“ in his bedroom tapering off.” However, he came home roaring drunk on Monday, December 10th, which provoked an argument with Lois. Lois angrily lamented, “You don’t even have the decency to die! You’re crazy! You’re! crazy ” Bill angrily picked up her sewing machine and threw it into the wall. Lois was terrified! Bill rode the subways that night and panhandled funds for a bottle of booze. He came back home on Tuesday morning, December 11th, 1934 (A date to remember!). When he noticed the damaged wall caused by his sewing machine episode, he delved deeply into remorse. Recalling Ebby’s success, he left a note for Lois explaining he was headed back to Town’s Hospital for yet another treatment. He had only six cents in his pocket, but the trip was only a nickel. As he walked toward the subway entrance, he spied a grocery story, where his credit was still intact, whereupon he departed with four bottles of beer. Bill arrived at Towns Hospital with a beer in one hand and two philosophy books in the other. He announced to his loyal physician, Dr. William Duncan Silkworth, that he had found an answer. This was Bill’s fourth and final treatment at Town’s Hospital. He never drank again! Page 13 of the Big Book explains how, after Ebby’s visit, Bill ingested the basic ingredients of what constitutes our Twelve Steps. This was December 13, 1934, seven days after his first trip to Calvary Mission. Bill, on that day, had a sudden and profound spiritual experience (P 14). If not for these Seven days in December, 1934 , AA would not be here today.

18

Dr. William Silkworth Towns Hospital Bill Wilson’s Doctor 293 Central Park West Manhattan, NY

The Belladonna Treatment The mixture was given every hour, day and night, for nearly 50 hours. The end of the treatment was marked by the abundance of stools and then castor oil was given to the patient as a further purgative. The treatment was also described as ‘puke and purge’.Every 12 hours the patient was given CC (Compound Cathartic) pills and Blue Mass. These were 19th century medications of varying composition. Blue Mass included mercury, and was prescribed for a cornucopia of ailments.

When a patient was admitted to the hospital while intoxicated or at the end of a spree, the first thing that was done was to put the patient to sleep. The only medication given prior to the hypnotic was the four CC pills. The hypnotic Lambert found best contained chloral hydrate and morphine along with one or two grams of paraldehyde. If the patient went to sleep easily on this hypnotic it was safe to wake him every hour for his belladonna regimen. Dr Lambert believed it was important to administer a small amount of strychnine every four hours. ~~ wikipedia.org

More About Towns Hospital

Towns claimed a 90% success rate from his cure based on the reasoning that those people he never heard from again had been cured. Towns’ reputation by the 1920s had greatly diminished in the medical community as his claims regarding his cure became more exaggerated. The Towns-Lambert cure bordered on quackery.

Lambert eventually broke off his association with Towns Hospital. Towns was making claims that his cure was guaranteed to work for any compulsive behavior, from morphinism to nicotinism to caffeinism, to kleptomania and bedwetting. Lambert realized that the percentage of those deemed to be cured needed to be greatly reduced since he had observed that a number of people over the years kept returning for cure after cure. During the 1920s a large part of the hospital revenues was from repeat business. ~~ wikipedia.org

18a 21

Bill Wilson’s Spiritual Experience Ebby visited Bill on his third day at Towns. Bill inquired, “Ebby, what was that neat little formula?” Ebby reiterated the kitchen table message from Clinton Street on that recent bleak November day of 1934. At this juncture Bill went through a process strikingly parallel with the 12 Steps of today (p. 13 of the Big Book). He humbly offered himself to God to do with him as he would, he acquainted his schoolmate (Ebby) with his problems and deficiencies and made a list of people he had harmed, etc..

Bill’s depression was momentarily lifted but, after Ebby left, it returned with added severe guilt over how badly he had treated his ever loyal wife, Lois. Somehow, his agnostic convictions began to fade. In a moment of despair and utter deflation he shouted: “If there be a God, let him show himself!” Bill was suddenly overcome by a sense of peace and serenity the likes of which he had never known. But when the light and ecstasy subsided, he felt an overwhelming spiritual presence. A sense of victory over alcohol prevailed! He was a free man!

Bill wondered what had happened; was this a hallucination from the medicine? Or, was he going crazy? But Dr. Silkworth noticed that Bill was strangely different! His trusted doctor told him that he had experienced a rare and benevolent psychic change, and he had better try to hold on to it. If Bill was not convinced, a happenstance of Carl Jung’s ‘Synchronicity’, once again, came into play. Ebby brought in a book [at just that time] that proved to remove all doubt: “The Varieties of Religious Experience,” by William James. Bill read enough of this rather difficult book (but maybe not all it’s 475 pages) to convince him of that he had similarities with those recorded conversions. There were three main comparisons: 1) All had experienced utter William James (1842-1910) defeat in some vital area of their lives. 2) All had ad- The book above was published in 1902 mitted they were defeated. 3) All had appealed to a higher power for help. The book expressed the idea that such ‘religious experiences’ had validity and value. History has certainly revealed the truth of this supposition in the magnificent life of Bill Wilson!

The Varieties of Religious Experience. In the late 1920’s Hadley’s son, Harry, joined with the Reverend Sam Shoemaker to establish the Calvary Rescue Mission. It was the place from which Ebby T (Thacher) carried a message of recovery to Bill W. Hadley was also in charge of the mission when Bill W, fresh out of Towns Hospital, visited to carry his new-found message. Harry R. Hadley This again seems to me another example Jung’s ‘synchronicity.’ . . . Or maybe, dare I say, the working will of what Bill Wilson called, “The Father Of Light!”

Harry R Hadley – Calvary Rescue Mission – Late 1920s 19

From Belief into Action! The fact that Bill, at 39, lived without an alcoholic drink until his death 36 years later makes evident that his spiritual transformation at Towns Hospital was indeed a reality. He left the hospital a free man; free to go back to Wall Street; free to pursue his dream of living in that world of those affluent Manchester vacationers of his youth, or at least return to the times of 1920s when he felt that he “had arrived!” But instead of making a b-line for those coveted financial towers, his days and nights were spent carrying his exciting message to the down-and-out sots at the Calvary Mission, as well as the upper class drunks at Towns Hospital. He brought drunks into his beautiful Clinton Street residence, fed them, prayed for them, and unceasingly attempted to transfer his wondrous alcoholic release; day after day, week after week, month after month, but they all stayed drunk—every one of ‘em! But he steamrolled dead ahead, dismissing urges to give up his thrilling chase in honor of the financial rewards and respected positions awaiting him in the world of finance. Bill was indeed a changed man! He had undergone a spiritual transformation. Reverend Sam Shoemaker became Bill’s spiritual mentor at the time Bill and Lois began regular attendance to the Oxford Group meetings at the Calvary House. This must have been blessedly beneficial for a such a newly defeated exagnostic such as Bill. The particulars of what transpired are not known, but doubtless a deep impression was resultantly stamped on Bill’s willingness to believe in God. Bill and Lois made many other Oxford Group friends. They spent many evenings with them after the meetings at Stewart’s Cafeteria, along with several alcoholics. Ebby and Rowland Hazard were also regulars. This practice has continued in today’s coffee shops around the world; it is now tagged as the AA meeting-after-the-meeting. Rev. Sam Shoemaker was Bill’s Bill once stated that he couldn’t remember whether it was Ebby or Rowspiritual mentor. land who brought him the all-important “Varieties” book at Towns. Rowland never actually ever joined AA but was known to stop by the 24th Street Clubhouse from time to time. Rowland remained Ebby’s Oxford Group ‘sponsor;’ he helped Ebby in prayer, encouraged him to give Oxford Group talks and even took him to his Alamagordo Ranch in New Mexico during the summer of 1935. Much to Bill Wilson’s dismay, Ebby started drinking again in the spring of 1937, after two years and seven months of sobriety. It would seem that Rowland was also off and on the wagon after this period, but was probably sober in 1938-39, but there are no clear records, He died in 1945.

Bill Wilson said he considered William James a founder of AA , because his book played such an important role in his recovery!

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A Few Oxford Group Teachings Bill learned many enduring principles from the Oxford Group Meetings during those early months of 1935. Many of these became entwined in the Twelve-Step program he was to write several years later. I think it is important to realize that the original name of this movement was The First Century Christian Fellowship. It was started by Reverend Frank Buchman [boo k-muh n ], in 1908. The name changed to the Oxford Group in 1928, then to Moral Rearmament in 1938. Dr. Bob, generally referred to this movement by it’s original “Christian Fellowship” title. Today, It is called Initiatives Conference Center for of Change; it is based in Caux , Switzerland. Initiatives of Change

This nondenominational fellowship was light on theology, but stressed four moral standards: absolute Honesty, Unselfishness, Love and Purity. Their Four Principles were Confession, Restitution, God Guidance and Conversion. Bill placed these principles surreptitiously in the Big Book, but with little reference to their Oxford Group origins.

They also practiced what they called “Automatic Writing.” Following a period of meditation and prayer they would write down what came to their mind. Oxford Group writer, AJ Russell, wrote a daily devotion book titled God Calling spawned from this procedure. . . . and even today, some AA members still make use of this process.

It is rather amazing that Bill, who was just weeks distant from a life-long agnostic bent, would so suddenly and energetically carry the Christian message to drunks all over the place. What a complete transformation! He later would state that this was one half spirituality and one half desire to be number one. He would drag drunks home day and night and it would be up to poor Lois to feed them. She was working at Loeser’s Department store for $18 a week ($275 in today’s money, which is less than our current poverty level). Many of Bill’s friends were less than impressed by his new-found zeal, especially the Oxford Loeser’s Department Store in Brooklyn, NY Groupers who were more interested in saving entire countries than a handful of drunkards. Bill was not considered “maximum!” Yet Bill was not dissuaded; but wasn’t it about time to check out his old Wall Street haunts? But what about his ruined reputation? Who could possibly be impressed by yet another ‘on the wagon’ episode? 21

Title Two important lessons: An Akron Business Trip 1. In the spring of 1935, Bill divulged to Lois that perhaps he had been a flop at fixing drunks; to which she replied: “But Bill, don’t you see? You’re sober!

2. Dr. Silkworth also had his say on the situation. He told Bill to stop preaching and start discussing his allergy to alcohol and his seem inability to stop starting—that he was hopeless not only after the first drink, but also before the first drink (Physical Allergy/ Mental Obsession). It was probable that most of Bill’s ’clients’ had had their fill of sermons at Calvary Mission.

These two lessons were to save Bill’s sobriety in the following month of May. (Watch for following examples of synchronicity!)

Businessman Howard Tompkins of NY’s Beer & Company was impressed with Bill’s recovery which led to a job offer in relation to a proxy fight involving an Akron company, The National Rubber Machine Company. If Bill could have pulled this off he might have been president and be back in the chips once again. Things were looking good, but after a brief return trip from NY, the tide had changed and the opponents seemed to have won. Yet there was hope in legal matters and Bill was left in Akron with the promise that Beer & Company would financially support his efforts. The others returned to NY on Friday, May 10th , 1935, leaving Bill alone in a strange city. The next day, a Saturday afternoon, Bill’s apprehension grew as he paced the lobby of Mayflower Hotel wondering what was next. He was down to ten dollars and bored. The cheerful chatter from the hotel bar certainly seemed inviting! How about enjoying a ginger ale and striking up a conversation—no harm in that! After all, had he not been dry for almost five months? Why, even just a few drinks might be all right!

But Bill immediately felt the grip of terror of that first drink. He remembered what Lois had told him (lesson #1 above) and realized he needed to talk with another alcoholic or it was curtains. Mayflower Hotel —————— He espied a directory of local ministers and for no conscious reason phoned a certain Reverend Walter F. Tunks who turned out to be the strongest Oxford Grouper of all the ministers in Akron. Was this yet another occurrence of Carl Jung’s ‘synchronicity’? . . . Phone booth in A rum hound or, dare say, that of a nature more 22 Mayflower lobby from NY Providential?

The Beckoning of the Bar May 11, 1935,found Bill Wilson feverously pacing the lobby of the Mayflower Hotel remorsefully reflecting on the failed aforementioned enterprise. Had he been successful, he would have been set on his feet financially which, at the time, seemed vitally important. Bitterly discouraged, he found himself in a strange place, discredited and almost broke. Still physically weak, and sober but five months, he saw that his predicament was dangerous. He wanted so much to talk with someone, but whom?

At the end of the room stood a glass covered directory of local churches. Down the lobby a door opened into an attractive bar. He could see the gay crowd inside. In there he would find companionship and release. Unless he took some drinks, he might not have the courage to scrape an acquaintance and would have a lonely weekend. Of course he couldn’t drink, but why not sit hopefully at a This room is located at the south end of table, a bottle of ginger ale before him? After all, had he not the lobby to the right of the elevators. been sober five months now? Perhaps he could handle, say, The Mayflower Hotel was built in 1931, three drinks—no more! Fear gripped him. He was on thin during prohibition, so this room was not built as a cocktail lounge, per se at that ice! Again it was the old, insidious insanity—that first drink. time . . . but prohibition ended in 1933. With a shiver, he turned away and walked down the lobby to the church directory. Music and gay chatter still floated to him from the bar. But what about his responsibilities — his family and the men who would die because they would not know how to get well, ah—yes, those other alcoholics? There must be many such in this town. He would phone a clergyman. His sanity returned and he thanked God. Selecting the name of Reverend Walter F. Tunks from the church directory, he invested a nickel to make one of the most important calls in AA history. (Lois Wilson thought the reason for picking the name of Tunks may have been that one of Bill’s favorite expressions was, “taking a tunk,” which refers to a short walk.) This story continues on the next page.

Episcopal Minister, Reverend Walter F. Tunks, and Church Directory in the lobby of the Mayflower Hotel.

22 A

Bill Meets Henrietta Seiberling Reverend Tunks provided Bill with numbers of ten Oxford Group members to which Bill risked his then-precious nickels to no avail, save one contact, Norman Sheppard, who knew about Henrietta Seiberling’s efforts to help a doctor get off the hooch. Her very name made Bill wax diffident. He realized she was a member of the prodigious Seiberling Rubber Company family; such a millionaire socialite would doubtless take a dim view on the prospect of helping some unknown New York drunk find another drunk—Bill left the telephone booth and dejectedly returned to his room. But in profound desperation he finally made the call (Note that was call #12!).

Only weeks before, Dr. Bob Smith had admitted to the Akron Oxford Group that he was a secret drinker and would they pray for him; Henrietta believed that Bob’s answer would come through regular prayer. So, When a phone call came from a rum hound from New York who needed another drunk to keep him sober she thought to herself: “This is really manna from heaven.” She replied: “You come right out here.”

One must wonder whether Bill invested his limited funds on a taxi ride, or walked those several hilly miles. (A speaker at the 2008 Founder’s Day believes he walked, so the next day he planned to count the exact number of steps that Bill would have taken; then report back to us the next year, but I have never heard the report.) Henrietta did arrange for the two alcoholics to meet for supper at the gatehouse of the Stan Hywet Mansion where she and her teenage children were then residing. This was Sunday Evening, May 12, 1935. Dr. Bob Smith, his wife Ann, and 17 year old son, Bob, arrived at about five o’clock, but Dr. Bob’s severe hangover would not allow him to partake of the supper.

23 The 65-Room Stan Hywet Mansion was Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, the residence of the Sieberling family founded by Frank Seiberling in 1898

Bill W. Meets Dr. Bob

Gatehouse Library where Bill and Dr. Seiberling Family Gatehouse Bob first talked

Dr. Bob had in mind that time spent with this mug would be snappy, so he had made Henrietta promise that they would stay only 15 minutes after supper, but this notion became less compelling when Bill said something to the effect that Dr. Bob appeared to need a drink. But the 15-minute talk continued on and on till eleven o’clock! Perhaps the prevailing factor sparking the doctor’s continued interest was that Bill’s revelations came from personal experience, unlike from other benignly motivated friends who spoke from book knowledge. Another factor would have been that Bill doubtless related Dr. Silkworth’s ideas of the physical allergy and the mental obsession . . . any true alcoholic would immediately see the truth in this concept through their own experience.

Bill’s recently enlightened method of talking with new prospects reflects lesson #2 from the earlier page of this book. Doctor Silkworth’s pointing out the necessity that Bill change his approach from preaching to personal experience, at just the right time, may well have provided another example of Dr. Carl Jung’s notion of ‘synchronicity.’

Dr. Bob had been privy to the teachings of the Oxford Group for over two years, so he obviously would not have been impressed by Bill’s new-found spiritual knowledge. Just as today, one drunk sharing his or her alcoholic experience with another alcoholic best implants the seed of hope into a newcomer’s world of doubt and confusion.

But yet, it is not beyond reason that Ebby’s miracle would have been discussed, as well as Bill’s spiritual experience at Towns Hospital. Plus, certainly, both parties would have shared a mutual interest in the Oxford Group teach- Portage Country Club where ings of which they were both deeply Bill stayed before moving to and regularly involved. Dr. Bob’s house

24

How Theprogram The spiritual Oxford Group of Oxford GroupCame Toas Akron had served a magnet, of sorts, bringing Bill together with Dr. Bob, but this was just a beginning. It is interesting how the Groupers’ Thechose to be spiritual in Akron program in the of Oxford firsthad Group place. served Jim Newtonofwas as a magnet, sorts,the catalyst for events leading to bringing this Bill unlikely together choice with Dr. Bob,ofbut cities. this wasIn 1924, at just a the ageIt is beginning. of 20, Jim,how interesting with the help of his father, thepurchased Groupers’ 55 acresbeof chose to in raw landtheinfirst Akron in Ft.place. MyersJim Florida, adjacent Newton was the to the properties of inventor, catalyst for events Thomasleading Edison to this unlikely choice and auto of cities.Henry manufacturer In 1924, at the In Ford. age of time,20,Jim Jim,became like a second son with the help of his father, to the Edison family. purchased 55 acres of raw land in Ft. Myers Florida, adjacent to the properties of inventor, Thomas Edison and auto manufacturer Henry Ford. In Jim Resultantly, time, became Jim became like a second associated son many with to the Edison famousfamily. and influential friends of the Edison’s, suchJim Resultantly, as President Hoover, neighbor became associated with many Henry Ford, famous andand manufacturer Harvey Firestone, influential Sr. Inof1928 friends Harvey Firestone the Edisons, asked Newton such as President Hoover,toneighbor move toHenry Akron,Ford, Ohio, to assume Harvey the position Firestone Sr. of “Secretary 1869-1938 and manufacturerto the Harvey President” Firestone,ofSr.theIn 1928 Firestone Tire and Harvey Rubber Firestone Company. He accepted, asked movedtotomove Newton Akron, to and wasOhio, Akron, lodged to in the the assume Portage Country position of Club (where “Secretary to Bill Wilson was to be thebriefly lodged President” six years of the later). Firestone Shortly Tire and thereafter Rubber he wasHeplaced Company. in the position of “President accepted, moved to Akron, of Firestone and wasHe Realty.” lodged in theinformed was then Portage Country Clubbeing that he was (wheregroomed Bill for the presidency of Wilson was Firestone. to be briefly lodged six years later). Shortly thereafter he was placed in the position of “President of Firestone Realty.” He was then in- Jim was formed that of course he was welcomed being groomed by the presidency for the Firestone offamily, but became closer to Russell “Bud’ Firestone. Firestone. But it was revealed that Bud had a very severe drinking problem and had been to Jim was of course welcomed by the Firestone family, but became closer to several ‘dry out’ institutions to no avail. At this time Jim had been an ardent Oxford Group Russell “Bud’ Firestone. But it was revealed that Bud had a very severe member for many years and had known many of its movers and shakers, including the Revdrinking problem and had been to several ‘dry out’ institutions to no avail. erend Sam Shoemaker. I effort to help Bud, they took a train to an Oxford Group gathering At this time Jim had been an ardent Oxford Group member for many years in had and Denver; knownriding many back of its home moversinand a shakers, private car, Reverend including Shoemaker helped Bud do a the Reverend ‘surrender.’ Sam Shoemaker.His In life changed effort to help immediately and Bud, they took his family a train was Russell to an Oxfordsaved‘Bud’ fromFirestone with his a fifth-a-day wife at Hialeah Race Track ‘37 drunkard. Group gathering in Denver; riding back home in a private car, Reverend Shoemaker helped Bud do a ‘surrender.’ His life changed immediately and Harvey Firestone, Sr. was a member of an Akron Episcopal Church, headed by the same his family was saved from a Reverend Walter Tunks who Bill Wilson phoned in 1935. Impressed by what Sam Shoefifth-a-day drunkard. maker of the Oxford group had done for his son, he invited, Oxford Group founder, Frank Harvey Firestone, Buchman, Sr. awas to bring a to Akron to meet at his church. Bud Firestone was to share of his group member of an The ‘miracle!’ Akron Episco- Oxford Group departed on January 23, 1933, leaving six of its members bepalhind Church, headed by the in effort to continue ’House Parties” in the rubber capital of the world. Soon thereafter, same Reverend Walter Oxford Group ‘House Parties’ were started at T. Henry and Calarce Williams home at 676 Tunks who Bill Wilson Palisades Drive. phoned in 1935. Impressed by what Sam Shoemaker of the Oxford group hadSodone that for hisbrief, is, in son, he invited, how Oxford paved Jim Newton Group the founder, Frank road for theBuchman, Oxford Group to settle in Akron, toOhio. bring his group for a ten-day event at Akron’s Mayflower Hotel. The Oxford Group departed on January 23, 1933, but left six of its members behind in effort to continue ’House Parties” in the rubber capital of the world. In April of 1935 Oxford Group ‘House Parties’ were started at T. Henry and Clarace Williams home at 676 Palisades Drive . . . So that is, in brief, how Jim Newton paved the road for the Oxford Group to settle in Akron, Ohio. 25

Dawn Of Hope Fades to Doubt Now back to Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith. Perhaps to insure that Bill continue in Akron to help Dr. Bob, Henrietta asked a neighbor to arrange that he be put up in nearby Portage Country Club for the following two weeks. But afterward, the Smiths asked Bill to move in with them, and he stayed for the entire summer, departing on August 29th. Bill was not entirely broke because the proxy fight financing from Beer & Company continued through the summer. A May 1935 letter to Lois told of their failed attempts to help a once-prominent local surgeon who had become a “terrific rake and a drunk” recover. (So this was their first, maybe only, such pre-AA attempt.)

Henrietta and Ann encouraged the recovering imbibers to participate in daily spiritual reading; this included readings from the Good Book such as Sermon on The Mount, Corinthians 1- Chapter 13, and James; also, a small Methodist pamphlet, The Upper Room. Of course, there were the precepts of the Oxford Group which doubtless included the Four Absolutes (called Standards). Afterward, there would be a ‘quiet time’ of perhaps a half-hour, but often lasted for a full hour. Sue Smith, the teenage daughter, remembers a bottle on the kitchen shelf (to prove temptation wasn’t there). Bill was adamant about this “proof,” which about drove Ann crazy, but to her relief, the bottles soon disappeared un-drank.

At some point, perhaps in May, when Dr. Bob had been sober only two or three weeks, he told that he was looking forward to attending The yearly convention of The American Medical Association in Atlantic City; he had been doing so for years. But Ann brought up the disagreeable reality that every time he had gone to this get-togather he got drunk. Bill Wilson, who kept whisky bottles on Ann’s sideboard, took the position that alcoholics had to learn to live in the real world. Dr. Bob won!

Dr. Bob recalled that he drank everything he could get his hands on as soon as he boarded the train, and bought several quarts on his way to the hotel. Five days later, Ann learned that he had returned boiled as an owl and was sleeping it off at his nurse’s home. Bill spent the next few days tapering him off with hookers of scotch and beer. Yet, Dr. Bob was extremely nervous and shaky; this was especially prevalent due to the fact the he had started a surgical procedure on a patient at Akron City Hospital of which he was solely responsible to complete on Monday; his already battered reputation was at stake. 26

AA Begins! Dr. Bob’s tapering off was augmented with a diet of tomato juice, sauerkraut and karo corn syrup (Believed to supply both vitamins and energy), plus a little beer to quiet his nerves. Bob and Bill shared one of the upper bedrooms that was large enough for two beds during this crucial period. Early Monday morning, on the day of the scheduled operation, Bill was awakened by the statement: “I am going through with this!” Bill inquired, “You mean the operation? Dr. Bob replied yes, both—that he was going to perform the operation and also do what ever it takes to get sober, and stay sober. They fell back to sleep. The operation was scheduled just a few hours hence. The doctor was still shaking as Bill and Ann drove him to Akron City Hospital, but just before leaving the car, Bill gave him some beer and a “goofball” (barbiturate) to hopefully calm his erratic nerves. A misguided scalpel could end the life of his patient as well as his career. Bill and Ann returned to 855 Ardmore and nervously listened for Dr. Bob’s phone message of success or no. Hours passed, but finally came the good news that they were praying for. . . . But more hours passed and dire anticipation arose as the newly sobered alcoholic had not returned. They feared the worst! But at last he walked in the door happily announcing that he had simply been busy “mending fences” (making amends to fellow doctors and associates). In other words his “program of action” had finally begun. Up till this time Dr. Bob simply had a ’fellowship,’ but now he had a ‘program of action’ to go along with it. He never drank again! AA celebrates this day as the date that AA started. The official date is June 10, 1935, and this is, of course, very possible if Dr. Bob just got thirsty and went off on a toot using the AMA Convention as an excuse to disappear for a while. Who knows? However, it is also possible that the actual date of Dr. Bob’s sobriety may be a week later than generally supposed: June 17, 1935. The JAMA excerpt below makes clear that their Atlantic City convention started on June 10th, 1935, not on June 3rd , as Dr. Bob’s account reports. Here follows a possible timeline: Sunday, June 9th: Dr Bob starts drinking on the train; buys more booze upon arrival. Monday, June 10th: Stays sober till evening. Tuesday, June 11th: Checks out of hotel. Wednesday, June 12th: Blackout begins.

Thursday, June 13th: May have arrived back to Akron train depot. Friday, June 14th: Picked up by nurse. Saturday, June 15th: Drying out. Sunday, June 16th: Day 3 of drying out. Monday, June 17th: Last drink! AA Begins! Paragraph 2 27

A Paradox Indeed!

It would seem unlikely that a spiritual program such as Alcoholics Anonymous would have had its beginning by one drunk giving another drunk a bottle of beer in a car in front of a hospital where the drinker was not to be the patient, but the drinker was the doctor! The following pages will delve into other aspects of this subject even deeper, so please read on . . .

AKRON CITY HOSPITAL (1930s) 28

Timely Events of AA Formation Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle

Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events, that are apparently causally unrelated or unlikely to occur together by chance, that are observed to occur together in a meaningful manner. The concept of synchronicity was first described by Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung in the 1920s

The following illustrations from this book may correlate with Dr. Carl Jung’s, “acausal guiding principle.”

This book has made clear that other than Rowland Hazard’s 1926 to 1931 interplay with Dr. Carl Jung, the chain of events leading to AA’s solution of a vital spiritual experience would not have connected to its next link. Rowland was a very wealthy individual who might have sought treatment from any number of famous doctors, but most likely they would have not offered the surprisingly unorthodox spiritual experience solution of Dr. Jung. Rowland had visited the Zurich doctor more than once during that five year span and in those days one did not “Lear Jet” around the world. It would seem that “something” was directing Rowland Hazard to possession of the vital information that in which he was in 1934 fated to carry to Ebby Thacher in Manchester, Vermont.

Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle. (Jung—Hazard)

The short narrative, earlier in this book, of “Ebby’s Miracle” relates how Ebby Thacher was struck sober, minus the least willingness to follow the Oxford Group guidance of Cebra Graves and Shep Cornell. As a matter of fact he had told them to go to h —! Yet “something” blessed him with and immediate release from any desire to drink. Cebra saved him from being sentenced to Brattleboro Asylum, and Rowland got into the game at just this crucial time for the judge to place Ebby’s into his custody. . . . and as this intricate puzzle comes together, Shep Cornell arranged that Ebby stay in his Manhattan apartment for a short time. Rowland Hazard learned the importance of a vital spiritual experience in Zurich in 1931, now in 1934, this vital message is being transferred to Ebby Thacher in New York – and guess who is living in Brooklyn!

Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle. (Jung—Hazard—Thacher)

Bill Wilson was close to death on that bleak November day of Ebby’s 1934 ‘kitchen table’ visit. Dr. Silkworth had already told Lois that he may be dead within a year; besides he was so suicidal that his bed had been moved downstairs. He had been treated at Town’s Hospital three times to practically no avail. The end seemed near with no hope in sight. Lois prayed for a miracle. 29

Timely Events Of AA Formation Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle

As we know, Ebby’s visit had a profound effect on Bill; so much so, in fact, that shortly thereafter, December 11th, 1934, found Bill walking toward the subway with what he considered ‘soberinducing paperwork’ of which he planned to share with Dr. Silkworth upon arrival at Towns Hospital. But, alas, en route he purchased those four bottles of beer we have read about. We can all thank our lucky stars that the physical craving did not overpower his reasoning and the last of those four beers were his last.

Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle (Jung—Hazard—Thacher—Wilson)

Then, just after Bill Wilson’s spiritual experience at towns, when he was not sure of what that was all about, a book by William James [The Varieties of Religious Experience] turns up that convinced him that that his spiritual episode was indeed the real thing! Other than that assurance, Bill would have most likely gone back to Wall Street or started drinking again per usual.

Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle (Jung—Hazard—Thacher—James—Wilson)

When Bill randomly chose Reverend Walter Tunks’ name from list on the telephone booth, he by chance, chose the strongest Oxford Group member of all the ministers in Akron; consequently, became privy to Norman Sheppard’s phone number who in turn connected Bill with the critical “manna from Heaven” conversation with Henrietta Seiberling.

Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle (Jung—Hazard—Thacher—James—Wilson—Tunks)

Bill arrived in Akron at just the time when Dr. Bob had recently requested the Oxford Group members to pray for his release from alcohol. Henrietta was heading this daily group project. Had Bill Wilson arrived before, or several months later: who knows! But Henrietta connected Bill to Dr. Bob at just the ‘right’ time!.

Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle (Jung—Hazard—Thacher—James—Wilson—Tunks—Seiberling—Dr. Bob)

Also, if there was a controlling factor whose job, was to make AA happen, just notice the social status of the movers and shakers mentioned in this book. William James, the father of modern psychology, Dr. Carl Jung was famous for his writings, Rowland Hazard was a millionaire, Ebby Thacher’s brother was Mayor of the capital city of NY State, Cebra Graves was a Broadway actor and State Senator, Shep Cornell ran for Congress and had a seat on the Stock Exchange, Jim Newton was a rising star in the financial world, members of the Firestone family also played a crucial part, Henrietta Seiberling was of the Goodyear Tire Company, and of course, spiritual leaders, Frank Buchman and Sam Shoemaker were known world wide. 30

End of Pre-AA Book (The following Appendix Pages are dedicated to AA history buffs interested in further research) It is the sincere hope of this author that this scant view of pre-AA history will raise the level of the reader’s interest so as to better keep our precious past alive. It is my hope that you will reprint these pages for your sponsees, Home Group, District, Area, Intergroup, local clubhouses and for your AA friends. The pictures of this book will print with muh higher clarity on glossy paper. The following list contains websites of other AA History books written by Bob S. The Indiana AA History PowerPoint is by Bruce C.

The following books, by Bob S., can be downloaded from the internet: A Pre-AA History Book (This book) Ebby in Exile, A Vital A Link Early Indianapolis AA, A Pictorial View Indiana AA History (A Power Point, by Bruce C.) History of AA in Richmond, Indiana Al-Anon Origin Book of Richmond, Indiana Please request a free PDF file from Bob S.: rstonebraker212@comcast.net Phone: (765) 935-0130 Robert Stonebraker 212 SW 18th Street Richmond, IN 47374

In our history lies our hope!

(The Appendix pages will remain unnumbered)

Appendix I

Rowland Hazard

Rowland Hazard Rowland Hazard’s “Ladyhill” residence 1881-1945 near Shaftsbury, VT. Cira 1935

This “cabin” no longer exists because a new owner wanted the land, but not the cabin; consequently, it was arranged that the local fire department burn it down as a training exercise.

Shaftsbury is about fifteen miles south of Manchester. During a swimming pool party, in the late summer of 1934, Shep Cornell and Cebra Graves, expressed concern of their friend, Ebby Thacher, who had been arrested as a public nuisance — this was Ebby’s third time and Vermont law dictated he faced commitment to Brattleboro Asylum for six months. Rowland’s house guests, Cebra and Shep, left the party and to help Ebby sober up and perhaps get him off the hook—it worked! The court released Ebby to the supervision of millionaire, Rowland Hazard. Rowland’s sobriety had been spasmodic, but he was sober during this period. He was being treated by Courtney Baylor of the Emmanuel Movement, in Boston, MA. Ebby closed the Manchester house and became a guest in this cabin for several weeks before moving briefly to Shep Cornell’s NY apartment, then the Calvary Mission (Cebra remembers it as actually the much nicer Calvary House) in lower Manhattan. Later Ebby was to return to this area to present Oxford Group talks at a junior college, churches and a meeting hall.

Rowland’s Treatment by Dr. Carl Jung.

Rowland’s cousin, Leonard Bacon, was a well respected family member; he won Pulitzer Prize for his poetry 1941. Like Rowland, Leonard grew up in Peace Dale and went on to Yale. Five of his relatives were Yale faculty when he was a student. He and his wife Henriette were analyzed by Dr. Jung in 1923, and maintained close relationships with the small group of dedicated Jungians in California. Leonard’s ambition had been to support himself as a poet and translator of poetry. By 1923 his books were selling so well that he could resign his position at Berkeley and move to Carmel. Unaccountably, he became depressed after the move. “I was perfectly married, I had three lovely children, I had enough money for our modest necessities. A new book had been accepted, another was on the way. And yet two-thirds of my energy was being eaten up in ridiculous agonies … I tried psychiatrists, exercise, alcohol …”

In early 1925 his first cousin persuaded him to go to Zurich to be treated by Dr. Jung.

Residences of the Hazard Family Rowland Hazard (1763-1835) Rowland G. Hazard (1801-1888) son of above Rowland Hazard II (1829-1898), son of above Rowland G. Hazard II (1855–1918), son of above Roland Hazard III (1881-1945) son of above

Rowland Hazard III and wife, Helen (1889-1946) had four Children, Caroline (1911-1953), Rowland G. (1917-1941), Peter H. (1918-1944) and Charles B. (1920-1995).

“Oakwoods” Built by Rowland Hazard III ’s Grandfather in 1854.

Hazard’s Castle

Hazard’s Castle was constructed by Joseph Peace Hazard, the son of Rowland Hazard, (the founder of the Peacedale Mills) and Mary Peace. Joseph was born on February 17, 1807 in Burlington, New Jersey. The family moved to Peace- “Holly House” dale, Rhode Island in 1820. During 1821, Joseph Rowland Hazard III took residence began working in the Peacedale mill run by his here at eleven years old. older brothers Roland and Isaac. In 1835, Joseph constructed a woolen mill at Peacedale, which he ran for several years and then leased out. In 1856 Joseph traveled to England and Italy and thereafter spent most of the years until 1879 traveling abroad. During the last two years of his travels he also visited Japan and Iceland after which he returned to Peacedale. Joseph was the owner of several large tracts of land in the Narragansett Pier area and was instrumental in the early development of the town as a major tourist destination. In 1846, he began construction of what is now known as Hazard’s Castle. The castle derives it’s name from the two towers on either side of the building. Upland Farm Fredrick R. Hazard Built in 1899

More About Rowland’s Cousin, Leonard Bacon Leonard Bacon’s Influence on Rowland Hazard to seek treatment from Dr. Carl Jung played a vital role in the synchronic factors leading to the beginning of AA.

The siege is over. Leonard Bacon (1887 -1954), published And the walls are down many volumes, sever- In the dismantled city of the soul. al of which the library has in first Here fire and there the sword edition such as this one, The Legend of have taken toll. Quincibald. And the inhabitants have fled the town. Courage ran first and with him good reknown. As for the famous captain self-control He’s in the mountains hiding in a hole. And not one passion trembles at his frown. Leonard Bacon, Animula Vagula

Early in his career, Sunderland Capture and Leonard Bacon often Other Poems, Bacon’s Pulitzer wrote under the pseudo- Prize winning volume . nym, Autholycus”

The Acorns, at 70 A Broad Rock Road in Wakefield, RI, is for sale at $1.8 million. It has 7,105 square feet of living space. Real estate taxes are $15,221. (Written in 2009) When the Hazard family, which made its fortune in the textile business, built this shingled Queen Anne Victorian in 1882, it was named “The Acorns” because it was smaller than another Hazard mansion called, Oakwoods. But “small” is a very relative term. With more than 7,000 square Leonard Bacon’s home, The Acorns feet of living space, 10 bedrooms, 51⁄2 baths and six fireplac- ( image from the Providence Journal House es, all on nearly four acres at 70 A Broad Rock Road in of the Week, accessed December 19th, 2009 ) Wakefield, this is not exactly a humble shed.

Rowland’s 1926 Treatment Not long after Leonard’s Zurich visit, he lost both of his parents within a few months of one another. For the first few months of 1926 he traveled frequently between his home in California and Peace Dale, to settle their estates. During one of these trips, he was asked to help resolve a crisis involving Rowland.

Rowland and Helen Hazard had been on vacation in Bermuda with Rowland’s sister and her husband. Rowland apparently lost control of his drinking, an argument developed, and Helen sent him home by himself. The letters are vague, but there is an implication that the crisis was precipitated by a revelation of infidelity on Rowland’s part. Helen cabled Leonard asking him to meet Rowland in New York when he arrived on 25 March and take him to Dr. Riggs’ sanitarium in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

After listening to Rowland’s side of the story, Leonard suspected that the marital problems were more prominent than the drinking. He encouraged Rowland and Helen to consider a different plan. In a letter from Bermuda, Helen wrote, “I agree with you that Dr. Riggs does not seem to have had the ability to help Roy [Rowland] to help himself. “Helen returned in early April, and Leonard continued to meet with each of them, separately. They agreed that going to Europe to see Dr. Jung together would be the best thing.

By 17 April 1926, Rowland and Helen were on a steamer bound for Europe. After short stops in London, Paris and Brussels, they arrived in Zurich 6 May. A letter from Rowland to Leonard, dated only “May 15,” is written on the stationary of the Dolder Grand Hotel of Zurich. Details in that letter match closely those of a letter from Jung to Leonard dated May 16th, 1926 (“Hazard and his wife are here”). Both letters indicate that Rowland had begun work with Jung, and Helen with Jung’s assistant, Toni Wolff.

I think we get along splendidly. The first day he saw me, J. asked for dreams. That night I produced three corkers — He read them and remarked, “these are fine, fine — but for God’s sake don’t dream any more” We’ve been at work interpreting them and it all seems most fascinating and logical to me.

Old boy, this is the dope for me, I’m sure. Thank God for it, and for you for sending me here.

On 24 June 1926, Rowland’s bank account showed an expense of $5,002.50, “to cover charge put through by F.L. & T. Co. a/c sum cabled to RH on his request.” It is itemized to “travel.” The equivalent in today’s dollars would be more than $50,000. Some of the money would have been needed for hotel expenses and meals, but even the Hazards could not have spent very much of it on travel. Most of the money was presumably needed to cover Jung’s fees.

The New York Times social notes column of 24 July 1926 included a mention that “Mr. and Mrs. Rowland Hazard of Peace Dale, RI are at the Ritz-Carlton.” By 2 August, Rowland was back in Peace Dale. He told Aunt Caroline about his analysis and showed her the drawings he had made (“The drawings are quite astonishing, symbolical things — Roy seems well and vigorous”).

Rowland and Helen Hazard with their son, Peter

Rowland Hazard III Business Life and Residences Rowland “Roy” Hazard III (1881-1945) was the son of Gibson Hazard II (1855-1918) and Mary Pierrepont Bushnell (1859-1936).

He graduated from Taft School in Waterbury Connecticut, and Yale University in 1903.

After 1707 he worked for, and later became a treasurer, with the family business, Peace Dale Mfg. Company, which was sold in 1918.

He served on the South Kingstown town council from 1908 . . . then in the Rhode Island State Senate from 1914 to 1916. He was a lifetime Republican.

He served as a Captain in the Chemical Warfare Dept. of the US Army during WW I.

After the war he participated in the organization of Allied Chemical and Dye Corporation.

He joined a NY banking firm, Lee, Higginson & Co. in 1920, however he still remained active in Rhode Island affairs: president of the Washington County Agricultural Society. He resigned from this banking position in 1927 to travel to Africa.

While in La Luz, New Mexico, recovering from an tropical illness contracted during the African venture, he formed the Aguadero Corporation to market pottery. He formed Rowland Third Inc. as a personal holding company in 1930, registered in the state of Vermont. Though not successful, it remained active for the remainder of Hazard’s life.

Rowland returned to Rhode Island in 1931, and acquired one of the family homes, “Druid’s Dream” in Narragansett. He also kept residences intermittently at 52nd Street and other addresses in Manhattan; in La Luz, New Mexico; at “Ladyhill” in Shaftsbury, Vermont; and at “Sugarbush” in Glastonbury, Vermont.

In the 1930s, he commercially marketed maple syrup that had been tapped at his Vermont vacation home. He incorporated a real estate company, the What Cheer Realty Company, in 1932.

He was active as officer or director of several organizations in his later years, most notably as executive vice-president of the Bristol Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut. Rowland Hazard III died in Waterbury, Connecticut on December 20, 1945.

333 Ocean Rd, Narragansett

According to the Rhode Island Historical Society Manuscripts Division, businessman “Joseph Peace Hazard (1807-1892) built this medieval-style structure on his Seaside Farm in Narragansett. Hazard’s history also revealed he had spiritual beliefs and in a dream, a druid came to him and told him to build a Gothic-style castle. Druid’s Dream

THE ROUNDTABLE OF AA HISTORY April 12, 1998 Rowland Hazard (1881-1945)

This is being reposted as the original post became garbled–Nancy Olsen

The web group AA History Buffs was founded in March 2000 by Nancy Moyer Olson, who acted as the group’s first moderator. This Group is now called AA History Lovers.—Bob S.

Rowland Hazard was the sober alcoholic who brought the spiritual message of The Oxford Group to Ebby Thacher. Thacher carried the message to Bill Wilson. Wilson then based much of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous on Oxford Group principles. The rest is history; millions have recovered from alcoholism.

Hazard was born October 29, 1881, into a prominent, enormously wealthy Rhode Island industrial family. He was the oldest son of Rowland Gibson and Mary Pierrepont Bushnell Hazard. An unbroken line of Hazard men named Rowland dates back to 1763. His grandfather and great-great-grandfather had the same name. So: he sometimes used the name Rowland Hazard III. He named one of his companies, Rowland Third, Inc. The Hazard family’s colonial roots dated back to 1635 and its members were large-scale landowners, manufacturers and people of learning in science and literature. They were respected widely as achievers and as philanthropists.

The family resided in a colony of estates at Peace Dale, Rhode Island. Oakwood was built in the 1800’s by Rowland’s paternal grandfather. Rowland lived from age 11 at Holly House. His Aunt Helen’s home, The Acorns, was where 1941 Pulitzer Prize winning poet Leonard Bacon grew up. And, there was Scallop Shell, the home of Rowland’s Aunt Caroline, on her return from serving as President of Wellesley College.

Rowland was the tenth generation of Hazards born in Rhode Island. The subject of this writing was a Yale graduate (BA, 1903). Some of his classmates called him, “Ike” or “Rowley”. He sang in the varsity glee club and chapel choir and was a member of Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. Both his father and paternal grandfather had graduated from Brown University. The males on his mother’s side of the family favored Yale. One of these was Eli Whitney, who invented the cotton gin.

Rowland spent the years immediately following Yale learning the various family businesses. He began at The Peace Dale Manufacturing Company, of Peace Dale Rhode Island, a woolen mill that produced much of the family wealth. That mill had made blankets for the Army during the Civil War. Rowland then moved on to work in family industries producing coke and coke ovens, soda ash, calcium chloride and soda bicarbonate in Chicago and Syracuse, before returning to Peace Dale Manufacturing in 1906, as Secretary- Treasurer.

In October 1910, Rowland married his wife, Helen Hamilton Campbell, a Briar Cliff graduate, the daughter of a Chicago banker. They had one daughter and three sons. Two of their three sons were killed while serving with the US armed forces during World War Two.

Like many of his family, Rowland was active in Republican Party politics. He was a delegate to the 1912 national party convention, which re-nominated President William Howard Taft. Hazard was a Rhode Island State Senator from 1914 to 1916. Previously he had served as President of the South Kingstown, Rhode Island Town Council

When World War 1 began, Rowland became a civilian official of the Ordnance Department. But, he resigned later to accept a commission as Captain in the US Army’s Chemical Warfare Service.

It’s unclear precisely when Rowland’s drinking problems began. The socially elite of that time were quite guarded about private family matters. But, relatives who were alive at the time this research began say they believe Rowland’s alcohol problems began when he was quite young. These relatives note that covering up his heavy drinking was no problem for Rowland, because he was a member of the family that owned the businesses. And they conclude that he probably hit bottom hard before he decided to consult with doctors for help.

Rowland sought treatment for his rapidly progressing alcoholism from all of the major psychiatrists in the United States. None had an answer that worked. Dr. Sigmund Freud, according to legend, was too busy to take Rowland’s case. So: in 1931, still drinking, at 50, Hazard traveled to Zurich, Switzerland, where he consulted Dr. Carl Gustav Jung — then considered, with the possible exception of Freud, the finest psychiatrist in the world.

Dr. Jung treated Rowland for his drinking problem. That much is clear from Jung’s correspondence with Bill Wilson, published in the AA book, “Pass It On”. But, there are at least two different conclusions concerning precisely when, to what extent and at what intervals the treatment took place.

Some AA historians believe Jung treated Hazard, in Zurich, for almost a year and that Hazard then felt fully ready to return home to the United States — convinced he had solved his drinking problem, and that the solution was self-knowledge. They believe Rowland left Zurich by train and got as far as Paris before he got drunk. Other AA historians believe Rowland returned to the United States before he drank again. Its generally agreed that Hazard returned immediately to Zurich and Dr. Jung for an explanation concerning his relapse.

But, records on file among the Hazard Family Papers in the Manuscripts Division of the Rhode Island Historical Society show that Rowland was in the United States for part of every month of 1931 and 1932, with the exception of a family trip to Europe from June 12 to September 10, 1931. During that time period, Hazard can be traced to France, on July 9, Italy on July 20 and apparently to England on August 13, 1931. Furthermore, there is no evidence in the records of the RIHS to suggest Hazard was in Switzerland at all during 1931 or ’32. And RIHS officials note that the Hazard family commented quite freely, on other occasions, about Rowland’s travels and treatment.

However: The Hazard Family visited Europe during the summer of 1931. They apparently briefly visited Switzerland without their children. This may be the basis of Cebra Grave’s relating to Bill Wilson that Rowland was treated by Dr. Jung in 1931. Quote: The youngest Hazard son, Charles, was 11 years old at the time of the 1931 trip. He was interviewed in the early 1990s and did not recall any reference to Jung, although he did have a recollection of staying in France with his older siblings while his parents made a trip to Zurich. From: Stellar Fire: Carl Jung, a New England Family, and the Risks of Anecdote

That Jung treated Rowland Hazard hardly seems in dispute. In his published correspondence with Bill Wilson, Jung said he treated him. But, the RIHS records make it appear unlikely that the treatment was seven days per week, for an entire year. It is possible the treatment took place over a one-year period, but was intermittent.

At the conclusion of treatment, following Hazard’s relapse, Jung told Rowland that he had done everything he could for him, clinically. He told the despondent Hazard that psychiatry and medicine could no nothing more for him and that his only hope would be to have what the psychiatrist called a “vital spiritual experience”. Dr. Jung further suggested that Rowland find what we would now call a “self-help group” to help him have such an experience. Hazard joined The Oxford Group, a spiritual, evangelical group founded on first-century Christian principles and practices (prayer, meditation, and guidance). The Group was then at the height of its success and popularity in Europe. Through attending meetings and practicing the group’s beliefs, Rowland had a conversion experience such as Dr. Jung had described, an experience that released him from the obsession/compulsion to drink. (There is disagreement among A.A. historians over whether Rowland’s spiritual experience happened in Europe or the US. Most believe it happened in Europe.)

Some psychiatric experts call it a blessing that Dr. Freud was too busy to see Rowland. They say it’s fortunate he consulted Dr. Jung. They point out that while Jung insisted the solution to Rowland’s alcoholism was spiritual, a turning to God, a conversion experience: Freud would have condemned any such spiritual experience as a neurosis.

In the United States, Hazard connected with The Oxford Group in New York, led by the Reverend Dr. Samuel Shoemaker, at the mission of Calvary Episcopal Church, on 21st. Street, in Manhattan. In 1932, Rowland moved to Shaftsbury, Vermont. There, during August 1934, he heard from two other Oxford Groupers about Edwin Throckmorton “Ebby” Thacher’s pending six-month sentence to Windsor Prison for drunkenness and alcoholic insanity.

Hazard and fellow Oxford Grouper Cebra Graves attended Ebby’s sentencing hearing in court at Bennington, Vermont. There are two conflicting accounts of what happened next. The first version says they told the presiding judge, Judge Collins Graves, Cebra’s father, of their group’s success in controlling alcohol problems and asked the Court to release Ebby to Rowland’s custody. This version says Judge Graves consented. The second version says it was Judge Graves who asked Hazard to take Ebby under his wing and that Rowland consented. Both versions conclude the same way: that Ebby was released to Rowland’s custody and, Rowland, Cebra and a third Group member, Shep Cornell, began taking Ebby with them to Oxford Group meetings in Vermont.

Ebby moved with Rowland to New York, later in 1934. And, it was there, during late November 1934 that Ebby Thacher, sober approximately two months, brought the message of recovery from alcoholism through the principles of The Oxford Group, to Bill Wilson, in Wilson’s kitchen, at 182 Clinton Street, Brooklyn Heights. That visit would result, approximately seven months later, in the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Yet, Rowland Hazard, who played such a major part in AA’s birth, returned to drinking. Records of the Hazard family indicate he was treated in 1933-1934 by the well-known lay therapist Courtenay Baylor.

In August 1936, the Hazard family paid to have Rowland brought home to Rhode Island from his ranch in Alamagordo, New Mexico, because his drinking had become still more serious. Rowland apparently consented. His younger brother, Thomas, authorized the use of funds from the family-owned Aguadero Corporation to cover the expenses.

But, later events tempt one to conclude that Rowland must have stopped drinking, again, at least for a time. From 1938 to 1939 he was associated with an engineering firm, Lockwood- Greene Engineers, Inc. From 1940 to 1941 he was an independent consultant. In 1941 he became vice-president and general manager of the Bristol Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut. (Bristol was a leading manufacturer of industrial measuring and recording devices.)

Rowland Hazard died of a coronary occlusion, (a heart blockage) on Thursday, December 20, 1945, while at work in his office at Bristol Manufacturing. He was 64. The fact that he was a top executive of a major corporation at the time of his death suggests that Rowland had stopped drinking again. Nonetheless, some A.A. historians question whether he died sober.

He had stayed active in The Oxford Group and remained in the group after it changed its name to Moral Rearmament (MRA) in 1938. Some early AA members said they knew Rowland because he sometimes visited the old 24th Street clubhouse, which Bill, Lois and others had established during early June 1940 in a former stable at 3341⁄2 West 24th Street, in Manhattan. But, there is no evidence that Rowland Hazard ever joined AA.

-0- SOURCES: AA publications “Alcoholics Anonymous”, “Pass It On” and “The Grapevine” (May 1995); The Hazard Family Papers, Manuscripts Division of The Rhode Island Historical Society and Rick Stattler, Curator; “Not-God” by Ernest Kurtz; “Ebby The Man Who Sponsored Bill W.” by Mel B; “Lois Remembers” by Lois Burnham Wilson; “Bill W.” by Francis Hartigan; The Archives of the AA General Service Office and The Providence Journal. . -0- I’m very grateful for the above sources. Any mistakes are my own. -0- Researched/written for The Roundtable of AA History by: Mike O. (Michael O’Neil), of The Just Do It Big Book Study Group of Alcoholics Anonymous, DeBary, Florida. Updated/revised periodically through July 2001

History of the Hazard Family of Peace Dale, Rhode Island

In perspective, the Mayflower landed at Cape Cod in November of 1620 and the first Hazard family member arrived just twenty years later!

The Hazard family of Peace Dale Rhode Island were among the original settlers in Rhode Island. The first Hazard in America was Thomas Hazard who emigrated from Wales around 1630. He originally settled in the colony of New Jersey and then moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1636. Sometime in between 1636 and 1638 he founded Newtown on Long Island, New York and then moved to Rhode Island in the spring of 1639. The Hazard Family motto is “Be Just and Fear Not.” Thomas had 7 sons; Robert, George, Jeremiah, Benjamin, Stephen, Jonathan and Thomas.

The near-same names of these descendants can be a bit confusing, so here is a list of Fathers and sons from Thomas Hazard I to Rowland Hazard III

Thomas Hazard I (1610-1680) Robert Hazard (1635-1710) Thomas Hazard II (1660-1746) Robert Hazard II (1689-1762) Thomas “College Tom” Hazard (1720-1798) Rowland Hazard (1763-1835) Rowland Hazard G. Hazard (1801-1888) Rowland Hazard II (1829-1898) Rowland G. Hazard (1855-1918) Rowland Hazard III (1881-1945)

The following pages will provide bits of essential information about each of these ten families.

Thomas Hazard (1610—after 1677) The Hazard family of Peace Dale Rhode Island were among the original settlers in Rhode Island. The first Hazard in America was Thomas Hazard who emigrated from Wales around 1630. He originally settled in the colony of New Jersey and then moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1636. Sometime in between 1636 and 1638 he founded Newtown on Long Island, New York and then moved to Rhode Island in the spring of 1639. The Hazard Family motto is “Be Just and Fear Not.” Thomas had 7 sons; Robert, George, Jeremiah, Benjamin, Stephen, Jonathan and Thomas. He was a ship carpenter in Boston and was admitted to the church there in 1636.. He was made a freeman of Boston in 1636. In 1638 he was admitted as an inhabitant of Portsmouth on Aquidneck Island. He first married a woman named Martha, about whom little is known.[ Based on the probable birth dates of his children, his wife and at least two children likely sailed with him from England to New England.

Robert Hazard (1635—1710)

Robert Hazard was born in Rhode Island in 1635 and died there after 1710. He married Mary Brownell born 1639, died 12 January 1739. In 1665 he was admitted freeman of Portsmouth, Rhode Island. From this time until 1698 his name often appears in the Colonial records as chosen to fill some important position. In 1658, he sold John Roome, of Portsmouth, his entire his interest in Conanicut (?)and Dutch Island.

In 1667, the Court at Plymouth ordered, in reference to a controversy between the English and Indians about bounds in Dartmouth, that in case Robert Hazard, of Rhode Island, could be procured, he should run the lines, etc. In 1670, he was juryman. In 1671, he bought five hundred acres of land in Kingstown, of the Pettaquamscutt purchasers.

In 1676, he and three others of Portsmouth were a committee ordered by the Assembly to appoint their own men as keepers of Indians above twelve years of age. The Indians were to have “a sufficient place of security.” Any master offending was to pay a fine of œ5. In 1676, Robert Hazard was on a committee to procure boats for the colony’s defense “for the present, and there were to be four boats with five or six men in each.”

In 1667, the Court at Plymouth ordered, in reference to a controversy between the English and Indians about bounds in Dartmouth, that in case Robert Hazard, of Rhode Island, could be procured, he should run the lines, etc. In 1670, he was juryman.

His sons were named Thomas (the eldest), Jeremiah, Robert and George, to whom, in total, he deeded land estimated to be over one-thousand acres.

Thomas Hazard II (1660—1776)

Thomas was the son of Robert Hazard and Mary Brownell (1639-1739) of Portsmouth and Kingstown, R.I. Robert Hazard had made investments in Kingstown , Rhode Island and Thomas followed course. This was the beginning of the Peace Dale Branch of the Hazard Family. In 1698, he purchased from Samuel Sewall two large lots in South Kingstown that remained central to his descendants’ fortunes for the following three centuries. One 500-acre lot was at Point Judith; the other was a 300-acre lot where the village of Peace Dale now stands.

Thomas’ great-grandson Rowland, opened a woolen mill at Peace Dale during the 1790s, which became the regions major industry.

It is speculated that the wife of Thomas Hazard II was named Susannah Nichols. They had ten children! . . . seven sons and three daughters. Thomas Hazard II was the grandson of Thomas Hazard I (1610-1680), who came to Boston in 1630, and then became an original settler of Newport, R.I. One of his sons was named Robert Hazard II (1689-1762). (1689-1762)

Robert Hazard II (1689—1762)

Robert Hazard II (1689-1762) was the son of Thomas Hazard II (1660-1746) of South Kingstown. Robert inherited a large portion of Thomas’ extensive land holdings in South Kingstown. He married Sarah Borden (b.1694); they had five children who reached adulthood, including Thomas “College Tom” Hazard (1720-1798).

Thomas Hazard III Thomas “College Tom” Hazard (1720-1798)

Thomas “College Tom” Hazard III (1720-1798) was the son of Robert Hazard II. His nickname, “College Tom” helped distinguish him from the many other Thomas Hazards in Rhode Island at that time. He attended Yale University, but never actually graduated.

He became a very devout Quaker, and was prominent in the efforts to prohibit the slave trade in Rhode Island in 1783. He was also one of the founding Fellows of Rhode Island College in 1764, which later became Brown University. He was a major land owner in South Kingstown, and operated a general store. He also employed handloom weavers to produce goods sold in the store as early as 1750. Thomas Hazard III married Elizabeth Robinson (1724-1804) in 1742; she was the daughter of Gov. William Robinson. They had three surviving sons; only Rowland Hazard I (1763-1835) remained in South Kingstown. One of his sons was named Rowland Hazard (1763-1835).

Rowland Hazard (1763-1835) Rowland Hazard was the son of Thomas “College Tom” Hazard (1720-1798) and Elizabeth Robinson of South Kingstown, Rhode Island. He became a partner with his first cousin in 1789, but this partnership was dissolved by the early 1800s. Rowland financed merchant voyages for most of his life, often trading with his older brother Thomas “Bedford Tom” Hazard Jr. (1758-1828). These ships carried cargo mostly along the Atlantic Coast and the Caribbean. Financial downturns took place around 1807 when several of his ships were captured by French privateers acting under the Decrees of Berlin and Milan.

In 1802, Hazard began to invest in the textile industry, his sons, Isaac and Thomas G., took full control and began the Peace Dale Manufacturing Company which became a dominant business in southern Rhode Island.

In 1819, Hazard settled in Pleasant Valley, N.Y. as his primary residence, where he resided until his death. He sold his financial interest in the business to his son Isaac in 1821.

Rowland Hazard married Mary Peace (1775-1852) in 1793. The village of Peace Dale was named in her honor. . Mary and Rowland’s children were as follows:

Isaac Peace Hazard (1794-1879), bachelor, active in mills. Thomas Robinson “Shepherd Tom” Hazard (1797-1886), historian, spiritualist. Six children. Elizabeth Gibson Hazard (1799-1882), spinster. Rowland Gibson Hazard (1801-1888), two children, active in mills. William Robinson Hazard (1803-), married, eight children Joseph Peace Hazard (1807-1892), bachelor, spiritualist. Isabella Wakefield Hazard (1809-1838), spinster Mary Peace Hazard (1814-1874), spinster Anna Hazard (1820-1905), spinster

Rowland Gibson Hazard (1801—1888) Rowland Gibson Hazard Was the son of Rowland, and Mary Peace, Hazard. He was born the same year Thomas Jefferson was elected as Napoleon was warring throughout Europe. He was raised in the home of his maternal grandfather, Isaac Peace, in Bristol, Pennsylvania and attended school in Burlington, New Jersey. He returned to Rhode Island in 1819 to manage the Peace Dale Manufacturing Company.

He served both as a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives and as a member of the Rhode Island Senate. He also wrote the following books: Language (1835), Causes of Decline of Political Morality (1841), Freedom of Mind in Willing (1866), and Causation and Freedom in Willing (1869). He was a friend of John Stuart Mill, William Ellery Channing, and many of the New England Transcendentalists

He married Caroline Newbold in 1828, and had two sons, Rowland and John. Rowland Gibson Hazard died in Peace Dale, Rhode Island on June 24, 1888.

Rowland Hazard II (1829-1898)

Rowland Hazard II (1829-1898), son of Rowland G. and Caroline Hazard. He was generally known as “Rowly”; he invariably signed his name with a distinctive “RHazard”. He graduated from Brown University in 1849, making him the first Hazard in his line to receive a college degree.

He then entered the family woolen business, the Peace Dale Manufacturing Company. In 1855 he became the superintendent of the mill. Rowland later assumed presidency of the company, and retained it until his death. He served as president of Solvay from its founding until his death in 1898. He also invested in railroads, especially the Hudson Highland Bridge and Railway Company. He donated land to build the Peace Dale High School, the Peace Dale Congregational Church and the Hazard Memorial Building. He was president of the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He was also active in state politics, as a state representative from 1863 to 1864, and in the state senate from 1867 to 1869. In 1875, he was a Republican candidate for governor of Rhode Island. 7. He died on his 71st birthday on August 16 1898. He was married to Margaret Anna Rood in 1854. That year, they built the Oakwoods house in Peace Dale. The Hazards also maintained a Providence residence at 45 Williams Street, and a vacation home in Santa Barbara, California. They raised five children: Rowland G. Hazard II, . Caroline, Frederick R., Helen, Bacon and Margaret, (Hazard) Fisher (1867-1940), m. Irving Fisher

Rowland G. Hazard II ( 1855-1918) Rowland Gibson Hazard II (1855-1918) was the eldest son of Rowland Hazard II and Margaret Hazard of Peace Dale, Rhode Island. He graduated from Brown University with a bachelors degree in 1876, and then received his masters degree from Brown in 1879. He served as an unofficial assistant to his venerable grandfather Rowland G. Hazard I through 1888. He was appointed as vice-president of the family-owned Solvay Process Company in 1891. After his father’s death in 1898, he assumed the role of family patriarch, and began a twenty-year term as president of the Peace Dale Manufacturing Company. He also served as the president of the Narragansett Pier Rail Road.

He helped organize the Rhode Island State Fair. He was a member of the executive committee to build the Rhode Island State House. He was a deacon at the Peace Dale Congregational Church, and a member of the Sunday School Association.

He helped fund the construction of the Hazard Memorial Building and the South Kingston High School. He authored a children’s Christmas play, How Robin Hood Once Was a Wait (1910), and brought his greatuncle Thomas R. Hazard’s Jonny-Cake Papers to publication in 1915.

His hobbies were collecting bird eggs and artifacts of primitive cultures. His collection of artifacts was the basis of the Museum of Primitive Culture in Peace Dale. In 1922, his widow founded the Museum of Comparative Otology in Santa Barbara, California in his memory.

Continued on next page

Rowland G. Hazard 11 Continued . . .

Hazard’s his primary residence was in Peace Dale for most of his life. He grew up in his father’s “Oakwoods” house. Then, in 1881, he moved into “The Acorns.” He then inherited his grandfather’s “Holly House” in 1888, and moved in there circa 1890. Finally, he spent considerable time in the family vacation land in Santa Barbara, California. He built the “Dial House” on his sister Caroline’s land there in 1915. After suffering a heart attack that year, he spent most of his remaining time at the Dial House. He died in Santa Barbara on January 22, 1918, his 63rd birthday. On November 16, 1880, he married Mary Pierrepont Bushnell (1859-1936), daughter of the Rev. George Bushnell and Mary E. Blake of Beloit, Wisconsin; her grandfather was the famed inventor Eli Whitney Blake. Rowland and Mary had five children:1. Rowland III “Roy” Hazard, Elizabeth , Margaret, Mary and Thomas.

Line of Decent Thomas Hazard I (1610-1680) Robert Hazard (1635-1710) Thomas Hazard II (1660-1746) Robert Hazard II (1689-1762) Thomas “College Tom” Hazard (1720-1798) Rowland Hazard (1763-1835) Rowland Gibson Hazard (1801-1888) Rowland Hazard II (1829-1898) Rowland G. Hazard (1855-1918) Rowland Hazard III (1881-1945)

Appendix II

Edwin Throckmorton Thacher

Bill Wilson made the touchdown, but it was Ebby handed who him the ball. Austin Ripley

Ebby’s Forefathers and Siblings Rev. Peter Thacher b.1554, d. 1624 (Queen Carmel, England)

Rev. Peter Thacher b. ????, d. 1640 (Son of Rev Peter Thacher)

Rev. Thomas Thacher b, 1620, d. 1687 (Moved to America in 1635)

Rev. Peter Thacher b. 1651, d. 1727 (Son of Thomas — lived in Massachusetts)

Rev. Peter Thacher b. 1688, d. 1744 (Son of Rev. Peter -– born in Massachusetts)

Samuel Thacher b. 1717, d. ???? (Son of Rev. Peter Thacher)

Nathaniel Thacher b. 1767, d. ???? (Son of Samuel -– born in Massachusetts)

Samuel Olney Thacher b. 1789, d. ???? (Son of Samuel Thacher – born in Rhode Island)

George Hornell Thacher b. 1818, d. 1887 (Son of Samuel Olney Thacher — Mayor of Albany)

John Boyd Thacher b. 1847, d. 1909 (Mayor of Albany)

George Hornell Thacher II b. 1851, d. 1929

Children of George Hornell Thacher II:

George H. Thacher III, b. 1881, d. ???? John Boyd Thacher II b. 1882 — d. 1957 (Mayor of Albany) Thomas Oxenbridge Thacher b. 1884 — d. 1941 Emma Louise Thacher b. 1885 — d. 1893 Roland Throckmorton Thacher b. 1887 — d. 1892 Kenelm Roland Thacher b. 1892 — d. 1966 Edwin Throckmorton Thacher b. 1896 — d. 1966 (Ebby)

The Mayflower arrived on our continent in 1620. Only fifteen years later (1635), Reverend Thomas Thacher arrived in Boston from Somersetshire, England. He became the first pastor of the Old South Church in Boston. There is even a Thacher Street in that city. The Thacher linage dates among the earliest American residents from Europe. Among the many influential Thacher offsprings was Ebby Thacher, who 261 years later, became a vital link to the beginning of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Ebby’s Family

Edwin Throckmorton Thacher “Ebby” was born on April 29, 1896, into a family that amassed a great fortune as a railroad wheel manufacturer.

The Thacher ancestry was predominant long before Ebby’s father, George H. Thacher II, was born in 1851. Thomas Thacher, his distant grandfather, came to America, from England, during the mid-sixteen hundreds to become the first pastor of the Old South Church, in Boston. The later dynasty achieved prominence in politics, including three family members who became mayors of Albany, George H. Thacher II New York:

Ebby’s older brother was John Boyd Thacher II. Mayor of Albany New York, from 1927— 1940. Ebby’s uncle was John Boyd Thacher. Mayor of Albany, NY, from 1886—1888; then for two full years, 1896 through 1897. Ebby’s Grandfather was George Hornell Thacher (1818—1887). Mayor of Albany, New York, from 1860—1862; then from 1866—1868; and again 1870—1874.

A State Park near the suburbs of Albany in Vorheesville, New York, is named after Ebby’s great uncle: John Boyd Thacher State Park.

Ebby’s father also was a political figure and hobnobbed with the likes of Abraham Lincoln’s son, Robert Todd Lincoln, and US President, William Howard Taft.

As a youth, George was a skillful boxer, ballplayer, oarsman and swimmer. He became an accomplished writer and published several books. He became the director of several banks and president of the local City Savings

President Taft to the left, Equinox Golf Course, Manchester, VT (1912)

This is the Thacher Family plot. Ebby Thacher was buried here in Albany Rural Cemetery. Robert Todd Lincoln swings his club while George H. Thacher II, second from left, watches

Three Thacher Mayors of Albany, NY Ebby’s Grandfather, George Hornell Thacher (1818-1887) was honored to be mayor of Albany for four non-consecutive two-year terms between 1860 and 1874, including much of the Civil War. He was earlier elected alderman in 1859. Mayor George Thacher was known as “that old warhorse of democracy.” All of the Thacher family ancestors exhibited a thirst for knowledge that continued with John and his brother, George. Mayor George Thacher died on Feb. 25. 1887.

Ebbys Uncle, John Boyd Thacher (September 11, 1847 – February 25, 1909) was the Mayor of Albany, New York and New York State Senator as well as an American manufacturer, writer, and book collector. He was the son of Albany mayor, George Thacher, and the uncle of Albany mayor, John Boyd Thacher II. John Boyd Thacher was born in Ballston, New York, graduated from Williams College in 1869 and settled in Albany, New York. He became an active scholar in writing after college and also became active in his father’s business, the Thacher Car Wheel Works, which was one of the leading industries in Albany. When his father died in 1887, John and his brother George became proprietors of the business. Thacher was a member of the New York State Senate (17th D.) in 1884 and 1885. Then he was elected Mayor of Albany, serving from May 4, 1886 to April 20, 1888. In 1890. He was elected Mayor of Albany again, serving from January 1, 1896 to December 31, 1897.

Ebby’s older Brother, John Boyd Thacher II, was Albany Mayor from 1927 to 1940. He was a Democratic contender for Governor of New York in 1932 because then NY Governor, FDR was elected US President. Ebby, at this crucial time was causing drinking commotion in Albany which was not beneficial to his brother’s political career. It was therefore suggested that Ebby move to their summer vacation area Babe Ruth and Lou Gerig of the New York Yankees chat with Albany Mayor John Boyd Thacher II prior to an exhibition game in Manchester, VT. This led to a series with the Albany Senators, August 18, 1929. The Yankees won of events that sparked the beginning 4 to 3. of Alcoholics Anonymous.

More About Ebby’s Family Ebby’s family heritage was certainly one of distinction. Thacher family history extended back several centuries to Reverend Thomas Thacher, who was the pastor of the the famous Old South Church of Boston in 1670. The family is said to be of Scotch-Irish origin. Thomas Thacher was the son of Rev. Peter Thacher of Somerset, England and was born on May 1, 1620. He sailed to New England on the ship James with the family of his uncle, Anthony Thacher, arriving in Ipswich, Mass. on June 4, 1635—the Mayflower landed only fifteen years earlier! Ebby’s grandfather, George Thacher, began his career as a railroad-car wheel manufacturer in 1852. He established a well known plant in Albany, supplying most of the car wheels for the New York Central Railroad. Public service was a trait passed from father to son in the Thacher family. The business was known as The Thacher Car Works and produced many parts for the construction of railroad cars. This made the Thacher family very wealthy.

Ebby’s uncle, John Boyd Thacher (1847—1909), John Boyd Thacher was one of the most distinguished and revered Albanians of his day. He was elected as a Democratic state senator Albany in 1883. As sena-tor, he pushed through legislation establishing a commission to remedy tenement-housing problems. The commission was responsible for several suc-cessful new laws benefiting poor tenement dwell-ers. Thacher fought to improve the prison system and also joined then-Governor Grover Cleveland to reform corruption laws in government. He be-came Mayor of Albany in 1886 while Albany was celebrating its Bicentennial. Land was available for sale and Emma and John Thacher decided to purchase farmland around the site of the Indian Ladder and Thompsons Lake so that its natural beauty would be pre-served. The 350 acres the Thachers pur- John Boyd Thacher Town House Mansion at Washington Avenue and Dove Street in Albany, chased became John Boyd Thacher State Park in 1914. NY. It was demolished in the 1920s.

This park provides a marvelous panorama of the Hudson- The John Boyd Thachers’ summer residence in Mohawk Valleys and the Adirondack and Green Mountains. Altamont , NY, north west of Albany

Thacher Family Residences

Mayor George Hornell Thacher Upper left: Picture of Mayor George Hornell Thacher (Ebby’s Grandfather) whose family residence was 729 Broadway, Albany, NY. Upper right: John B. Thacher residence, Altamont, NY. His town residence was located at 5 Southhawk Street, in Albany, NY . Lower Right: George H. Thacher II family residence, 111 Washington Ave. Albany NY (Demolished).

Ebby’s uncle, John Boyd Thacher

Ebby’s father, George H. Thacher II

The Lincoln Foursome

Taken at Bourn Pond in the Green Mountains, not far from Manchester.

Caddie Jimmy Williams watches as the regular “Lincoln Foursome,” tee off. The members were George Hornell Thacher II (Ebby’s father, second from left), Robert M. Janney, Horace G. Young and Robert Todd Lincoln (Not necessarily in that order).

George Hornell Robert Todd Thacher II Lincoln

Ebby’s father , George Hornell Thacher II, was a member of the Lincoln Foursome, for many years. He was the second president of Ekwanok Country Club.

Four of the five Thacher brothers are seen erecting the shrine in September of 1919. Kenelm is at left, George Hornell Thacher 3rd is hammering, Edwin Thacher, and Thomas is crouching on the far right.

Ebby’s older brother, John Boyd Thacher II.

He was Mayor of Albany, NY. 1927—1940. Also, he was a possible Democratic candidate for NY Governor when then-Governor FDR was voted US President in 1932.

Location: Near Thacher Island on Blue Mountain Lake, about 60 miles northwest of Albany, NY.

The Albany Car Wheel Works Charles Franklin, editor of the The Colonie Historical Oracle, said The Albany Car Wheel Co. in Menands ran a foundry to make railroad car wheels, axles and other wheels. The plant was closed in the early 1960s. However, the Thacher family sold their interest in the foundry in 1926. Then owner, George Hornell Thacher II, died in 1929. The following is in accordance with the Thacher family oral history: There is an interesting story about why the Thacher Car Wheel company went bankrupt. Ebby’s brother, Thomas, designed and patented a new method for molding ship propellers which reduced the manufacturing time from days to hours. The Thacher foundry was completely refitted to make ship propellers instead of railroad car wheels and parts, based on a large contract with the U.S. Navy at the start of WWI. Unfortunately, the war ended earlier Built during the 1850s, The Albany Car Wheel Works was just than expected and the U.S. Navy cancelled the off the lumber district, at Learned and Thacher Streets which is contract without payment. The company nev- pictured here (The original building was possibly demolished). er recovered from this loss. This combined with the stock market crash decimated the family fortune. (Thanks to Tom Thacher, Ebby’s great nephew) ============= Up to the 1920’s most of the wheels used on American freight cars were made of chilled iron. However, in order to meet the more rigorous demands made by increased speeds of freight trains, the steel wheel began to replace the iron wheel during the 1920’s. The decline in the chilled iron car wheel industry was manifested by a decrease in the number of manufacturers. In the 1920’s there were about 25 companies operating about 50 plants. In 1955 there were about 8 companies operating from 20 to 25 plants. In December 1962 only one chilled iron car wheel plant was in operation and it was in the process of closing down. ============ Although under legal age (19), Ebby enjoyed drinking at the Hotel Ten Eyck bar, also at Keeler’s Restaurant; However, the principal at Albany Academy did not stand in approval of such hi jinx. Consequently, he told Ebby’s father that he thought the school couldn’t do any more for his son—Ebby did not graduate! Subsequently, Ebby was given a manual labor job at the foundry, but was later provided with a better Edwin Throckmorton Hotel Ten Eyck position. Thacher

THE McNAB ENCYCLOPAEDIA or– MARINE APPLIANCES 157

THE SCREW PROPELLER (Thacher Patent Process)

T MUST be remembered that ship motion is entirely generated by the propeller. Its importance must there fore be recognized by Marine Engineers. Propeller design is a subject that can be mastered only by the constant and exclusive experience and study of a specialist in this class of work. That some propellers give good results proves that good design is essential, therefore a better design must give better results.

Fig. 134 Our Principals have in charge of their Dyson method of design an Engineer who has always specialized in propeller design and who has made more designs, and proved their success, than perhaps any other Marine Engineer. ’ \Ve are pleased to supply propeller wheels to any design, but advise that propeller designs be made for ship conditions in their entirety. “The designing charge is a small part of propeller cost, and its resulting saving will return the investment innumerable times. \V hen an order is placed with us we include the design at no addi tional cost. \Ve guarantee that every wheel made by the Thacher Process is poured of metal mixed by chemical formula and is under the guidance of a metallurgical engineer and chemist of national reputation. The propeller material after pouring is chemically analyzed and tested for tensile strength, and a full report of tensile strength and measurement data is furnished with each wheel that we supply.

THACHER ISLAND SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2014 G

Blue Mountain Lake’s Thacher Island Revisited By Tom Thacher

You see me here standing where my great-great grandfather George Hornell Thacher Sr. once stood on the porch of the family lodge built in 1867 on Thacher Island on Blue Mountain Lake. The photo is not dated but given his aged appearance (no, the guy on the left), I believe it to be from the early 1880s. My father spoke of visiting his uncle on the island as a young boy in the 1940s. No Thacher has had the opportunity to walk the island since then. It had always been a dream of mine to visit my family’s first summer home. A dream fulfilled thanks to the hospitality of John and Janet O’Loughlin, whose family has owned the island for over two decades.

Thacher Island

The Thacher Family owned this island from 1967 to 1945

School Years

Edwin Throckmorton Thacher “Ebby” A historical view of Burr and Burton Seminary

Ebby, the youngest of five brothers, was not doing well at the Albany Academy, so, in 1912, his parents enrolled him in Burr and Burton Academy (it was then called a seminary) in the resort town of Manchester Village, Vermont. Ebby then became a classmate of Bill Wilson who was just six months his senior—he had met Bill the previous year. It is probable that he would have also known Bill’s girlfriend, Bertha Bamford. Sadly, Bertha died very unexpectedly from internal hemorrhage following a tumor removal operation in New York. Young Bill immediately fell into a three-year period of Bill Wilson and Bertha Bamford deep depression.

Ebby claimed that he found a “better influence” in his life at Burr and Burton, but yet the school experience was less than successful. Because of academic problems, his parents moved Ebby back to Albany Academy after a year. Yet, his grades did not improve; it was then determined he was not college material, consequently, he took employment at the family’s railroad wheel and propeller factory. Albany Academy 1907 Although Ebby never obtained a college degree, he was an avid reader and known to be very bright with a wonderful sense of humor. He had developed an excellent vocabulary, as evidenced by his expertise with crossword puzzles.

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Youth In Manchester, Vermont

The Thacher family maintained a rented vacation house on the east side of Main Street across from the residence of Dr. Clark Burnham and Matilda Burnham (Lois Wilson’s parents). As a matter of fact, Lois remembers seeing Ebby while he was still in a crib in 1896. They eventually Burnham house on Main St., Manchester, VT purchased a beautiful home on Taconic Avenue in 1923, which was adjacent to the Burnham Estate.

Although Ebby was considered as a rather mischievous youth, his teen-age summers in this beautiful resort area were remembered as his very best. He enjoyed his friends and participated in many of the availabilities; there was swimming and fishing in Emerald Lake, hiking in the Green Mountains to the east, as well as the Taconic elevations to the west. Perhaps the prankster in him induced him to pretend he caught the enormous pictured fish from a nearby lake—However, this sort of fish is indigenous to this area.

As time passed, Ebby became a well accepted member of the Manchester social community and developed friends who proved to be helpful to him in later life. These included Bill Wilson and Oxford Group members such as Cebra Graves. Nearby Williamstown happened to be the center of local Oxford Group (OG) activity in the 1932-1933 era.

Albany Years (1915-1932) Although Ebby, while quite young, had spent many wonderful summers in the Green Mountain resort area, his late teen years in Albany pointed to a harbinger of difficulties to come. Ebby started his underage drinking at the Ten Eyck Hotel bar in Albany when he was nineteen. Later, the Albany Academy learned of one of his binges and wrote his father stating that the school could do no more for him. This disaster marked the end of Ebby’s formal schooling. Although Ebby never received a college degree, his friends found him to be intelligent and well educated. Ebby was without doubt Ten Eyck Hotel Bar to have been considered a “Hale fellow well met.” (A popular expression among the upper class of those days).

This preserved page contains layout or artwork without additional readable text.

The Thacher Family Summer House

The George Hornell Thacher II residence on Taconic Avenue, Manchester, VT

The Thacher family had rented a “summer home” in Manchester since the late 1800s, but finally bought this beautiful house in 1923. When Ebby’s father died in 1929, the furniture was divided between the brothers . . . so, when Ebby took residence, during the spring of 1934, the house was practically devoid of furniture.

(The current residents asked not to be disturbed by AA observers—anyway, they are not knowledgeable of AA history.)

Interestingly, the pictured house on the right was just across Taconic Avenue (south side) from the Thacher house. It was occupied by Abraham Lincoln’s son, Robert Todd Lincoln, till 1903—twenty years previous to when the Thachers purchased their property. George Thacher and Robert Lincoln frequently played golf together through the years—they were members of a group tagged, “The Lincoln Foursome.”

Let us consider the plight of Edwin Throckmorton Thacher who grew up under most prestigious circumstances and was probably waited on hand and foot. In 1934, at thirtynine years of age, he was now living alone in a sparsely furnished room of an otherwise vacant house. It would seem his inheritance was mostly gone, but still there were funds for large scale drinking—alcoholically. Yet, Ebby had good friends, some of which were from the Oxford Group, especially Cebra Graves and Shep Cornell who often tried to help him solve his drinking problem, but alas, to no avail. Ebby stated: “I lived there alone, and appeared to be drinking myself to death in the not-too-distant future.”

You

Thanks to Les Cole for this deed copy and diagram.

Ebby’s Exile

Ebby’s older brother, John Boyd Thacher II, “Jack Thacher,” had been Albany’s Mayor since 1926, and by 1932 had become a likely Democratic candidate for the upcoming gubernatorial election of Governorship of New York. This seat was to be soon vacated by United States President Elect, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Jack was an outstanding speaker and well known as mayor of the State Capital. Nevertheless, brother Jack did not win FDR as he would have appeared the Democratic nomination. He lost to Roosevelt’s Lieu- as Governor of NY State. tenant Governor Herbert Lehman. But, brother Jack remained mayor another eight years, and then became a judge.

As Ebby previously stated, he had experienced several drinking “scrapes” with the law while living in Albany, and if there is anything a politician would like to avoid is a brother who is getting into scrapes! It is thought his family encouraged and supported the following exile to Manchester, Vermont.

Ebby had this to say about it: “Several times in Albany, I Mayor “Jack” Thacher had been reprimanded by the authorities for drinking too 1926-40 much. My brother [Jack] was a prominent man in town and I wasn’t doing him any good. So in the fall of 1932 I took off for Manchester.”

Manchester, 1932-1934 Ebby lived in the Battenkill Inn, on and off, for about two years. During his 1954 Dallas talk, Ebby spoke of his six months of sober work in the Green Mountains. He thought it probably was the winter of 1932-1933. He drank two pints of gin on the way up and that was the end of it, till he came down the mountain the following spring. Ebby enjoyed the life style of cutting trails, and hunting on the weekends. Sometimes friends from below would join the fun— but there was no drinking! Battenkilll Inn 1916

However, upon return he drank on and off during that summer till the following spring. He stayed at a tourist place awhile, then opened a room in the large, but mostly empty Thacher family residence in Manchester, which had not been in use for some time. One might think his large inheritance was running low because he moved into the only furnished room which contained his brother’s furniture.

More Hi Jinks Ebby remembers his January, 1929 landing; “Consequently, we chartered a plane and my pal, Ted Burke, agreed to pilot. It was the first flight ever to land at the Manchester air field.”

This is wrong! They were not the first to land at Equinox Airport.

According to the adjacent newspaper article, the first landing took place the previous summer, by pilot, W.C. Billings. The Grand Opening was July 4th., 1928.

Ebby’s drinking scrapes, which started in Albany, continued in Manchester after he came down from the six months mountain work experience. But, five years previously, the following absurd event took place:

Ebby talked about an Albany visit from Bill Wilson in January, 1929: “This was the first and only time Bill and I ever got drunk together.” During the course of this all night binge, they decided to hire a barnstormer pilot to fly them to the then six month old Equinox Airport in Manchester, Vermont. Bill Wilson wired his prominent friends, Mr. and Mrs. Orvis, informing them as to time of arrival. In those early days of flight, this was considered a fairly exciting and special event! Word spread through Manchester instigating a large crowd to assemble, including the high school band.

Years later, Ebby reported—in the same Dallas 1951 AA talk—the particulars of their landing: “Once it landed both Bill and I staggered off, falling to the ground drunk, embarrassing ourselves in front of all the onlookers.” Ebby was less concerned about this dismal event than Bill, who wrote a letter of apology to his friends, the Orvis’, the following day.

By 1934, Ebby had spent thirty-eight summers in Manchester. He had the reputation of a rather mischievous and fun-loving individual, however, he was well liked and accepted by most of the townspeople. But his reputation suffered through his continued drunken episodes. Here is another hi jinks from Ebby’s own words: “Within a few months, I got into trouble with the law twice. The first time was for driving my car into the kitchen of a woman’s house. I stepped out of the car and politely asked her if I could trouble her for a cup of coffee.”

Editor: Of course, this was the exterior of the kitchen.

Ebby’s Pigeon Story The Thacher residence became noticeably in need of paint, so Ebby took up the challenge. The ladder wasn’t tall enough so he got permission from his brother to hire a local painter to help complete the job. Ebby, being busy, remained sober for this period. But he said, “As soon as it was completed with nothing to do, I went right back to the bottle.” His friend, Cebra, helped locate and hire a proper painter.

Ebby’s pigeon story extracted from one of his recordings: “Another time after drinking heavily, I decided I wanted to rid the house of pigeons. It was dark outside, and believe me, it was pouring down rain, so I loaded the old double-barreled shotgun and I went out and I was backing up . . . to get a shot Vermont State Senator Cebra Graves was also a Broadway at them. [The lawn was wet from all the rain.] Down I went actor. and landed on my back. So there I was lying on my back and I didn’t see any reason to get up and shoot at them, so I was banging away from the ground. I guess my neighbors could see me and I imagine they complained to the law.”

He went on to say: “In Vermont at that time there was a law that anyone arrested three times within a year would serve a mandatory six months in jail. I had been drunk in public, along with the other two incidents, so I had three strikes against me and the law was looking for me. I spent a lot of time in the house so I couldn’t be arrested until I decided to go to town. Once I did, the local constable arrested me and took me to Bennington to see the judge. It was a Friday afternoon and the judge happened to be the father of Cebra, one of the two men who called on me a few weeks earlier. He told me to be back in court on Monday and to be sober. The constable dropped me off at home and reminded me what the judge had said about being sober on Monday.” The top picture is the H. E. Hemenway Hardware Store as it was in the 1930s. Ebby was sitting on the left steps when the Constable arrested him. Below is the same building today.

Off The Hook! The pigeon incident probably took place in late August or September, but Ebby stated that in early July or early August [1934] two old drinking friends, Cebra Graves and Shep Cornell, had visited talking as how the Oxford Group had “straightened out their lives.” They suggested that I turn my life over to “God as I understood him.” (See this statement on page 12 of the Big Book!) Ebby wasn’t ready for any of that, but a seed was planted. Shep Cornell Continued from Ebby’s recording: “Once home, I remembered I had three cold bottles of Ballantine Ale in the basement. I started thinking how I could nurse those three bottles over the weekend and still appear in court on Monday sober. I went downstairs for a bottle, but began to think what I was doing wasn’t being honest. What the judge had really meant was “Don’t drink.”

Ebby made several trips, up and down, but honesty won out; he finally surrendered and gave all three bottles to a neighbor. Thank God! The future of AA depended on the balance of Ebby’s honesty during those crucial moments.

Ebby now relates the miraculous result: “And believe me that was weight lifted off my shoulders. . .I felt a release from that time on . . . And I know that night I sat down beside my bed and said my prayers like I had never said them in years. I said to God . . . , ’I really mean this, I want to quit this drinking.’ I hadn’t prayed like this ever before, I hadn’t prayed much at all for a very long time.” Interestingly, Bill Wilson had a similar ‘sudden release.’ Read pages 13 and 14 of the Big Bennington Court House Book.

When Ebby appeared in court on Monday morning, Judge Graves, Cebra’s father, released Ebby on his own recognizance to remain in the custody of Rowland Hazard. Ebby had never met Rowland before, but in my calculations Rowland had only recently found sobriety with help of Cortney Baylor of the Emmanual Movement in Boston, Massachusetts—yet, it was the Oxford Group message that Rowland conveyed to the exiled Ebby. Rowland Hazard Rowland spent several days helping Ebby clean up his disordered house. Rowland’s “cabin” was just 15 miles south of Manchester, near Shaftsbury, Vermont. Ebby, from a recording, said of this period: “Rowland invited me to stay with him for a few weeks. We took road trips throughout Vermont, speaking at various places about the Oxford Group. The first weekend I spoke five times: at two churches, a junior college, and two town meet- 1935 photoings.” He told of guys arriving from New York, and The Hazard ‘cabin’ near Shaftbury, VT they would have O.G. “House Parties.”

Activities in New York During this formative period, Rowland taught Ebby the major ingredients of the Oxford Group fellowship, placing emphasis on the “Four Absolutes” (Standards). Though newly sober, once again, Rowland had learned much doctrine, having spent nearly three years in attendance to their house parties and conventions. Traveling with Rowland and actually presenting OG talks, must have had a powerful effect on Ebby as he was going through what he described as a “Pink Cloud” period. “Pink Clouds” are typical for newly sober alcoholics, but often short lived. Apparently not so for exiled Ebby. There was no reason not to return to Albany—certainly all would be forgiven and his brother, Jack, the Mayor, would find him a good job. His inheritance was now gone, so money was important, yet, instead, he followed Rowland’s offer to Rev. Sam Shoemaker spend a few weeks at Shep Cornell’s Manhattan apartment while being accepted as A spiritual worker with the “Brotherhood of Twelve Men” at Calvary mission. Here, he might help residents learn a new-found life; perhaps finding the precious sobriety he had so recently found. Ebby’s recorded Oxford Group style surrender took place on November 1, 1934. He was perhaps slightly more than two months sober at that time.

Reverend Samuel Shoemaker was the leader of the Oxford Group throughout the United States. He was rector of nearby Calvary Church, which supported the Calvary Mission.

Reportedly, Ebby was a good listener with an exceptionally likeable personality—both at Calvary Mission, and later at Bill Wilson and Ebby Searcy’s Ranch in Texas. Ebby remained in service at the mission till he moved in with Bill and Lois Wilson the next year. In the meantime, Rowland took him on a summer vacation trip to his ranch in La Luz, New Mexico, where his family had a clay products business.

Ebby’s Wall Street friends had mentioned Bill Wilson’s dire state as the result of John Barleycorn, which presented a good opportunity to carry the Oxford Group message to an old friend. Bill was living Calvary Mission (1926-1936) 246 E. 23rd St., Manhattan in Brooklyn Heights.

Ebby’s Preaching vs. Bill’s Gin Excerpts from Ebby’s 1954 talk: “While I was staying there and working with the Oxford Group . . . I phoned one day and got Lois, his wife, . . . She invited me over for dinner a night or two later.” This is slightly different than Bill’s version, but it, again, shows the importance of Lois’s impact on Bill’s final sobriety.

At any rate Ebby arrived at 182 Clinton Street on a bleak day late in November 1934. He sat with Bill at the now archivalfamous table pictured below. He refused a pineapple and gin drink which greatly surprised the likes of boozy Bill Wilson, who queried: “What’s this all about?” When a religious answer was in reply, Bill assumed that Ebby’s hard drinking had turned him into a religious crackpot, of sorts. Bill thought to himself, well, let him rant, besides, “My gin will Lois Wilson last longer than his preaching.”

But Ebby had now been around the OG “mulberry bush” long enough not to sermonize, he simply related what he had learned, and placed emphasis on these two tenets:

1. A simple religious idea (a vital spiritual experience). 2. A practical program of action (The Four Absolutes and the tenets of the Oxford Group—these became the basis of the AA program of action today).

Someone said: “Do not defend the truth; it will take care of itself.” This adage proved true for Bill, because the substance of Ebby’s visit clung to him like a tick on a hound dog. A few days later, he visited Calvary Mission to see what all this was Bill Wilson about. However, he was drunk and caused a bit of disturbance. But on the 11th day of December, he went back to Towns Hospital for treatment and never drank again—Ebby’s truth set him free!

Displayed at Stepping Stones Museum, in Bedford Hills, NY 182 Clinton Street, Brooklyn

Oxford Group Meetings Ebby listened to Bill’s confession (Fifth Step in AA) at Towns Hospital and brought the book, “Varieties of Spiritual Experience,” by William James, which convinced him that his spiritual experience was valid (Pages 13-14, Big Book). Bill’s spiritual experience took place approximately December 14, 1934.

Ebby lived walking distance from the Calvary House, where the Oxford Group meetings were held, as well as Stewart’s Cafeteria, where a small group of alcoholics, and OG’ers, met after meetings. He would join Bill and Lois afterwards for fellowship. Here follow excerpts from one of Ebby’s talks about this period of 1935: “I ‘rode herd’ on Bill in the beginning and stuck by him as we attended many Oxford Towns Hospital Group meetings. Bill got comfortable and started speaking 293 Central Park West at meetings as time went on. Those meeting were basically the same as the AA meetings today. Everyone had a chance to share their experience, strength and hope. Of course, the meetings were not confined to alcoholics, but those attending shared their problems and victories.

Bill traveled to Akron on a business venture in May of 1935. The trip resulted in him meeting Dr. Bob Smith and the founding of AA.” [Bill returned to New York the Calvary Church, 277 Park Ave. South Calvary House is at right rear following August.]

“I was really trying to live by the principles I had learned from the Oxford Group. The Oxford Group was based on a return to first-century Christian fellowship.” [Ebby here relates the Four Absolutes: Honesty, Unselfishness, Love and Purity.]

“The Oxford Group advocated the principle of morning meditation, or as they call it, “quiet time,” when one tried to release the self and get in tune with “God as you understand Him”—to try to get some guidance for the day ahead and to hold yourself flexable—not to make plans whenever it was possible not to do so. That one should try to meet each situation as it comes up and meet it believing that it was God’s will that events shall transpire as they do—in other words accept what comes each day.

A few months after Bill returned to New York, he invited me to come live with him and Lois on Clinton Street. I stayed with them for a year. While I was living with Bill, we had meetings at the house. The meetings “stuck” for some of them and we began having successful recoveries. Unfortunately, I remember one chap committed suicide and we all took that hard. After a while we started a meeting at Steinway Hall in New York.”

Exiled No More From a recorded talk: “By the summer of 1936, after nearly two years of sober life in New York City, I decided to move back to Albany where I had made such a mess of my life. I felt the need to begin making amends to the people I had harmed. I also needed to earn some money.

Shortly after returning to Albany, I was hired by the Ford Motor Company in Green Island, about eight miles north of Albany. I worked two weeks on the day shift and then two weeks on the night shift. That gave me a long weekend after the night-shift schedule. That’s when I would head back to New York to see friends and attend meetings. This went on for awhile but I slowly started pulling away from the things that were keeping me on track. I began to feel lonely and sorry for myself, blaming God for not giving me the one thing I really wanted a romantic relationship with someone I could love. Somehow I felt I had been mistreated.

One day a friend from work commented that I hadn’t been myself and described me as “a piece of steel wire.” I headed for New York that weekend and checked into the Lexington Hotel. It was April of 1937 and I had been sober for more than two and a half years—a record for me.



The above New York trip signaled the end of this period of Ebby’s sobriety. He lived for thirty-one years after that first miraculous sober period in the late summer of 1934—he was sober about half of those years. The longest period was nearly seven years with his sponsor, Searcy W., while living in Texas.

Much has been written about the life of Edwin Throckmorton Thacher, but this limited writing is primarily concerned with the vital connection he produced when he carried the Oxford Group message to Bill Wilson on that bleak November day . . . and not let us forget how his innate honesty prevailed when he surrendered those incredibly tempting three bottles of Ballantine Ale to his neighbor. The future of Alcoholics Anonymous— to be, or not to be—was dependant on this most difficult decision. We can thank God for providing Ebby with that moment of integrity.

Ebby died of emphysema on March 21, 1966. He had been residing at McPike’s Farm, twenty-five miles north of Albany. Ebby had been sober for over two years.

Ebby is buried with his family in the Albany Rural Cemetery.

Ebby At Various Ages

Ebby is second on left from Bill Wilson, then Searchy W.

Ebby and rancher Ralph Jones in Texas

Edwin Throckmorton Thacher

1896 — 1966

Ebby — 1960s Bill and Ebby

16 A Few Pertinent Dates 1896: Born in Albany, NY, April 29, 1932: Brother “Jack” ran for Governor Nominee 1911: Met Bill Wilson 1932: Fall—Ebby moves to Manchester, VT Attended Albany Academy as a youth 1932: Winter—Clears trails in mountains 1911-12: Attended Burr and Burton Academy 1933: Moves to Manchester’s Battenkill Inn 1912: Retuned to Albany Academy 1934: Spring—Moves to Thacher summer home 1914: First drink, Albany, Ten Eyck Hotel Bar 1934: Late summer—arrested as a public nuisance 1915: Job at Albany Car Wheel Works 1934: Late summer—resides at the Hazard ‘”cabin” 1922: Car Wheel Works closes 1934: Fall—moves to Shep Cornell’s Manhattan Apt. 1922 or 23: Job at brokerage firm 1934: Nov. 1–makes Oxford Group “surrender” 1927: Mother died 1934: Accepts position at the Calvary Mission, NY City 1929: Drunken airplane flight to Manchester 1934: Late Nov.—Kitchen table talk with Bill W. 1929: Father died 1936: Summer—returns to Albany 1929: Inherited $150,000 from his father 1937: Last part of April—gets drunk

This writing is, of course, not a biography of Ebby Thacher . . . consequently, the dates shown above are seemingly limited.

Ebby lived about thirty-one years after he experienced his miraculous release in 1934—he lived about half of those sober! Initially for two and a half years, then for about seven years in Texas, and had been on the wagon for two and a half years when he died on March 21, 1966.

Books By Bob S. Ebby In Exile, A Vital AA Link, by Bob S.

A Pre-AA History Book, A Study of Synchronic Events Between Years 1926 and 1935, Which Culminated in the Birth of Alcoholics Anonymous, by Bob S.

Early Indianapolis AA, A Pictorial View, by Bob S.

History of Alcoholics Anonymous in Richmond, Indiana, by Bob S.

There is no charge for an internet link for these four books. Request from: rstonebraker212@comcast.net

For a free Indiana AA History, PDF file or link, please contact Bruce C., brucec55@sbcglobal.net, or go to www.aamuncie.org. Most of the above books are available on this website.

Appendix III

Bill and Lois Wilson

Co-Founders of AA and Al-Anon

182 Clinton Street, Brooklyn Hts., NY

Summer Residence of Matilda and Dr. Clark Burnham in Manchester, VT (Lois Wilson’s Parents)

Full Front View: note the screened porch has been re- 3373 Main Street, Manchester Village, VT. moved; also, the door overhang and the trees have dramatically changed from the 1925 picture below.

Clark Burnham sitting on the front porch of the family cabin 3373 Main Street in 1925 (Then called Elmo’er) at Emerald Lake, VT, located just a few miles north of East Dorset.

Lois Burnham opened a tea arbor on the north shore of Emerald Lake in 1915; Bill Wilson became a regular. Thus began a courtship, and after a time they became secretly engaged and were married on January 24, 1918. Emerald Lake is now a park open to the public. There are no longer cabins around the lake, but there exists a tourist center near the swimming area. This makes a nice venture when visiting the Wilson House in nearby East Dorset.

Lois Burnham and Family

Lois’ Mother, Matilda Spelman Lois’ Father, Dr. Clark Burnham Before Marriage

Top: Rogers, Katherine. Bottom: (Kitty) and Lyman Lois Burnham

This preserved page contains layout or artwork without additional readable text.

Young Bill Wilson and Lois Burnham

More about Bill

This is the only known photograph of the chapel in Burr and Burton where the students went every morning in Bill’s time. It was here that the announcement was made This picture may be out of context, but interesting all the that Bertha Bamford had died and same. Bill here is atop of his Stepping Stones home in had life changing impact on Bill. Bedford Hills, NY

Bill in band. He is third from the left in top row Bill in uniform

Photos of East Dorset, VT, When Bill Wilson Was Young

Bill Wilson was born here in a room behind a bar, on November 26, 1895. He was the son of Emily and Gilman Mt. Aelous Inn (now Wilson House) Wilson. The family circa 1900 moved from this Dorset Marble Company Mill looking north 1910

The East Dorset Depot to the left appears to have been modified . The above likely existed during the period Bill Wilson commuted between East Dorset and Burr and Burton Academy during the early 1900s.

The house on the left may be the Burnham residence Lois Wilson’s parents) which they purchased during the late 1800s. The Burnham’s were living there when this postcard was made.

CONTINUED EARLY 1900S ENVIROMENT

Burr and Burton Academy c. 1917

Bill Wilson attended Burr and Burton Academy from 1909 to 1912.

This photo is looking down on East Dorset, VT, c 1910. The Wilson House is obscured by the trees . . . The schoolhouse, where Bill; his sister Dorothy, and Mark Whalon went to school in upper right. The church steeple is visible on the left. The building on the road to the right of the church steeple was the general store which burned down in the 1920s and is no longer there. It would be right across the meeting house door today at the Wilson House. You can see the train station and Post Office in the lower left as well. The remains of the Marble works is evident in the foreground.

Bill W’s Father And Mother – Gillman Wilson And Emily Griffith. Bill W’s parents, Emily Griffith and Gilman Wilson, were married in September 1894. The marriage turned out to be a stormy one. They separated in 1905 and Bill W’s Paternal Grandparents – c 1915 divorced in This family photo shows Bill W with his sister Dorothy, 1907 when his mother Emily and his paternal grandparents Bill was around 12. Helen and William C. Wilson. Bill’s great-grandmother is in the center of the photo.

The Griffith House

After his parents divorced Bill and his sister Dorothy were lovingly raised by his maternal grandparents Fayette and Ella Griffith. Bill’s grandfather Gardner Fayette Griffith was a second Bill W’s Maternal Grandfather father to him and had a way of bringing out the best of Bill’s Gardner Fayette Griffith – 1906 skills.

Bill’s Boyhood Friend, Mark Waylon

Mark was nine years older than Bill. He was a poet. His liberal philosophical views influenced Bill’s childhood / adolescent thinking in such a conservative community as East Dorset, Vermont.

Appendix IV

Dr. Bob and Ann Smith

855 Ardmore Avenue, Akron, OH

Dr. Bob’s School Days

1894-1898 St. Johnsbury Academy Young 1898-1902 Dartmouth College St. . Johnsbury, VT Bob Smith Near Hanover, NH

1907-1910 Rush University 1905-1907 University of Michigan Near Chicago, IL Ann Arbor, MI Dr. Bob Smith

Mayo Clinic Jefferson Medical School Rochester, MN Philadelphia, PA

After receiving his Doctor’s Degree from Rush University, Dr. Bob continued studies at the Mayo Clinic and Jefferson Medical School to become a proctologist .

Back to 1935

Dr. Bob’s Bedroom

Bob Smith Jr. (Son) Sue Smith (Daughter)

A Fortunate Sequence

Bill Wilson, just five months sober to the day, was alone and depressed as he strolled the lobby of the Mayflower Hotel on May 11, 1935. He heard the lively chatter from the Parisian Lounge and the thought of drink appeared—he was terrified!

Recalling how helping other alcoholics kept him sober in NY with the Oxford Group, he phoned clergyman, Reverend Walter Tunks who afforded ten Oxford Group phone numbers. Eventually he phoned Henrietta Seiberling of the Seiberling Tire and Rubber Company who just happened to be praying for another alcoholic: Dr. Bob Holbrook Smith.

When Bill exclaimed he was a rum hound from NY who needed to work with another drunk to save himself, she retorted excitedly: “This is manna from Heaven!” You come over here at once! We can thank Heaven he did!

Stan Hywet Hall Gate House where Henrietta Seiberling Stan Hywet Hall. This was the Home of Frank A. lived during the 1930s. Seiberling who founded Seiberling Tire and Rubber Co.

Library of Henrietta Seiberling’s Guest house where Bill Home of Dr. Bob and Ann Smith. Wilson first talked with Dr. Bob on Mother’s Day, May 855 Ardmore Avenue. 12, 1935.

Oxford Group meetings hosted by T.Henry and Clarace Williams, King School as it would have appeared during the both nonalcoholics. The “Alcoholics Squad,” as it became known, 1940s. It has since been remodeled and has a different eventually split from the Oxford Group in 1939 and met in appearance. AA Groups met here for many years, but Dr. Bob’s living room for several months before moving to then moved to another building , however, they have King School School at the beginning of 1940. recently moved back to this original location (1915).

Dr. Bob’s Last Message

(Delivered at the 1st International Convention of Alcoholics Anonymous at Cleveland, Ohio in 1950.)

My good friends in AA and of AA. I feel I would be very remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to welcome you here to Cleveland not only to this meeting but those that have already transpired. I hope very much that the presence of so many people and the words that you have heard will prove an inspiration to you – not only to you, but may you be able to impart that inspiration to the boys and girls back home who were not fortunate enough to be able to come. In other words, we hope that your visit here has been both enjoyable and profitable.

I get a big thrill out of looking over a vast sea of faces like this with a feeling that possibly some small thing that I did a number of years ago, played an infinitely small part in making this meeting possible. I also get quite a thrill when I think that we all had the same problem. We all did the same things. We all get the same results in proportion to our zeal and enthusiasm and stick-to-itiveness. If you will pardon the injection of a personal note at this time, let me say that I have been in bed five of the last seven months and my strength hasn’t returned as I would like, so my remarks of necessity will be very brief.

But there are two or three things that flashed into my mind on which it would be fitting to lay a little emphasis; one is the simplicity of our Program. Let’s not louse it all up with Freudian complexes and things that are interesting to the scientific mind, but have very little to do with our actual AA work. Our 12 Steps, when simmered down to the last, resolve themselves into the words love and service. We understand what love is and we understand what service is. So let’s bear those two things in mind.

Let us also remember to guard that erring member – the tongue, and if we must use it, let’s use it with kindness and consideration and tolerance.

And one more thing; none of us would be here today if somebody hadn’t taken time to explain things to us, to give us a little pat on the back, to take us to a meeting or two, to have done numerous little kind and thoughtful acts in our behalf. So let us never get the degree of smug complacency so that we’re not willing to extend or attempt to, that help which has been so beneficial to us, to our less fortunate brothers. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your interest in Pre-AA History. Other Books by Bob S:

A PRE-AA HISTORY BOOK, A Study of Synchronic Events Between Years 1926 and 1935 which Culminated in the Birth of Alcoholics Anonymous (43 pages) EBBY IN EXILE, A Vital A link EARLY INDIANAPOLIS AA, A pictorial view HISTORY OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS IN RICHMOND, INDIANA, Including Surrounding Communities THE ORIGIN OF AL-ANON IN RICHMOND, INDIANA (The 1950s)

Only the top two these volumes are currently in print. However, please feel welcome to print these writings on our own. My only purpose is to develop and encourage interest in the exciting history of Alcoholics Anonymous. If you have questions about this book, please contact me at: Robert Stonebraker 212 SW 18th Street. Richmond, Indiana 47374 rstonebraker212@comcast.net 765 935-0130

In our history lies our hope!