Early A.A.

In the autumn of 1922, the Lutheran Minister, Rev. Frank N.D.Buchman, and a few of his friends, formed what they called,"A First Century Christian Fellowship." Frank Buchman had resigned his connection with the Hartford Theological Seminary around 1921 and had begun his evangelical work of carrying a message of life-changing by "getting right with God." Around 1927, Buchman began working in England. Several of his followers were connected with Oxford University; and when they began to tour South Africa, the press called the evangelical team "The Oxford Group." This because most of the team was from Oxford University, but Frank Buchman was never officially connected in any way with Oxford University. This name stuck. By 1932, A.J. Russell's book For Sinners Only was published, and made frequent reference to The Oxford Group.In 1937, the group was officially incorporated in Great Britain as a not-for-profit entity, known as The Oxford Group. The fellowship held small group meetings, prayer meetings and what were called "house parties," at which its adherents spent "Quiet Time" in meditation seeking "Guidance" from God. Part of these meetings involved "witnessing," or giving testimony regarding prior sins, and what God had done in their lives to remove these sins, or defects in character (or shortcomings).

Frank Buchman and his followers held certain theological beliefs,including the following:

1) Sovereignty and Power of God.
2) The reality of sin.
3) The need for complete surrender to the will of God.
4) Christ's atoning sacrifice and transforming power.
5) The sustenance of prayer.
6) The duty to witness to others.
*Garth Lean, ON THE TAIL OF A COMET - p. 73


Its beliefs included other elements added as the movement grew and became more popular. Examples are as the belief that an experience of Christ would transform a believer, IF he truly believed - beyond anything he had dreamed possible. The belief that an adherent could and should make prompt restitution for personal wrongs revealed to him by his life-changing experience. And the belief that adherents should be part of a sort of "chain-reaction" of life changing experiences by sharing the experience of what Christ had done for them with others.


The Oxford Group believed one must surrender to God, not only to be "converted" from sin, but to have his entire life controlled by God. They believed in "Quiet Time," or meditation, during which a believer would get guidance of what to do or in as to the direction he should take. They believed in open confession of sin, one-to-another, following James 5:16 in the scriptures. They believed in the healing of the soul and in carrying the message of personal and world-wide redemption through the sharing of members' testimony by witnessing.

Frank Buchman, and his followers believed that people hadsick souls, most of which was caused by "self-centeredness."
Oxford Group members believed that people were powerless over this human condition, this defect of the soul. To recover one had to admit he was separated from God and his fellow man, and that God could manage their lives. Then they made a decision to turn their lives over to the care and direction of God. They had to make an inventory of their lives and of their sins, and to make full restitution to others, those they had hurt by their sins, or shortcomings. They also had to witness to others as to their own conversion from sin and be available to convert others from sin.


Oxford group members believed and were taught that the only way you could keep what you had been given by God, was to give it away to another. They did not try to force anyone into their path. They were to live their lives as an example, which would inspire others to want to follow. The Oxford Group called its conversion process "soul-surgery."Its so-called surgical procedure broiled down to five concepts:
CONFIDENCE, CONFESSION,CONVICTION, CONVERSION CONSERVATION.


Oxford Group people also believed that their followers should have a formula for checking their motives in following this path.Part of the checking procedure involved the Four Absolutes:
HONESTY, UNSELFISHNESS, PURITY and LOVE
Oxford Group people believed these were the four absolute standards of Jesus. A.A. members knew that no one could ever hope to attain the perfection of absolute anything. They instead were told to strive for perfection, as their guide for progress, knowing that they would never fully attain it.


Bill Wilson was visited by Ebby T., an Oxford Group follower (who never really attained sobriety, and died destitute). Bill was told by Ebby, "I got religion." Bill went to Calvary Mission in New York City with Ebby and late surrendered to Christ, making open confession of his alcoholism at the mission which was run by Calvary Episcopal Church. Bill soon had his "white light" spiritual experience at Towns Hospital and after this surrender, never drank alcohol again. Ebby "had two years and seven months of continuous sobriety in the beginning,a long period of about seven years' sobriety in Texas in the 1950's, and about 2 1/2 years' sobriety just before he died"in 1966.


Bill knew when he was going to have a binge. Prior to his spiritual experience, Bill had been a patient at Towns Hospital and knew that he had to make reservations at Towns Hospital. He would call up two weeks in advance of binge and tell Towns when he was going to be there. His binges were planned. After his spiritual experience, he never found the need to call for reservations again.


Dr. Bob too, had had experience with the Oxford Group. After Frank Buchman's series of Oxford Group meetings at the Mayflower Hotel in Akron in January 1933, Henrietta Seiberling and Dr. Bob's wife, Anne Smith, convinced Dr. Bob to attend the meetings which were, by now, being held at the home of T. Henry and Clarace Williams. Dr. Bob, though he had confessed his drinking and had been a devotee of the Oxford Group and of its writings and teachings,had not been able to stop drinking. It was not until he had met with Bill Wilson, another Oxford Group member, and was relating, one-drunk-to-another, that he eventually surrendered.


Dr. Bob met Bill on Mother's Day in May of 1935, and later drank while going to and attending a medical convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey in June 1935. Bill Wilson gave Bob his last drink of beer just prior to performing surgery on June 10th , 1935. This was to be Dr. Bob's last "slip."


Bill Wilson was once quoted as saying that even though he did not want the connection to the Oxford Group and its religious teachings associated with Alcoholics Anonymous, he had incorporated most of their ideals and precepts in the Steps and in the writing of what to become the A. A. Recovery Program.


Six Steps of Oxford Group:
1. We admitted that we were licked, that we were powerless over alcohol.
2. We made a moral inventory of our defects or sins.
3. We confessed or shared our shortcomings with another person in confidence.
4. We made restitution to all those we had harmed by our drinking.
5. We tried to help other alcoholics, with no thought of reward in money or prestige.
6. We prayed to whatever God we thought there was for power to practice these precepts.


Although those steps had helped in the recovery of New York and Akron alcoholics, Bill felt the program was still not definitive. "Maybe our six chunks of truth should be broken up into smaller pieces," he said. "Thus we could better get the distant reader over the barrel, and at the same time we might be able to broaden and deepen the spiritual implications of our whole presentation." Pass It On, p.197


**If you go back to the Oxford Group beginnings, you start primarily with the title by Howard Arnold Walter, Literary Secretary, National Council Young Men's Christian Association of India and Ceylon. Walter wrote this title in conjunction with Professor Henry B. Wright and Reverend Frank N.D. Buchman. It bore the name Soul-Surgery: Some Thoughts on Incisive Personal Work, and was published in 1919. Its major topic dealt with what later became called the 5 C's–Confidence, Confession, Conviction, Conversion, Conservation [also called "Continuance"]. These five principles, in turn, became the heart of the ideas behind A.A. Steps Three through Twelve, as Bill Wilson himself was later to write in The Language of the Heart.
The Second Touch
Mark 8:25
(To F.N.D.B.)
The blind man, sunk in sordid helplessness
A sound of footsteps caught.
'The Healer come, ' they cried, and through the press
The hapless wretch they brought.
With wild hope, born of uttermost distress,
The healing touch he sought,
A hand reached forth in potent tenderness--
The miracle was wrought.

Strangely he stares. 'What doest thou see?' they cry.
'I see men walk as trees.'
Again the cool hand strokes each aching eye;
The last dim shadow flees;
Not moving shapes but live men drawing nigh,
And tells to each how God's own Son came by
And healed his dire disease.

Dungeoned by self, we too besought His hand,
Our shuttered eyes to free.
His touch bestowed, vast stricken crowds we scanned,
And guessed their misery.
Lord Christ, Thy second touch our hearts demand,
Each separate soul to see,
His wounds to salve, his wants to understand,
And lead him home to Thee.

H.A.W.

Originally published by Oxford University Press
Rowland Hazard, who came to the aid of Ebby T. in August 1934, had a thorough indoctrination in Oxford Group teachings and he passed many of these along to Ebby and Bill W. Soon after his release from Towns Hospital at the end of 1934, Bill and the rest of the alcoholic contingent of the Oxford Group began gathering at Stewart's Cafeteria in New York following their regular meeting. Shep Cornell, then a member of the Oxford Group business team that included Rowland, Sam Shoemaker, and Hanford Twitchell, was also a recovering alkie. Lois Wilson talked of regular attendance at the Oxford Group meetings with Bill, Shep, and Ebby. James Houck, a nonalcoholic Oxford Group member in Frederick, Maryland, stated that Bill W. went to many Oxford Group meetings at the Francis Scott Key Hotel in Frederick and always centered on alcohol.
Jim Newton went to Ft. Myers, Florida in 1926, at age 21, to visit his father,and they bought a 35 acre tract of land across the road from the Thomas Edison estate. Jim Newton often acted as host at Edison's famous birthday parties which were attended by Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, and many world renowned business leaders and public figures.
Harvey Firestone, Sr., offered Jim a job as secretary to the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in 1926, and moved him to Akron, Ohio in residence across from the Firestone Estate. Jim worked for Firestone eleven years and was being groomed as president of the company when he resigned and went full time with the Oxford Groups.
Jim had been in New York for the Jack Dempsey vs Gene Tunney fight. While there he confessed to Frank Buchman that his life was in turmoil and he was about to take a "geographical cure". Buchman sent him to meet Sam Shoemaker at the Calvary Church.
He made an Oxford Group confession to Sam and was led to join one of the Oxford Group business teams. These were groups of important men who made attempts to convert others to the Oxford Group method of spirituality. Jim frequently met with Shep Cornell and Rowland Hazard. He met T. Henry and Clarace Williams, husband and wife Oxford Group members from Akron and members of Walter Tunks' church, clerygyman for Firestone. The business team put on house parties in various cities at the finest hotels and clubs.
In January of 1933, Frank Buchman, leading a team of thirty men and women, descended on Akron for the first time to give testimonials at the Mayflower Hotel and in Akron churches, and initiate the townspeople in the experiences of the Oxford Group. Clearly, Jim Newton's association with Firestone and Tunks' Episcopal Church group influenced the choice of Akron as the site of this endeavor, rather than some other city. Had Jim not already been a business team member and in place in Akron, it is very unlikely that Buchman would ever have chosen this small, rather unknown city as a place to pursue his evangelistic efforts. Jim was the spokesman who introduced Buchman at all the affairs that week in Akron.

When Jim first arrived in Akron, he had been welcomed into the Firestone family, and had become fast friends with a son, Russell (Bud) Firestone. Bud had a very bad drinking problem and had already been sent to several hospitals to no avail. Jim went with Bud to still another drying-out place, on the Hudson River in New York, and stayed through the entire 30 day program. Then he took Bud to an Episcopal Conference in Denver to which the Oxford Group people had been invited. On the train East again after the party, he was able to introduce Bud to his old Oxford Group minister, Sam Shoemaker. Alone with Sam, Bud surrendered his life to God. His life changed, and his family situation and marriage were saved. Jim Newton had helped bring to the city the Oxford Group message of his alcoholic friend, Bud Firestone. The message and recovery were broadcast to an interested community by a grateful father, Harvey Firestone, Sr.

In Akron, T. Henry and Clarace Williams and Henrietta Seiberling were attending Oxford Group meetings at the Mayflower Hotel and elsewhere. Dr. Bob Smith also attended with his wife, Anne. He shied away from talking about his problem publicly, and continued drinking. In her concern for Bob, Henrietta suggested to T. Henry that if they could set up a smaller, more private meeting perhaps Bob might feel more at ease and be able to make a confession in the Oxford Group fashion, and a commitment to sobriety. T. Henry's home was chosen for this special meeting and these meetings started on a Wednesday in April of 1935--just one month before Bill Wilson came to Akron. These meetings were usually led by T. Henry, Henrietta, or Florence Main, and at one of these Dr. Bob was able to confess that he was a secret drinker and needed help as he could not stop.

Then, there was Bill. Bill Wison, the "rum hound" from New York, had come to Akron on a business venture that went sour. Having recovered from his disease, he was determined to stay sober by seeking out and helping another drunk, after being tempted by the bar at the Mayflower Hotel. Instead of drinking, having been sober five months in the Oxford Group, he said a prayer. He received guidance to look at a ministers' directory board and a strange thing happened. He put his finger on one name--Tunks. The Rev. Walter Tunks was Harvey Firestone's minister, and Firestone had brought Buchman and thirty Oxford Group members to Akron for ten days in gratitude for their help for his son, Russell, a drunkard.

Bill W. made the desperate and fateful phone call. Dr. Bob Smith and Bill Wilson came together at a meeting in Henrietta Seiberling's home in the Gate House of the Firestone Estate, and thus, Alcoholics Anonymous was born.

 


Dr. Harry M. Tiebout, a psychiatrist, was an early pioneer in coupling the principles and philosophy of Alcoholics Anonymous with psychiatric knowledge of alcoholism. A strong supporter of A.A. throughout his life, he consistently worked for acceptance of his views concerning alcoholism the medical and psychiatric professions. He served on the Board of Trustees for A.A. from 1957 to 1966, and was chairman of the National Council on Alcoholism in 1950.
Reprinted from
1953 QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF STUDIES ON ALCOHOL
Vol. 14, pp. 58-68
New Brunswick, N.J. 08903
Printed in the United States of America

The Tiebout Collection consists of four papers written during the 1950s, drawing from 'personal stories and the author's vast experience.First published by Hazelden Foundation 1990, who offer a variety of information on chemical dependency and related areas. This publication does not necessarily represent Hazelden or its programs, nor do they officially speak for any Twelve Step Program. Minor editing has been done to this booklet in accordance with the publishers (Hazelden's) editorial style and grammatical usage.Tiebout CollectionBy Harry M. Tiebout, M.D.Dr. Tiebout was an outstanding psychiatrist and pioneer in the field of addictions.The four papers described below present several of his significant concepts,
The Act of Surrender in the Therapeutic Process
Direct Treatment of a Symptom
The Ego Factors in Surrender in Alcoholism
Surrender Versus Compliance in Therapy


Letter from Dr. Tiebout on The 12 Steps as Ego Deflating Devices

From: The JayWalker

 


CHARMING IS THE WORD FOR ALCOHOLICS
BY FULTON OUSLER Liberty Magazine© - 1940

Down at the very bottom of the social scale of AA society are the pariahs, the untouchables, and the outcasts, all known by one excoriating epithet-relatives. I am a relative. I know my place. I am not complaining. But I hope no one minds if I venture the plaintive confession that there are times, oh, many, many, times when I wish I had been an alcoholic. By that I mean that I wish I were an AA. The reason is that I consider the AA people the most charming in the world. Such is my considered opinion. As a journalist it has been my fortune to meet many of the people who are considered charming. I number among my friends stars, and lesser lights of stage and cinema; writers are my daily diet. I know the ladies and gentleman of both political parties; I have been entertained in the White House. I have broken bread with kings and ministers and ambassadors and I say after that catalog, which could be extended, that I would prefer an evening with my AA friends to any person or group of persons I have indicated. I ask myself why I consider so charming these alcoholic caterpillars who have found their butterfly wings in Alcoholics Anonymous. There are more reasons than one, but I can name a few. They are imaginative, and that helps to make them alcoholics. Some of them drank to flog their ambition on to greater efforts. Others guzzled only to black out unendurable demons that rose in their imagination. But when they have found their restoration, their imagination is responsive to new incantations, and their talk abounds with color and light, and that makes them charming companions too. The AA people are what they are, and they were what they were, because they are sensitive, imaginative, possessed of a sense of humor and awareness of universal truth. They are sensitive, which means they are hurt easily, and that helped them to become alcoholics. But when they have found their restoration, they are still as sensitive as ever; responsive to beauty and to truth and eager about the intangible glories of this life. That makes them charming companions. They are possessed with a sense of humor. Even in their cups they have been known to say damnable funny things. Often it was being forced to take seriously the little and mean things of life that make them seek escape in a bottle. But when they have found restoration, their sense of humor finds a blessed freedom, and they are able to reach a godlike state where they can laugh at themselves, the very height of self conquest. Go to the meetings and listen to the laughter. At what are they laughing? At ghoulish memories over which weaker souls would cringe in useless remorse. And that makes them wonderful people to be with by candlelight. And they are possessed of a sense of universal truth. That is often a new thing in their hearts. The fact that this at-one-meant with God's universe had never been awakened in them is sometimes the reason why they drank. The fact that it was at last awakened is almost always the reason why they were restored to the good and simple ways of life. Stand with them when the meeting is over, and listen while they say the "Our Father." They have found a power greater than themselves which they diligently serve. And that gives them a charm that never was elsewhere on land or sea. It makes you know that God, Himself, is really charming, because the AA people reflect His mercy and His forgiveness.


One A.A. archivist called him "abrasive." Other AAs called him "controversial." Still others knew he had no love for the Twelve Traditions.

And yet... Those who know A.A. history freely concede that the principles of "sponsorship" and "rotating leadership" can be attributed to Clarence Snyder. Bill Wilson several times commented on the astonishing growth of early A.A. in Cleveland from one group to thirty groups in a year's time.

Moreover, a ninety-five percent success rate was claimed for Cleveland AAs of those days. Clarence sponsored the first woman in AA. And many Roman Catholics believe there would be no membership in A.A. today for people of their religious persuasion if Clarence had not insisted on a separate type of meeting in Cleveland "for alcoholics only." Finally, though some may dispute it, there is a good case that the name of the A.A. Fellowship "Alcoholics Anonymous" came from the first meeting under that name which Clarence held in Cleveland on May 11, 1939.

Dr. Bob Smith sponsored Clarence Snyder. Clarence met Dr. Bob in Akron City Hospital February 11, 1938, the date Clarence celebrated as his sobriety date for the next forty-six years. Clarence was among the first 40 members of AA and his story is included in the first three versions of ‘the Big Book’ as AA #11, "The Home Brewmeister". He was part of the counseling team that wrote the Big Book

Clarence passed on to his widow Grace, to his many sponsees and grand-sponsees who are alive today, and through his retreats the specific Bible, Oxford Group, and devotional ideas that enabled early AAs to succeed so well. Moreover, Clarence, like Dr. Bob, felt there was no need to stay sick. People could recover; and alcoholics who took the Steps, trusted God, and abided by the Four Absolutes (Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness and Love) did recover and stayed recovered. Bob took people through the six steps in an afternoon. Clarence took thousands through the Twelve Steps in two days.
There is a lot to be learned from Clarence Snyder and early A.A..

 

AA Old Preamble - 1940

We are gathered here because we are faced with the fact that we are powerless over alcohol and unable to do anything about it without the help of a Power greater than ourselves. We feel that each person's religious views, if any, are his own affair. The simple purpose of the program of Alcoholics Anonymous is to show what may be done to enlist the aid of a Power greater than ourselves regardless of what our individual conception of that Power may be. In order to form a habit of depending upon and referring all we do to that Power, we must at first apply ourselves with some diligence. By often repeating these acts, they become habitual and the help rendered becomes natural to us. We have all come to know that as alcoholics we are suffering from a serious illness for which medicine has no cure. Our condition may be the result of an allergy which make sus different from other people. It has never been by any treatment with which we are familiar, permanently cured. The only relief we have to offer is absolute abstinence, the second meaning of A.A. There are no dues or fees. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. Each member squares his debt by helping others to recover. An Alcoholics Anonymous is an alcoholic who through application and adherence to the A.A. program has forsworn the use of any and all alcoholic beverage in any form. The moment he takes so much as one drop of beer, wine,spirits or any other alcoholic beverage he automatically loses all status as a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. A.A. is not interested in sobering up drunks who are not sincere in their desire to remain sober for all time. Not being reformers, we offer our experience only to those who want it. We have a way out on which we can absolutely agree and on which we can join in harmonious action. Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our program. Those who do not recover are people who will not or simply cannot give themselves to this simple program. Now you may like this program or you may not, but the fact remains, it works. It is our only chance to recover. There is a vast amount of fun in the A.A. fellowship. Some people might be shocked at our seeming worldliness and levity but just underneath there lies a deadly earnestness and a full realization that we must put first things first and with each of us the first thing is our alcoholic problem. To drink is to die. Faith must work twenty-four hours a day in and through us or we perish. In order to set our tone for this meeting I ask that we bow our heads in a few moments of silent prayer and meditation. I wish to remind you that whatever is said at this meeting expresses our own individual opinion as of today and as of up to this moment. We do not speak for A.A. as a whole and you are free to agree or disagree as you see fit, in fact, it is suggested that you pay no attention to anything which might not be reconciled with what is in the A.A. Big Book. If you don't have a Big Book, it's time you bought you one. Read it, study it, live with it, loan it, scatter it, and then learn from it what it means to be an A.A.
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