Aa history Lovers 2004 moderators Nancy Olson and Glenn F. Chesnut page

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 â€"

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.

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 23rd. 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 334½ 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

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.

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.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

++++Message 1808. . . . . . . . . . . . The Towns Hospital

From: apexnomad . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/16/2004 5:51:00 PM

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Is the "old" CHARLES B. TOWNS HOSPITAL still standing?

The adress 293 central west ny ny, is the American Anorexia/Bulima

Association. Is this the same bulding?

I am going to NYC this Fri. and would love some info. if someone

knows.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/16/2004 10:04:00 PM

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

December 1975 AA Grapevine

Passing of Jack Alexander

Recalls Early AA Growth

Our Fellowship has reason to be forever grateful to Jack Alexander, who died

on September 17 in St. Petersburg, Fla., at 73. AA was less than six years

old, with a membership around 2,000, when the reporter and magazine writer was

assigned to do a Saturday Evening Post article on the obscure group of

recovering alcoholics.

Jack approached the job skeptically, but ended his research as "a true AA

convert in spirit," in the words of co-founder Bill W. The article (now

re-printed as an AA pamphlet, "The Jack Alexander Article") was published in

the March 1, 1941, issue - and by the end of that year, AA membership had

reached 8,000! In the May 1945 Grapevine, Jack told the

story-behind-the-story, "Were the AAs Pulling My Leg?'

During Jack's 1951-56 service as a non-alcoholic trustee on the AA General

Service Board, he "added the final editorial touch" to the manuscript of the

"Twelve and Twelve." He was a senior editor on the Post at his retirement, in

1964. After he and his wife (who survives him) moved to Florida, he kept in

touch with AA until his health began to fail.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

++++Message 1810. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Jersey Lightning

From: ny-aa@att.net . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/17/2004 8:56:00 AM

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

A member asked about Jersey Lightning which Bill was drinking

during one of his failed attempts to stay sober on his own.

What is it?

I remember reading that the engineers were playing cards and

passing around a jug of Jersey Applejack in the hotel while

working on one of Bill's deals. Bill was trying to stay sober

and turned it down several times. Unfortunately, he refused

the jug one less time than it was offered. Here is a history

timeline item on it thanks to the West Baltimore Group:

May 1932, Bill went on a business trip to Bound Brook NJ with

a group of engineers from the Pathe Co. to look at a new

photographic process. It turned into a disaster. In a small

hotel, Bill drank Apple Jack (Jersey Lightning) and was drunk

for three days. His contract with Wheeler and Winans was cancelled.

"Pass It On" pages 91-92

"Bill W." by Robert Thompson (soft cover) pages 165-167

This is probably the incident on Page 5 of the Big Book.

"Someone had pushed a drink my way, and I had taken it.

Was I crazy?"

There are sources on the web that refer to "Jersey Applejack

a.k.a. Jersey Lightning." This is not just hard cider. Applejack

is a brandy distilled from hard cider. It goes back to colonial

times. It was widely distributed in the east during prohibition.

I would give the recipe for a home brew version if everyone

promised not to make it. :-)

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

++++Message 1811. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: The Towns Hospital

From: Arthur Sheehan . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/17/2004 7:50:00 AM

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

The Charles B Towns Hospital for Drug and Alcohol Addictions opened in NYC in

1901. It was a private "drying out" hospital for the affluent.

It initially opened on 81st and 82nd Sts. and later moved to 293 Central Park

West.

Towns also later opened an annex (behind the Central Park facility) at 119 W

Hospital fees had to be paid in advance, or be guaranteed.

Treatment fees for alcoholism ran from $75 to $150 in the main hospital

($1,560 to $3,120 today) and $50 ($1,040 today) in the annex.

Reference Slaying the Dragon pgs 84-85, and Silkworth pg 125.

----- Original Message -----

From: apexnomad

To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Sunday, May 16, 2004 5:51 PM

Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] The Towns Hospital

Is the "old" CHARLES B. TOWNS HOSPITAL still standing?

The adress 293 central west ny ny, is the American Anorexia/Bulima

Association. Is this the same bulding?

I am going to NYC this Fri. and would love some info. if someone

knows.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

From: Jim K. . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/17/2004 1:59:00 PM

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Towns Hospital at 293 Central Park West is still standing but as a

Co-op apartment building. It is one door north of the intersection

of West 89th Street and CPW. Best viewed from the park side of CPW

it is steps north of the northern exit of the 8th Avenue (B, C, D

trains) subway line station at 86th street.

For more info you may email me offlist at jknyc@hotmail.com

Jim K.

Manhattan, NY

>>Is the "old" CHARLES B. TOWNS HOSPITAL still standing?<<

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

++++Message 1813. . . . . . . . . . . . Fitz M

From: Jim Burns . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/17/2004 5:30:00 PM

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Hello group,

I am interested in why Fitz M.'s story was not put in the Pioneer section

until the 4th edition.

Also, is there any addition information on Dr. Jim S. from " Jim's Story?"

Thank you,

Jim

Orange County, California

Do you Yahoo!?

SBC Yahoo! [79] - Internet access at a great low price.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

++++Message 1814. . . . . . . . . . . . Grapevine Magazine, May 1945

From: Charles Knapp . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/17/2004 11:58:00 PM

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

In post # 560, the December 1975 AA Grapevine article about Jack Alexander

passing, it mentioned a May 1945 Grapevine article by Jack. Here is a copy

of that article.

Hope you enjoy

Charles from California

*******************************************************************

JACK ALEXANDER OF SAT EVE POST FAME

THOUGHT A.A.s WERE PULLING HIS LEG

Grapevine Magazine, May 1945

Ordinarily, diabetes isn't rated as one of the hazards of reporting, but the

Alcoholics Anonymous article in the Saturday Evening Post came close to

costing me my liver, and maybe A.A. neophytes ought to be told this when

they are handed copies of the article to read. It might impress them. In the

course of my fact gathering, I drank enough Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, ginger

ale, Moxie and Sweetie to float the Saratoga. Then there was the thickly

frosted cake so beloved of A.A. gatherings, and the heavily sweetened

coffee, and the candy. Nobody can tell me that alcoholism isn't due solely

to an abnormal craving for sugar, not even a learned psychiatrist. Otherwise

the A.A. assignment was a pleasure.

It began when the Post asked me to look into A.A. as a possible article

subject. All I knew of alcoholism at the time was that, like most other

non-alcoholics, I had my hand bitten (and my nose punched) on numerous

occasions by alcoholic pals to whom I had extended a hand --unwisely, it

always seemed afterward. Anyway, I had an understandable skepticism about

the whole business.

My first contact, with actual A.A.s came when a group of four of them called

at my apartment one afternoon. This session was pleasant, but it didn't help

my skepticism any. Each one introduced himself as an alcoholic who had gone

"dry," as the official expression has it. They were good-looking and well

dressed and, as we sat around drinking Coca-Cola (which was all they would

take), they spun yarns about their horrendous drinking misadventures. The

stories sounded spurious, and after the visitors had left, I had a strong

suspicion that my leg was being pulled. They had behaved like a bunch of

actors sent out by some Broadway casting agency.

Next morning I look the subway to the headquarters Alcoholics Anonymous in

downtown Manhattan, where I met Bill W. This Bill W. is a very disarming guy

and an expert at indoctrinating the stranger into the psychology,

psychiatry, physiology, pharmacology and folklore of alcoholism. He spent

the good part of a couple of days telling me what it was all about. It was

an interesting experience, but at the end of it my fingers were still

crossed. He knew it, of course, without my saying it, and in the days that

followed he took me to the homes of some of the A.A.s, where I got a chance

to talk to the wives, too. My skepticism suffered a few minor scratches, but

not enough to hurt. Then Bill shepherded me to a few A.A. meetings at a

clubhouse somewhere in the West Twenties. Here were all manner of

alcoholics, many of them, the nibblers at the fringe of the movement, still

fragrant of liquor and needing a shave. Now I knew I was among a few genuine

alcoholics anyway. The bearded, fume-breathing lads were A.A. skeptics, too,

and now I had some company.

The week spent with Bill W. was a success from one standpoint. I knew I had

the makings of a readable report but, unfortunately, I didn't quite believe

in it and told Bill so. He asked why I didn't look in on the A.A.s in other

cities and see what went on there. I agreed to do this, and we mapped out an

itinerary. I went to Philadelphia, first, and some of the local A.A. a took

me to the psychopathic ward of Philadelphia General Hospital and showed me

how they work on the alcoholic Inmates. In that gloomy place, it was an

impressive thing to see men who had bounced in and out of the ward

themselves patiently jawing a man who was still haggard and shaking from a

binge that wound up in the gutter.

Akron was the next stop. Bill met me there and promptly introduced me to Doc

S., who is another hard man to disbelieve. There were more hospital visits,

an A.A, meeting, and interviews with people who a year or two before were

undergoing varying forms of the blind staggers. Now they seemed calm,

well-spoken, stead-handed and prosperous, al least mildly prosperous.

Doe S. drove us both from Akron to Cleveland one night and the same pattern

was repeated. The universality of alcoholism was more apparent here. In

Akron it had been mostly factory workers. In Cleveland there were lawyers,

accountants and oilier professional men, in addition to laborers. And again

the same stories. The pattern was repeated also in Chicago, the only

variation there being the presence at the meetings of a number of

newspapermen, I had spent most of my working life on newspapers and I could

really talk to these men. The real clincher, though, came in St. Louis,

which is my hometown. Here I met a number of my own friends who were A.A.s,

and the last remnants of skepticism vanished. Once rollicking rumpots, they

were now sober. It didn't seem possible, but there it was.

When the article was published, the reader mail was astonishing. Meat of it

came from desperate drinkers or their wives, or mothers, fathers or

interested friends. The letters were forwarded to the A.A. office in New

York and from there were sent on to A.A. groups nearest the writers of the

letters. I don't know exactly how many letters came in, all told, but the

lust time I checked, a year or so ago, it was around 6,000. They still

trickle in from time to time, from people who have carried the article in

their pockets all this time, or kept it in the bureau drawer under the

handkerchief case intending to do something about it.

I guess the letters will keep coming in for years, and I hope they do,

because now I know that every one of them springs from a mind, either of an

alcoholic or of someone close to him, which is undergoing a type of hell

that Dante would have gagged at. And I know, too, that this victim is on the

way to recovery, if he really wants to recover. There is something very

heartening about this, particularly in a world which has been struggling

toward peace for centuries without ever achieving it for very long periods

of lime.

Jack Alexander

The Saturday Evening Post

Philadelphia, Pa.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

++++Message 1815. . . . . . . . . . . . Promises

From: Cloydg . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/17/2004 6:43:00 PM

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII