What was the forerunner of Alcoholics Anonymous called and who was the founder?

zbeckabee

The Washingtonian movement had its origin in a tippling house, in the city of Baltimore, in the year 1840, with a company of half a dozen hard drinkers who had formed themselves into a club, and who used to meet for drinking bouts at Chase's tavern. One night the Rev. Matthew Hale Smith, a noted lecturer on temperance, was announced to speak in one of the churches, and they appointed two of their number a committee to go and hear him. http://www.aabibliography.com/washingtonian_movement.htm The Washingtonian movement (Washingtonians or Washingtonian Total Abstinence Society) was a 19th century fellowship founded on April 2, 1840 by six hard drinkers (William Mitchell, David Hoss, Charles Anderson, George Steer, Bill M'Curdy, and Tom Campbell) at Chase's Tavern on Liberty Street in Baltimore, Maryland. The idea was that by relying on each other, sharing their alcoholic experiences and relying upon divine help, they could keep each other sober. Total abstinence from alcohol was their goal. The group taught sobriety and preceded Alcoholics Anonymous by 100 years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washingtonian_movement Sep 06 06, 4:23 PM

Brainyblonde

The Oxford Group Movement: The Forerunner of AA http://www.morerevealed.com/books/coc/chapter2.htm The Rockefeller Foundation, which gave money to establish the Alcoholic Foundation, the forerunner of Alcoholics Anonymous. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE4DA153FF93BA15757C0A96F948260 Sep 06 06, 7:08 PM

granzan

Many of the tenets and the “Twelve Steps” of Alcoholics Anonymous came from the Oxford Group. The founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, William G. ("Bill W.") Wilson and Dr. Robert H. ("Dr. Bob") Smith, were initially Oxford members and derived many AA principles from it. The Oxford Group was a Christian organization founded by American Christian missionary Dr. Frank Buchman. Buchman was an American Lutheran minister of Swiss descent who, in 1908, had a conversion experience in a chapel in Keswick, England and as a result of that experience he would later found a movement called A First Century Christian Fellowship in 1921, which eventually became known as the Oxford Group by 1931. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Group [Added reference link - McG] Jan 13 08, 5:36 PM