. In June of the following year, Mr.
Osgood began his work in Massachusetts, under the auspices of the
Massachusetts Temperance Alliance, organizing about forty clubs, one of
which, in Haverill, numbered over three thousand members. In New
Hampshire and Vermont, many clubs were organized by Mr. Osgood and some
of his converts.
DR. HENRY A. REYNOLDS.
Another effective worker in the field is Dr. Henry A. Reynolds, of
Bangor, Maine, where he was born in 1839. In 1863, he graduated from the
Medical College of Harvard University, and was assistant surgeon in the
First Maine Regiment, heavy artillery, during two years of the war,
receiving an honorable discharge. He then entered upon the practice of
medicine in his native city, and continued therein until 1874. But he
had inherited a taste for strong drink, through the indulgence of which
he became its abject slave. After many efforts at reform which proved of
no avail, he resolved to look to Almighty God, and ask for strength to
overcome his dreadful appetite. About this time there was, in the city
of Bangor, a band of Christian women who met frequently to pray for the
salvation of the intemperate. At one of their meetings, the doctor
presented himself--it was two days after he had knelt alone in his
office and prayed to God for help--and publicly signed the pledge.
Sympathy for those who were in the dreadful slough from which he had
been lifted, soon began stirring in his heart, and he sought, by various
methods, to influence and save them. After working for several months,
with only partial success, it became evident, that for sure and
permanent work, there must be organization, and he conceived the plan of
a reform club made up exclusively of those who had been drinking men;
believing, as he did, that there must exist between two men who had
once been intemperate, a sympathy which could not exist between a man
who has, and one who has never, drank to excess. As soon as this matter
became clear to him, Dr. Reynolds, by notice in a daily paper, invited
the drinking men of the city to meet him at a certain place. Eleven men
responded to the call, and the Bangor Reform Club, the first of its
kind, was organized, September 10th, 1874, with Dr. Henry A. Reynolds as
president. The motto of the new organization was, "Dare to do Right."
Filled with the true missionary spirit, this little band held other
meetings, and did their utmost to bring in new members, and so
success
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