Andrew Alexis Varvel

On this date in 1910, students at the University of North Dakota were studying for their final exams. Registration Day on that year's calendar was February 8, so they were also considering classes to take during the upcoming spring semester.

On this date in 1908, the Grand Forks Herald's front page blared the following headline: “VALLEY CITY GETS NEXT MEETING OF THE EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION.”

New Years' Day in 1908 was also the first day of the North Dakota Educational Association's annual meeting. Its auxiliary organization – the “department of county superintendents” – held its own meeting nearby. The major topic of the day was a scarcity of teachers. Comments from a number of the superintendents appeared in the Grand Forks Herald.

On this date in 1823, the Morning Post of London in the United Kingdom reprinted President James Monroe's address to the first session of the Eighteenth Congress of the United States, which he had delivered earlier in the month.

On Christmas day in 1907, as students at the University of North Dakota were on holiday break, Professor and Mrs. Vernon P. Squires hosted a splendid family reunion.

On this date in 1922, The Covington Leader reported that prominent Memphis attorney, P. W. Lanier, would keep his license to practice law. The disbarment proceedings in a Memphis courtroom would end up having a dramatic effect on North Dakota politics.

On this date in 1954, Agnes Geelan, Secretary and Treasurer of the North Dakota Nonpartisan League, sent a letter on the official letterhead of the NPL's Executive Committee to P. W. Lanier, Jr., a prominent Democratic Party activist. He had invited her to the inaugural meeting of the Democratic Farmer-Labor Association, the day before on November 22. He had become chairman of this organization, which sought to include “progressive Democrats and Leaguers, farmers and organized Labor...”

On this date in 1954, the Bismarck Tribune reported that a large portion of Bismarck's business district would be decorated with Christmas street lighting for the holiday season. E. V. Lahr, Jr., president of the Chamber of Commerce said a lighted canopy over the streets would "dress up Bismarck for the holidays." The lights would go up about Thanksgiving time and come down around the New Year weekend.

On this date in 1954, Byron G. Allen, Democratic National Committeeman for Minnesota, sent a letter to P. W. Lanier, Sr. Lanier was an ardent Democratic Party activist who had come to Jamestown from Memphis, Tennessee, during the early 1920s.

This week in 1823, the National Intelligencer published a letter rebutting a New-York American editorial that had criticized the Monroe administration's policy of punishing Arikaras for attacking fur traders.