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...”
This new organization was in line with the Democratic State Committee, resolving on November 21st to “amalgamate” county Democratic Party and Nonpartisan League organizations by offering Nonpartisan League chairmen co-chairmanships in the Democratic Party.
Agnes Geelan missed this inaugural meeting because of a ten-day trip to New York. So, on November 23rd, she wrote back to explain that she “came home to find that politics have really been humming” and apologized for not making it to the association's inaugural meeting.
In her letter, Geelan made her concerns known: QUOTE “I am for a re-alignment but to me there is nothing gained unless we are to have a real part in the leadership, and unless the liberal policies that have made the Democratic Party the liberal party are to be given consideration.” She ended with, “I hope to have a talk with you in the near future.”
Geelan was North Dakota's first female state senator. She was also a liberal Republican and a prominent leader of the Nonpartisan League at that time. The more right wing Republican Organizing Committee had wrested control over the Republican Party from the Nonpartisan League, and in response to that development, Geelan worked with others to move the Nonpartisan League into the Democratic column.
Two years after that inaugural meeting, in 1956, Geelan became a candidate for the United States House of Representatives on the first ticket of the consolidated Democratic Nonpartisan League Party. The election wasn't even close. Despite NPL support, every statewide Democratic candidate lost.
But Agnes Geelan’s efforts helped set the stage. Two years later, fellow Democrat Quentin Burdick succeeded, winning a congressional seat in 1958. In later years, Geelan would become a celebrated author, writing two novels. She also wrote a biography, a political obituary of Senator “Wild Bill” Langer entitled “The Dakota Maverick.”
Dakota Datebook by Andrew Alexis Varvel
REFERENCES"
- Agnes Geelan to P. W. Lanier, Jr., 23 November 1954. (official North Dakota Nonpartisan League Executive Committee letterhead) Lanier Papers. OGLMC 85, Box 1, Folder 1. Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections, Chester Fritz Library, University of North Dakota.
- Bill Lanier to Agnes Geelan, 12 November 1954. Lanier Papers. OGLMC 85, Box 1, Folder 1.
- Bill Lanier – general call, 18 November 1954. (official Lanier, Lanier & Knox letterhead) Lanier Papers. OGLMC 85, Box 1, Folder 1.
- Charles Tighe to P. W. Lanier, Jr., 16 December 1955. (official Democratic Farm-Labor Association letterhead) Lanier Papers. OGLMC 85, Box 1, Folder 2.
- Democratic State Committee Resolution (copy), 21 November 1954. Lanier Papers. OGLMC 85, Box 1, Folder 1.
- Charles Tighe (secretary), Minutes of the Meeting of the Democratic Farm-Labor Association held at the Patterson Hotel (Bismarck) on November 22nd 1954. Lanier Papers. OGLMC 85, Box 1, Folder 1.
- https://hostfest.com/2020/10/20/agnes-geelan/
- “N.D. politician-author, 96, dies”, Bismarck Tribune, 13 March 1993, page 7.
- “Official Abstract of Votes Cast at the Primary Election Held June 26, 1956: page 1”; “Official Abstract of Votes Cast at the General Election Held November 6, 1956: page 1”; “Official Abstract of Votes Cast at the Primary Election Held June 24, 1958: page 1”; “Official Abstract of Votes Cast at the General Election Held November 4, 1958: page 1”; Ben Meier (Secretary of State). “Compilation of Election Returns: National and State, 1946-1964” (Bismarck: State of North Dakota Secretary of State's Office, 1965)
- Agnes Geelan. “The Dakota Maverick” (Fargo: Kaye's Printing Company, 1975), pages 123-127.
