A.C. Townley

A.C. Townley is best known as the man behind the Nonpartisan league.

A.C. Townley was born on the second to last day of 1880 on a farm in Browns Valley, Minnesota. After he graduated from high school he and his brother headed to western North Dakota.

By 1912 Townley was known as the "Flax King of the Northwest". His short lived kingdom would come crashing down with an August snow storm in 1913. That and fluxuations in the flax market ruined him. After a brief trial as a socialist, Townley borrowed a Model T Ford and approached North Dakota farmers looking for allies in his new Nonpartisan League.

Townley's pitch to his fellow farmers was a five point program. State ownership of grain terminals, state inspection of grain and grading, state hail insurance, rural credit banks, and tax exemption for farm improvements. Radical measures for 1915.

His proposals were a hit with many struggling upper midwestern farmers. It gave them leverage against the Minneapolis grain merchants. His organization spread throughout the region all the way to the Pacific northwest and into Canada.

An agricultural drought following WWI along with other social and market forces damaged the strength of the party. In Minnesota the Farmer Labor party was formed by former NPL leaders. Ironically, subsequent prosperity in the 1920's cooled farmer populism in North Dakota.

The North Dakotan's fortunes went south following the war. He was arrested for his anti war activities in Jackson County Minnesota. Convicted by a stacked jury, he served 90 days in jail.

He ran for the Governor of Minnesota in 1934 and lost. Throughout the remaining years of his life, he worked as a traveling salesman, lectured on the evils of communism, became involved in faith healing, and eventually became an insurance salesman. He was killed when his car was struck by a truck in 1959.

The NPL merged with the North Dakota Democratic Party in the 1950's. Townley was out of the picture by then.

The old mascot of the NPL was a goat whose motto was "the goat that couldn't be got." A fitting slogan for Townley as well.