1/18/2011:
On this date in 1947, at 3:00 in the afternoon, residents of Valley City emerged from their homes to find something unusual—pamphlet advertisements raining down from above, the roar of an airplane motor, and, for fifteen lucky souls, a check worth five dollars.
This scene was set by Ken Coghlan, Valley City businessman. He came from a line of ambitious men and he knew what hard work could bring about. His grandfather, Maurice Coghlan, was an enterprising Irishman who homesteaded near St. John in Rolette County, in 1883. The Homestead Act allowed homesteaders to attain 160 acres, but with time and work, Maurice obtained up to 800 acres, and then built a second home of some stature: a huge, native stone, two-story castle-like building, “Coghlan’s Castle,” which he built on the original homestead acreage in about 1909. It had five bedrooms, hot water, indoor plumbing, electricity in the kitchen, and was surrounded by a shelterbelt of pine trees. In 2008, the building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Ken Coghlan was a product of these roots. He was born at the family home in 1913, attended local schools, and became a traveling representative for a Minneapolis-based hardware firm. He eventually grew tired of travel and moved to Valley City, where he met his future wife, Elenora Schmidt, who handled the Coghlan advertising in the local newspaper. They married, had ten children, and stayed very involved in their community.
Which brings us back to the unfolding scene of pamphlets raining from the sky – a scene Coghlan organized to celebrate the seventeenth anniversary of Coast-to-Coast, his store in Valley City. The Miller brothers, Bob and Edgar, flew the Piper Cub over the city. Tom (Red) Mikoda, Jr., one of Coast-to-Coast’s employees, who had served as a paratrooper in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, made the parachutes for the checks and dropped them from the plane. The plane was in the air one hour and covered about 75 miles, according to the brothers.
More than five hundred registrants came to the Coast-to-Coast furniture department as a result of the promotion. Long distance calls were received from up to 110 miles away. All fifteen of the $5 checks were found. And the Dakota Press reported, “Everyone else had a good time at ‘Pennies from Heaven’ Coghlan’s expense.”
Dakota Datebook written by Sarah Walker
Sources:
Valley City Dakota Press, Friday, Jan. 24, 1947
Barnes County History, page 48
http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/feature/weekly_features/CoghlanCastle.pdf