Arago: Personal Identification Tokens

Owney received this identification token from John P. O’Connor of Omaha, Nebraska. O’Connor was a mail distribution clerk at the Omaha post office. There is no indication of when he presented this token to Owney. His identification token lists his address as the Millard Hotel, a large five-story hotel that was owned and operated as part of the Pacific Hotel Company, which operated hotels along the Union Pacific railroad line. Owney is known to have been in the city in 1893 and 1894. Remarking on one of Owney’s visits, the ‘Omaha Daily Bee’ newspaper noted that he “arrived in the city from the east, and after spending the day visiting points of interest about [nearby] Council Bluffs left for the west by the Overland flyer.”

Reference:

‘Omaha Daily Bee’, Sunday, March 25, 1894.