St. Louis, Missouri Owney tag

1888-1897

One token Owney received while visiting St. Louis, Missouri was from a company that is still in existence today. This token came from an employee of the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association. The token includes the company’s symbol on one side (the Eagle and letter A had been used to identify the company since 1872), and a notice celebrating annual shipments of 20,000 train car loads of Budweiser for the year. Although the company’s products were shipped as cargo, not through the US mail, those employed by the company to move the cargo undoubtedly interacted with other workers on the train cars, including the Railway Post Office clerks (and their occasional canine visitor). The company had begun using refrigerated railway cars in the 1880s.