This photo was unidentified for a long time until Don O'Brien, a relation of the people in the photo, recognized it and sent this identification:
I have identified one of your unknown photos on your history page -- the photo of a World War One soldier (with cane) and woman. The soldier is Lt. Pat O'Brien RFC and his mother Margaret O'Brien of Momence, Illinois. Pat was a great uncle of mine. The picture was taken 23 Jan 1918 when Pat came home after escaping from a moving train when he was a POW and making his way for 72 days across Europe . We had family living in Indiana and Illinois then and still do.
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Picture comes from the Lowell History CD-Rom, compiled by Gregory Jancosek. This CD-Rom contains photos from the Richard Schmal collection and the Lowell Public Library collection, as well as photos from other sources.
