The Postmaster from Prussia

J. C. Lockenvitz, known as "Julian," was an immigrant from Germany ("Prussia") as his birthplace was shown on the U. S. Census of 1880. His date of birth shown on the gravestone pictured here shows his date of birth as 1833, and his age on the census agrees with the birth year shown.

Julian Lockenvitz's parents were also born in Prussia, and in 1880, he was one of only two individuals living in the United States who had the surname of Lockenvitz. The other individual was Maria Lockenvitz, a servant born in Germany in 1844, who lived in Detroit, Michigan.

In 1880, Lockenvitz had not yet arrived in Holmes County, as he was enumerated in Jamaica, Middlesex County, Virginia. He worked as a "shop clerk," and three other men shared his household there. According to the 1880 census, Lockenvitz was shown as the head of the household, and the three non-related men who lived there with him were I. R. Bland, 20 years old, John E. Wright, Age 18, and Walter Clark, age 17. Bland, Wright, and Clark were all born in Virginia. In fact, all of Lockenvitz's neighbors were also born in Virginia.

By 1900, Lockenvitz was living in Beat 3, Holmes County, Mississippi, and he is shown on the U. S. Census taken that same year as the only person in his household. According to a directory of U. S. Civil Servants published in 1910, Lockenvitz began serving as the Postmaster of the Ebenezer, Mississippi Post Office in 1890, and his salary was $300 per year.

Julian Lockenvitz died in 1915, and his grave is located in the Ebenezer Baptist Church Cemetery in Ebenezer, Mississippi, near Lexington.