Lockwood A San Antonio Valley community in the extreme southern end of the county, centering around the intersection of Jolon Road (G14) and Lockwood-Jolon Road (G18), about 2.5 m N of the N end of Lake San Antonio and 6 m SE of Jolon. The name was applied when the post office was established in 1888 by Lair Patterson who suggested that it be named for Belva Ann Lockwood (see Lockwood Post Office). According to Lester Patterson, Lair Patterson was one of eleven children, four of whom moved from Ashland, Oregon, to California in the early 1880s; "three to Hungry Flat now Lockwood, one at a time, not together. They all came here to homestead (160 acres) each.…We are on our fifth generation here in Lockwood at present." The Postmaster at Lockwood in 1975 reported that "the people who first came and settled in this area…called the valley ‘Hungry Flats’ as it was bare of vegetation" (Roth). Olive Wollesen told JDJ that one of her neighbors

 

told me that a man named Lockwood was hanged from a tree on the road from Lockwood to San Lucas (’way back before this post office was named, of course) and the tree was there for many years afterward and was called the Lockwood tree. If Mr. Patterson had a private urge to honor the man named Lockwood…it has not come down through the Gillett family in any way.

 

Lockwood, or the area around it, was previously known as Hungry Flat, Hungry Flats, Jolon Flat, or The Flat

Ref: p.c. to JDJ from Lester Patterson September 30, 1975, Gladys L. Roth, October 31, 1975; Olive Wollesen, September 20, 1975 and November 6, 1975; Olive Wolleson "Lockwood" in Monterey Life, August 1980:23; Botts-Weferling 1988 [entire volume]

Map: 1892MAS, 1907GLO, 1908RAN, 1915SPC, 1919COX, 1913DEN, 1919BRY, 1920HIG, 1926CRC, 1936CSA, 1947ACS, Orr 1964:47, 1979WIL, DeLorme 1986:44, Thomas 1987:6 as Lockwood; 1925MON as Lookwood; 1910REC as Lockood

Lockwood Post Office On July 8, 1888, Lair Patterson (see Lockwood) applied for a post office to be located 7 m SE of Jolon in the NEQ Sec.14 T23S R8E and asked that it be named Lockwood. While records in the National Archives do not show the reason for his selection, it has been assumed by most local historians that he did so to honor Belva Ann Lockwood who was in the national limelight at that time for being, according to some authorities, the first woman nominated for president of the United States, first in 1884 and then in 1888. (Others say Victoria Woodhull deserves the honor since she ran for president with the Equal Rights Party in 1872.) The Lockwood office was authorized July 23, 1888, with Patterson as the first postmaster.

 

Belva Ann Lockwood (1830-1917) was literally 100 years ahead of her time in overcoming enormous personal and social obstacles to obtain an education, teach school, practice law and run for President in 1884 and 1888, on a platform that included many social concerns still valid today.

 

Called sprightly, aggressive and energetic, she used her education, superior talents and fighting spirit to topple a variety of barriers. As an attorney, she forced passage of such laws as one requiring equal pay for women employees of the federal government; handled more than 7,000 pension cases; and won a $5 million settlement for Cherokee Indians vs. the government. — New Century

 

These words were included in a souvenir brochure prepared by the Lockwood Post Office for the centennial celebration, July 23, 1988. Available at that time were covers bearing the 17¢ regular stamp issued in Belva Lockwood’s honor in June 1986, and a special centennial postmark. The office was later relocated to SWQ Sec.11 and moved again to SEQ Sec.10.

Ref: Record 1832-1971; New Century 1954:2493; Frickstad 1955:107; Wilkerson 1968:5; Marion Meade’s Free Woman: The Life and Times of Victoria Woodhull. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1976; Salley 1977:124; Olive Wolleson "Lockwood" in Monterey Life, August 1980:23 Wilkerson 1984:7; The Rustler, July 20, 1988; Centennial brochure, July 23, 1988; Gillett 1990:11-12

Map: Site Selection 1837-1950 (as of 1888, 1917 and 1948), 1887USP, 1889USP, 1893USP, 1896USP, 1898HAR, 1906USP, 1966HAR, 1969SLO, 1970SPO, 1974USD, Wilkerson 1984:6