Louis Locketz Latvia to Minnesota and a few places in between
Louis Locketz in Leipsig 1908ish
In 1959, Geula Grinberg wrote an essay called, “An Analytical Occupational History” and Louis was the subject. Many of the family legends are reinforced in the essay. Louis was 72 at the time he was interviewed. As is the case in oral history, there are a number of things in the essay that don’t match up with the available documents and records that exist. But it paints the big picture of him being orphaned young, being a rebel, raising himself up with a fair amount of aspiration, moving to the United States, getting married, starting Liberty Garment etc.
Family legend is that Louis was orphaned at a young age. We do not yet have death records for ether Yankel Shepsil or Chai Mashi (Yakov Shabsel and Khaya Basia). But we do know from Geula’s interview that “when his parents died,” one brother (must have been Morris) was already married and had moved to the outskirts of town. The other brother (must have been Joe) moved to Creslovka to be a Pig Bristle brush maker which is an industry that is associated with D’vnisk. The older sister (must have been Gesse) was already married and moved out of town. The essay also says that the infant younger sister, during whose birth Chai Mashi died, was adopted by a local family. It goes on to say that Louis stayed in an orphanage for one year and then “when he turned eight he fled” because it was a “terrible place” and he went to live on his own in the shipyard because he didn’t know where the rest of the family was. He earned money as a porter.
Louis was the fourth of five children from Yankel Shepsil and Chai Mashi. In order they were:
Gesse (Zylberman) Loketz
Morris/Movsha Locketz
Joseph Locketz
Louis/Leib Locketz
Helen (Sherman) Locketz
This can all be substantiated in the public record. According to the “1897 All Russia Census”, Louis was a pupil at the Talmud Torah which was like a boarding school for Jewish kids from all over Latvia. It states he was 11 years old. Ages and dates were far more fluid in the passing on of the family narrative than they are today with the Internet. He remembered being eight. The census says 11. He was a kid. He probably barely remembered his parents. He may have had no memory of his mother.
Here is a map marked with where the school would have been in Dvinsk. The neighborhood was since destroyed.
It isn’t easy to follow his life events after that in Geulah’s essay because her goal was not to write a biography for Louis. It seems she was applying some psycho-social theory of relationship between satisfaction and career development and success. She described essentially that he lived on the street for a time while he was portering, then in a camp of sorts for workers in a factory, and then he went to find his brother. He lived with the married brother for a few months, but had broken his leg and was a burden…not sure where he went from there. But in the process, it seems that he learned the trade of brush making from the brother who had moved to Creslovka. (Joe?)
There is a page missing in the essay which must have described the family legend that he fought in a revolution and was jailed. In fact, the first words on page 7, are, “
It is unfortunate the prior page is missing! That was probably a good story. There was in fact a thwarted revolution in 1905 called the “Russian Revolution of 1905” or, “The First Russian Revolution.” It was put down by the throne on June 16, 1907. We know Louis lived for awhile in Leipsig and worked as a brush maker and then emigrated to Minneapolis to reunite with the brothers before venturing to Chicago where he would ultimately meet Elizabeth.
In the interview, Louis reported that in 1910, living in Germany, his brothers living in Minneapolis requested that he come join them. He also reported that since he had used a false passport to enter Germany from Latvia, he had no means by which to become a citizen. So he made his way to the United States on the SS Corinthian sailing from London on April 23, 1910 and arriving at the Port of Montreal on May 9, 1910.
He continued on to Minneapolis where his brothers, Morris and Joseph were living. One was working as a tailor and another as a sewing machine operator. Louis found work as a brush maker, but according to the interview with Geula, he had to quit after six weeks because he was producing too quickly and had conflict with the other brush makers. At first he was warned by other workers and so he hid completed brushes under his table so it would appear he was working slower. But he ultimately resigned as the skill that gave him pride and mobility (being an excellent brush maker) in Germany, caused shame in Minneapolis.
Louis’ brother (Joe?) helped him get a job as a sewing machine operator in a small cloth shop. While working there, Louis got involved in the union activities and in 1911, the workers went on strike. Louis had to leave the shop and went to Chicago to find work. This information in the interview aligns with the family legend that Louis was blacklisted as a communist in Minneapolis and therefore could not find work. He found work as an operator in a cloth manufacturing shop in Chicago and remained in that company from 1911 to 1914.
In Chicago, Louis was involved in cultural life in a Russian singing group and in the Workmen’s Circle.
Photo believed by Sid to be of a Russian Singing group. Louis is second from left with arms crossed.
