Munson I. Lockwood, the youngest of eight children born to Stephen Ingersoll Lockwood and his wife Sarah, came with his family from Greenwich, Connecticut, to a 100-acre farm near the village of Sing Sing (Ossining) in 1821. While his older brothers Ralph and Albert became prominent attorneys and judges, Munson pursued both law and military service, attaining the rank of general in the New York State Militia and organizing a local volunteer militia company, the Lockwood Light Guard of Ossining. He also held several civilian offices, serving as Westchester County Clerk from 1843 to 1849, Warden of Sing Sing Prison from 1850 to 1855, and Justice of the Peace from 1874 to 1875. He helped found Dale Cemetery by selling property to the Dale Cemetery Association in 1850 for $30,000, and as both Warden of Sing Sing and Treasurer of Dale Cemetery he used Sing Sing marble from the prison quarries for many structures. After being accused of a conflict of interest, he resigned from his position at Sing Sing in 1855 with his reputation damaged, and he died suddenly at age 68. Lockwood was married twice: his first wife, Sarah Lewis Smith, bore six children before her death in 1862, including their oldest son Henry Clay Lockwood, a lawyer and political writer later known for his 1884 book The Abolition of the Presidency; his second wife was Amelia Jane Havell, daughter of Robert Havell, the engraver of John James Audubon's Birds of America, and they had a son, Robert Havell Lockwood.