Laukuva is a township in central Žemaitija, 17 km north of Šilalė. Its first post office was opened in czarist times as Lovkovo, on May 10 (22), 1899. In 1914 it was included in the telegraphic network.
During First World War, when the German army advanced into Žemaitija and Courland on April 27, 1915, Laukuva was passed through the following day at 1 pm by squadrons of Abteilung Lenski as part of 6th Cavalry Division. During the German occupation the Laukuva P.O. was not reopened. During the German withdrawal from Russia at the end of 1918, Laukuva escaped further hostilities as the Red Army’s vanguards were halted a safe distance further east.
In 1919, the circumstances of establishing Lithuanian postal services at Laukuva are not clear. As in some other localities, it is possible that some early attempts were made by local authorities and there may have been a link with a nearby energetic P.O. at Šilalė. Whatever the facts, the first postmaster, Juozas Jakas, was formally appointed relatively late, on November 1, 1920. He had had some postal experience in the czarist army, and stayed on in Laukuva until early 1925 when he was replaced by Vincas Gegžna. From ca. 1930 Juozas Jakas was postmaster at Plungė and in 1941 was deported to Siberia where he died.
Information about the early years of the Laukuva P.O. is extremely scant. It appears that at some period it made use of a provisional one-liner cachet but later was supplied with a regular date canceller.
At a later stage the regular circular Laukuva canceller was put to illegal use to produce philatelic items like the backdated one shown below:
Cancelled by one-liner LAUKUVA:
no date, single, Vilnius II 40 sk. [colln. unknown]