Abraham Cohen Labatt
Abraham Cohen Labatt (1802,
Early life and education
Abraham Labatt was a
Career
As a young man, Labatt was one of the founders and first settlers of
In 1825, Labatt helped organize the
A few years later, he moved with his young family to Charlotte, North Carolina, where he worked as a merchant and trader. He was appointed post master of a small town in what was then Mecklenburg County and is now believed to be Monroe, North Carolina by US President Andrew Jackson, which he named Jacksonville (not to be confused with Jacksonville, North Carolina). In 1827 he purchased large plots of land there and in 1830 and 1832 he was granted powers of attorney by his father-in-law Samuel Hyams to sell more land in Mecklenburg and two slaves named Sandy and Gabriel that Hyams owned. On 3 November 1829 he placed an advertisement in the Western Carolinian for a "House of Accommodation", believed to be same place as Labatt's Crossroads, where Union County's first court sat.[2]
In 1831 he moved to
In 1831, Labatt visited Velasco, Texas, then part of Mexico, which had achieved independence in 1821, to explore opportunities for international trade. A settlement had just been started based on a trading post. He visited again in 1837 as supercargo of the steamship Columbia. This was the first cargo ship to trade between the U.S., via Charleston, and Texas (by then an independent republic) and Mexico.
Following the
Labatt became the Worshipful Master or Postmaster General of the Davy Crockett Lodge, the West's first Masonic Lodge,[1] named after an American pioneer of the Southeast, a name which he helped choose. He had been a friend of Crockett's, as well as Texas president Sam Houston. Active politically, Labatt was elected as an alderman of San Francisco.[3]
Marriage and family
Labatt's sister Cora was the Queen of Mardi Gras in New Orleans in the Rex parade in 1877.[5][6]
In Charleston, South Carolina, Labatt married Caroline Hyams (born 1802), a sister of Louisiana Lieutenant-Governor
One of his sons, Leon L. Labatt (1854-1928), was a Louisiana judge and chess player who won the Louisiana Chess Championship in 1917, and in his lifetime played against fellow Louisianans Paul Morphy and Armand Blackmar, as well as worldwide greats Emanuel Lasker, Carlos Torre Repetto, Wilhelm Steinitz, Johannes Zukertort, Adolf Albin and José Raúl Capablanca.[7][8]
Another of his sons, Henry Jacob Labatt (1832-1900), became an influential attorney in San Francisco, where he was editor of the Voice of Israel, the first Jewish newspaper in the US West in 1856, along with Rabbi Herman Bien.
Other Labatt children include David Cohen Labatt (Captain & Quartermaster, 5th Infantry Regt., LA, Confederate Army; Judge), Samuel Kosciusko Labatt (Commander, Ringgold Lite Artillery, California Militia, 1853-1855), Eliza E. Labatt (never married), Louise C. Labatt (died in the 1900 Galveston Storm), Jackson E. Labatt (Private, Co. G, 26th Infantry Regt., LA, Confederate Army), Joseph Isaac Labatt and Miriam Hyams Labatt Smith (Mrs. John B., Brigadier General; Louisiana Confederate Widow's Pension).[1]
Return to the Gulf Coast
In the 1860s, the Labatt family returned to Louisiana. They moved to Waco, Texas in 1869. After his wife died in the fall of 1878, Labatt moved to Galveston and lived with his son, Henry J. Labatt, until his death in 1899. Labatt joined the Congregation B'nai Israel, which was also Reform. He continued to be active in temple activities.
Death
Labatt died of old age and gastritis at his son Henry's house in Galveston on August 16, 1899, aged 97 or 98. He was the second oldest Mason in the United States at the time of death.[11][12]
See also
References
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cyrus Adler (1901–1906). "Labatt, Abraham Cohen". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
- ^ Greater Houston Jewish Genealogical Society, Houston, TX (Fall 2016) p. 1 [1]accessed 7 September 2020
- ^ a b Thomas, George, "The Making of Monroe", rockyrivernc.com [2] accessed 7 September 2020
- ^ a b Diana J. Kleiner, "LABATT, ABRAHAM COHEN", Handbook of Texas Online, Published by the Texas State Historical Association, accessed 2 November 2012
- ^ a b http://www.jmaw.org/labatt-jewish-san-francisco/#:~:text=Labatt%2C%20one%20of%20Abraham's%20sons,district%20courts%20in%20the%20State. , "Henry J. Labatt: Influential Early Pioneer Jewish Attorney of San Francisco", Jewish Museum of the American West, March 1, 2013, accessed 7 September 2020
- ^ "Shop All".
- ^ Stern, Malcolm H., First American Jewish Families: 600 Genealogies (1654-1977), Cincinnati: American Jewish Archives (1978), p. 148
- ^ "The chess games of Leon L Labatt".
- ^ "Leon L Labatt vs Carlos Torre Repetto (1923)".
- ^ Singerman, Robert, "The American Jewish Press, 1823-1983", American Jewish History Vol. 73, No. 4 (June 1984), p. 425
- ^ http://www.jmaw.org/henry-jacob-labatt-galveston/ "Henry Jacob Labatt: Pioneer Jewish Lawyer During His Texas Years", Jewish Museum of the American West, November 22, 2013, accessed 7 September 2020
- ^ "Telegraph Ticks", The Standard Union (Brooklyn, New York) 17 Aug 1899, Thu, p. 12
- ^ Dallas (TX) Morning News, 17 August 1899, p. 8 [3]
Further reading
- Natalie Ornish, Pioneer Jewish Texans (Dallas: Texas Heritage, 1989).
- Ruthe Winegarten and Cathy Schechter, Deep in the Heart: The Lives and Legends of Texas Jews (Austin: Eakin Press, 1990).
External links
- Diana J. Kleiner, "LABATT, ABRAHAM COHEN", Handbook of Texas Online, Published by the Texas State Historical Association
- "Telegraph Ticks", The Standard Union (Brooklyn, New York) 17 Aug 1899, Thu · Page 12, link to newspapers.com