Abraham Cohen Labatt

Last updated

Abraham Cohen Labatt (1802, Charleston, South Carolina - August 16, 1899, Galveston, Texas) was an American Sephardic Jew who was a prominent pioneer of Reform Judaism in the United States in the 19th century, founding several early congregations in the South and in San Francisco after the Gold Rush. A merchant, in the 1830s he helped pioneer trade between United States interests in Charleston and those in Texas and Mexico.

Contents

Early life and education

Abraham Labatt was a Sephardic Jew born in Charleston, South Carolina. His parents were David C. Labatt and Catherine Cohen (1773-1846), who came to Charleston by the time of the 1800 census having emigrated from Spain and Portugal, via Germany, France, the Netherlands and England. [1]

Career

As a young man, Labatt was one of the founders and first settlers of Cheraw, South Carolina, where he joined a Masonic Lodge in 1823. [2]

In 1825, Labatt helped organize the Reform congregation in Charleston, the first in the United States. [3]

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 New Orleans, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits. In that city, he was one of the founders of the first Jewish congregations in Louisiana, which became known as the Portuguese Jewish Nefutzot Yehudah congregation (or Portuguese Synagogue). (In 1870, its rabbi visited Galveston to dedicate the cornerstone of the first synagogue of Congregation B'nai Israel.) Labatt was also a firefighter and was the secretary and a founder of the Firemen's Charitable Association of New Orleans, which was established in 1832.

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 Gold Rush of 1849, Labatt went to California as a merchant, along with hundreds of thousands of other migrants. He also served as the first president of Congregation Emanu-El (San Francisco) in April 1851. [4] One of the founders of the San Francisco synagogue Shearith Israel, he laid its foundation-stone in 1856.

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 Henry M. Hyams and Samuel M. Hyams, Jr. (Asst. Adjutant General & Lieut. Colonel, 3rd Infantry Regt., LA, Confederate Army). [1] They had sixteen children together.

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. [9] He had moved to Galveston, Texas by 1869, when he was elected to the Galveston Board of Aldermen and served as the City Treasurer. He was a member of the Texas House of Representatives 1881-1883, became president of the Zacharias Frankel B’nai B’rith Lodge #242 and had a small town named after him called Labatt, Texas, situated in western Wilson County on the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway, which was abandoned in the 1930s. He, his wife Eleanor, their children Ellie and Joseph, and Joseph's wife and four children, all died in the 1900 Galveston hurricane. [4] [10]

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

Related Research Articles

The history of Jews in Charleston, South Carolina, was related to the 1669 charter of the Carolina Colony, drawn up by the 1st Earl of Shaftesbury and his secretary John Locke, which granted liberty of conscience to all settlers, and expressly noted "Jews, heathens, and dissenters". Sephardi Jews from London were among the early settlers in the city and colony, and comprised most of its Jewish community into the early 1800s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Jews in Cincinnati</span>

The history of the Jews in Cincinnati occupies a prominent place in the development of Jewish secular and religious life in the United States. Cincinnati is not only the oldest Jewish community west of the Allegheny Mountains but has also been an institutional center of American Reform Judaism for more than a century. The Israelite, the oldest American Jewish newspaper still (2019) being published, began publication in Cincinnati in 1854.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Congregation B'nai Israel (Galveston, Texas)</span> Jewish synagogue located in Galveston, Texas, USA

Congregation B'nai Israel is a Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue located in Galveston, Texas, in the United States. Organized by German Jewish immigrants in 1868, it is the oldest Reform congregation and the second chartered Jewish congregation in the state.

Jewish Texans have been a part of the history of Texas since the first European explorers arrived in the region in the 16th century. In 1990, there were around 108,000 adherents to Judaism in Texas. More recent estimates place the number at around 120,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Hart</span> Confederate States Army officer

Alexander Hart was a major in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Cohen (rabbi)</span> British-American rabbi, scholar, community activist and writer

Henry Cohen was a British-American rabbi, scholar, community activist and writer who served most of his career at Congregation B'nai Israel in Galveston, Texas, from 1888 to 1949. He came to the United States in 1885, during a period of rapid and massive growth related to early 20th-century immigration from eastern and southern Europe. In Texas, he organized the Galveston Movement, which worked from 1907 to 1914 to attract eastern European Jewish immigrants to Galveston and the Gulf Coast as a destination, as an alternative to the better known Northeastern cities. Ten thousand such immigrants entered at Galveston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jimmy Kessler</span> American rabbi from Texas

James Lee Kessler, the founder of the Texas Jewish Historical Society, was the first native Texan to serve as rabbi of Congregation B'nai Israel in Galveston, Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Jews in Galveston, Texas</span>

Jews have inhabited the city of Galveston, Texas, for almost two centuries. The first known Jewish immigrant to the Galveston area was Jao de la Porta, who, along with his brother Morin, financed the first settlement by Europeans on Galveston Island in 1816. de la Porta was born in Portugal of Jewish parentage and later became a Jewish Texan trader. In 1818, Jean Laffite appointed de la Porta supercargo for the Karankawa Indian trade. When Laffite left Galveston Island in 1820, de la Porta became a full-time trader.

The history of the Jews in Brenham, Texas; covers a period of over 140 years. As one of the first areas in Texas, outside of major population centers, to develop a sizable Jewish population, the community boasts many things of historical note. The Brenham community was formally organized in 1885.

B'nai Emet Synagogue is a former Conservative Jewish congregation and synagogue located on Ottawa Avenue, in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, in the United States.

David Lefkowitz was a rabbi who led Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, Texas from 1920 to 1949, after having worked at Temple Israel in Dayton, Ohio. He opposed the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, which had been revived in 1915; it was strongly opposed to immigrants from eastern and southern Europe who were Jews and Catholics. He was a Founding Executive Committee Member of the Dayton Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galveston Movement</span> U.S. Jewish immigration aid program

The Galveston Movement, also known as the Galveston Plan, was a U.S. immigration assistance program operated by several Jewish organizations between 1907 and 1914. The program diverted Jewish immigrants, fleeing Russia and eastern Europe, away from East Coast cities, particularly New York. During its operation, ten thousand Jewish immigrants passed through the port of Galveston, Texas, about a third the number that emigrated to Palestine during the same period. New York financier and philanthropist Jacob Schiff was the driving force behind the effort, which he supported with nearly $500,000 of his personal fortune. B'nai Israel's Rabbi Henry Cohen was the humanitarian face of the movement, meeting ships at the Galveston docks and helping guide the immigrants through the cumbersome arrival and distribution process, and on into the countryside.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwin Warren Moïse</span> American judge

Edwin Warren Moïse (1810–1868) was an American medical doctor, lawyer, Speaker of the Louisiana House, Attorney General of Louisiana, and District Court Judge.

Moses Cohen Mordecai (1804–1888) was an American businessman, politician, and parnas. He was the owner of the Mordecai Steamship Line, which he used to import fruit, sugar, tobacco, and coffee. He also served as a member of the South Carolina Senate. He became "the most prominent Jewish Charlestonian of the 1850s and 1860s." During the American Civil War, he supported the Confederate States of America, and his ships were used by the Confederate States Navy. He retired in Baltimore.

Henry Michael Hyams was an American lawyer, planter and Democratic politician. He served as the 7th Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana from 1862 to 1864 under Governor Thomas Overton Moore during the American Civil War, when Louisiana joined the Confederate States of America. He was an advocate of slavery in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Congregation Albert</span> Reform synagogue in Albuquerque, New Mexico, US

Congregation Albert is a Reform Jewish synagogue, located at 3800 Louisiana Boulevard NE in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States. Established in 1897, the conregation is the oldest Jewish organization of continued existence in the state.

<i>The Jewish Confederates</i> 2001 history book authored by Robert N. Rosen

The Jewish Confederates is a 2001 history book authored by Robert N. Rosen about Jewish citizens of the Confederate States of America who served in the Confederate States Army (CSA) during the American Civil War of 1861–1865. As they made up just 0.2% of the CSA, their story had not been heavily researched before Rosen, a Jewish lawyer in Charleston, South Carolina, with a master's degree in history from Harvard University, authored the book. It received both praise and criticism in many academic journals. Rosen has written two more books about the city of Charleston.

Leo Napoleon Levi was a Jewish-American lawyer and communal worker from Texas.

Joseph Blatt was an American rabbi, civic leader, and professor who was the longest serving rabbi of Temple B'nai Israel in Oklahoma City. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1932.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Door to Dor", Greater Houston Jewish Genealogical Society , Houston, TX (Fall 2016) p. 1 accessed 7 September 2020
  2. 1 2 Thomas, George, "The Making of Monroe", rockyrivernc.com accessed 7 September 2020
  3. 1 2 Diana J. Kleiner, "LABATT, ABRAHAM COHEN", Handbook of Texas Online, Published by the Texas State Historical Association, accessed 2 November 2012
  4. 1 2 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
  5. ↑ "Shop All".
  6. ↑ Stern, Malcolm H., First American Jewish Families: 600 Genealogies (1654-1977), Cincinnati: American Jewish Archives (1978), p. 148
  7. ↑ "The chess games of Leon L Labatt".
  8. ↑ "Leon L Labatt vs Carlos Torre Repetto (1923)".
  9. ↑ Singerman, Robert, "The American Jewish Press, 1823-1983", American Jewish History Vol. 73, No. 4 (June 1984), p. 425
  10. ↑ 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
  11. ↑ "Telegraph Ticks", The Standard Union (Brooklyn, New York) 17 Aug 1899, Thu, p. 12
  12. ↑ Dallas (TX) Morning News , 17 August 1899, p. 8

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.