LABATT, ABRAHAM COHEN:

By: Cyrus Adler

American pioneer; born at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1802; died at Galveston, Texas, Aug. 16, 1899. He was one of the organizers of the Reform congregation in Charleston in 1825. In 1831 he removed to New Orleans, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits and was one of the founders of the first Jewish congregation in Louisiana. He visited Texas in that year and again in 1837 as supercargo of the steamship "Columbia," the first merchantman to trade between the United States and Mexico. Labatt went to California in 1849, and was one of the founders of the San Francisco synagogue, laying its foundation-stone in 1856. In 1849 he obtained a dispensation for the David Crockett masonic lodge, the first regularly instituted lodge in the state of California. He served also as an alderman of San Francisco.

A.