Abraham Cohen Labatt

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Abraham Cohen Labatt (1802, Charleston, South Carolina - August 16, 1899, Galveston, Texas) was a prominent pioneer of Reform Judaism in the United States in the 19th century, founding several early congregations. A Sephardic Jew, he was one of the organizers of the Reform congregation in Charleston in 1825. A few years later he moved to Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1831 he moved to New Orleans, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits and was one of the founders of the first Jewish congregations in Louisiana. He visited Velasco, Texas in that year and again in 1837 as supercargo of the steamship "Columbia", the first merchantman to trade between the U.S., via Charleston, Texas, and Mexico. Labatt went to California in a merchant capacity following the gold rush of 1849, and was one of the founders of the San Francisco synagogue Shearith Israel, laying its foundation-stone in 1856. He would also serve as president of Congregation Emanuel. 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. Labatt married Caroline Hyams (b. 1821) and had sixteen children with her. In the 1860s, they moved to Louisiana, followed by Waco, Texas in 1869, finally settling in Galveston in 1878, where he joined Congregation B'nai Israel. He would remain in Galveston for the rest of his life.