GABRIEL, (Prof.) Albert, FR., then St. Martin Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller


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PROFESSOR ALBERT GABRIEL, ST. MARTINVlLLE .-Professor Gabriel is a native of
France; born near Marseilles, April, 1846.  His father, Antoine Gabriel, was a
native of the same place; he died at Marseilles in 1881.  He was a man of
extraordinary ability and culture.  He was a graduate of the College of
Langues, of Lyons, and was president of a college at Marseilles for thirty-six
years.  The mother of our subject, Miss Isabelle Coer, was also a native of
Marseilles.  She died in 1854.

Professor Gabriel was reared and educated in his native land.  Attending
school at Marseilles, he graduated from one of the best institutions of that
city with high honors.  He chose as his profession teaching, and, with this in
view, he attended the Normal School at Aix, of which he is a graduate.  After
leaving school he became secretary to one of the government engineers, and
during the four years he was engaged in this capacity he visited Africa and
other foreign countries.  He entered the army in 1866, enlisting in the Third
Regiment Zouaves.  Here he remained for seven years, as was made compulsory by
the laws of France at that date.  He was in many of the hard-fought battles in
the Franco-German war.  Two of his brothers fell in service.

After the war he returned to his home, where he remained for two years, when
he emigrated to the United States, landing in New York in March, 1873.  He
procured a position as teacher and remained there for nine years.  With a view
to being located in a milder climate he removed to Louisiana and located in
St. Martinville, where he resumed school teaching, which he still follows.  In
1884 he married Miss Emily M. Griswold, an accomplished young lady of New
York.  Like her husband, she is a teacher of high standing.  The Professor has
prospered and now owns considerable property in this parish.

Southwest Louisiana Biographical and Historical, Biographical Section, pp.
330-331.  Edited by William Henry Perrin.  Published in 1891, by The Gulf
Publishing Company.