Taken from "History of Southeast Missouri," page 588.
Leon J. Albert was born at Portland, Jefferson county, Kentucky, on the 6tb of November, 1840, and the village in which he was thus ushered into the world is now an integral part of the city of Louisville. He is a son of Nicholas and Anna (Hoin) Albert, both of whom were natives of France and the marriage of whom was solemnized in the city of Louisville, Kentucky. Nicolas Albert was born in Alsace-Lorraine, France, a district that became a German province as a result of the Franco-Prussian war, and there he was reared to years of maturity. He received excellent educational advantages and, reared on the border between France and Germany, he had virtually equal facility in the use of both the French and German languages, a knowledge that proved of great value to him during his subsequent business career in America. His mother died in her native land and after he himself had established his residence in the United States his venerable father, John Albert, joined him and passed the residue of his life in Louisville, Kentucky.
Albert gained his initial business experience in his native land, where he continued to maintain his home until 1830, when, as a young man, he embarked on a sailing vessel and set forth to seek his fortunes in the United States. After a long and weary voyage he landed in the city of New Orleans, whence he proceeded to Kentucky and located in the city of Louisville. There he was given a municipal office, largely due to his familiarity with the French and German languages, and in the '40s he removed with his, family, to Jackson, Cape Girardeau county, Missouri, where he engaged in the general. merchandise business, in company with his brother. In 1852 he removed to Cape Girardeau, the judicial center and metropolis of the county, and here he soon gained precedence as one of the leading merchants of the county. He was a man of marked ability and sterling character, commanded the high regard of all who knew him and was an influential factor in local affairs of a public order. He was well known throughoutthe county and was the confidential advisor of its French and German citizens, the while he was deeply appreciative of the institutions and advantages of the land of his adoption, to which his loyalty was ever of the most unequivocal type. He was calledto various offices of local trust and at the time of his death was incumbent of the position of United States gauger for his district. He was summoned to the life eternal in August, 1874, at the age of sixty-eight years, and his name merits enduring place on the roster of the sterling citizens who have aided in the development and upbuilding of this favored section of the state of Missouri. In politics he gave his support to the cause of the Democratic party and both he and his wife were devout communicants of the Catholic church, in whose faith they were reared. Mrs. Albert died in 1872, at the age of fifty-six years, leaving four sons and one daughter, all of whom attained to years of maturity, and three of whom are now living.
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John Albert
Mary
Birth