The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1883-05-09
THE ITURBIDES.
Romantic History of Don Angus
tin de Iturbide.
New York Herald !

Romantic History of Don Angus
tin de Iturbide.
New York Herald
Among the passengers by the
Germanic, which arrived yesterday
from Liverpool, was Don Augustin
de Iturbide, the eldest lineal repre-
sentative of the only North Ameri-
can imperial family, but notwith-
standing that relationship, quite as
steadfast Republican and loyal
citizen of Mexico as ex- President
Diaz, who is visitor in New York
at the same time. AS there has
been some lively discussion lately
in magazines and journals concern
ing the lineage of tho young Don
Augustin, the following brief state.
ment Of it has a present interest:
ON THE FATHERS SIDE.
On the paternal side he is grand
son of Don Augustin de Iturbide,
the "Liberator of Mexico" in 1921
and Emperor under the decree of
the Mexican Congress of May 81,
1922, which declared the Empire
hereditary in the family. The
throne was overturned in 1922 by
revolution headed by Santa Anna,
and the Emperor abdicated and
went to Europe, but came back in
July, 1924, and by Santa Annals
order was seized and shot although
he protested that the intention of
his return was not revolutionary.
Almost his last words were an ex-
hortation of the Mexican people to
loyalty to their Republican govern
ment. His widow lived in the Uni
ted States and afterward in France.
His eldest son, Don Angel de Itur-
bide, was Secretary of the Mexican
Legation at Washington during the
second term of General Almonte's
service as Minister and was Charge
d'Affairies for several months in
1856. He was the young Don
Augustin's father, and died in Mex
leo in 1872.
ON THE MOTHERS SIDE.
OI GIlS uldOOIudl SiuC CHS JOuuS
Don Augustin is a great grandson
of General Uriah Forrest, of the
American Revolutionary army who
lost a leg in the battle Of Brandy
wine and was wounded again at
Germantown, was a delegate in the
Continental Congress in 1867 and
Representative in the Federal Con-
gress in 1898 and died in 1905 at
his country house, "Rosedale," near
Georgetown, D. C. General For
rests wife was daughter of Cover
nor George Platter, of Maryland,
who was president of the Conven.
ton in which that State ratified the
federal constitution. One of their
daughters married Mr.. John Green,
a gentleman well-known in the So
ciety of Washington in the times
before our civil war. Mr.. and Mrs.
Green resided at 'Rosedale," where
their daughter Alice married Don
Angel de Iturbide during his diplo-
matte services at Washington.
THE sTAR-sPANGLED BANNER.
On his mothers side the yOung
Don Augustin is allied with the
family of Francis Scott Key, the
writer of the "Star Spangled Ban
ner," whose uncle, Judge Philip
Barton Key, married one Of Gener-
al Forests daughters and with
the Gusts family descendants of the
wife of General Washington, one of
the Platers having married one of
her four grand children, whom
Washington treated as his own after
the death of their father, Colonel
John Parke Custis, his aid camp,
from camp fever contracted in the
siege of Yorktown.
"RosedaIe" is still in the posses
sion of the family of Nine. Alice de
Iturbide Its site, according to ira
dition, was selected by General
Washington for General Forrest,
who was his familiar friend.
Don Angel Iturbide and his wife,
in 1865, signed the articles at Cha
pultepec by which the Emperor
Macmillan adopted their only child.
The romantic history of the renun-
citation of the compact by the moth
er and of her recovery OF her son
after the downfall of the second
Mexican empire is too familiar by
the recent magazine and journalistic
discussion to need extensive men,
ton.