Congressman Lincoln and the return of the wooden leg of General Santa Anna

[L Verge]

I went online to fill in some blanks about Mrs. Quesenberry's sister, Alice, and her involvement with Mexican history. She was actually married to Iturbide II, and here are some of the details:

"Augustin Iturbide III was born to Augustin Iturbide II, son of Emperor Iturbide I, who was a Mexican diplomat in Washington DC. Augustin III was born in Mexico City to Augustin Iturbide II and Alice Green, Dona Rosa, daughter of a prominent American diplomat. His grandfather had led Mexico's independence movement and was emperor for eleven months, 1822-1823 until he was deposed. Augustin was born during the French occupation of Mexico under Emperor Maximilian I. Maximilian's regime though was not strong at all and wanted a Mexican heir due to the fact that he was Austrian and that his regime was supported only by the French Army. At age two, 1865 Maximilian convinced a reluctant Alice Green to sign her son off to Maximilian as his adopted son. Green was completely opposed to the idea and pleaded with the emperor but since the adopted papers were signed by the frantic mother nothing could be done, even by the American embassy. Maximilian's regime collapsed in 1867 and Augustin III was sent with his wife Carlotta to Havana to meet Augustin III's parents. He was then moved to his mother's family homestead until 1875 when he was entrusted to a ship captain to study in Brussels.

"His health however, tuberculosis, forced him back to America until he was again shipped to a Catholic school, Oscott, in England. While in Europe he enjoyed the rich luxuries of an exiled royal and even had an Audience with Pope Leo III. In 1884 Augustin III completed his post-graduate education at Georgetown University in linguistics. Three years later he relocated to Mexico to enter the Mexican Military Academy in Chapultepec. His ego however caused many problems for Augustin III's political future; while in Mexico he aspired to become the great military man his Grandfather had been but his remarks to a New York newspaper in 1890 on Porfirio Diaz regime caused him to be imprisoned and court-martialed. The controversy got worse before the court-martial because of a letter he wrote in Mexico condemning the Diaz regime for selling the nation to foreign powers.

"The court-martial took place on June 11th 1890, which after an hour deliberation convicted him of insubordination. He was sentenced to a year in prison and was subsequently exiled and lost his Mexican decorations and property. After his release his mother returned to Mexico to straighten out the Family's financial issues. The stress of this resulted in her death; which Augustin never recovered fully from. Augustin returned to his mother's home in Rosedale and became a Spanish and French professor at Georgetown, where he lived the life of cosmopolitan and also tried bringing back his fortune through land deals in California, which failed. His life took a turn for the better in 1915 when he married Louise Kearney, who was twenty years his younger.

"The Kearney family was a prominent Washington family that emigrated from Ireland around 1794. The family originally lived in Falls Church, Virginia until their house burned during the Civil War, which afterwards they relocated to Georgetown. The Irish Catholic Patrician married Augustina and they lived together at the Kearney Georgetown home. Augustin III would live the last ten years of his life as a modest college professor until he died penniless in 1925, from his earlier Tuberculosis illness. Louise Kearney lived the rest of her life in a small P Street Apartment and became friends with Catholic University procurator Msgr. Joseph Magner, whom she entrusted this collection to in 1957."

The family papers are in the archives of The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Please note that the above history is quoted from the University's website. It is very poorly written, and I don't want y'all to think I composed it! I have a reputation to uphold...

Summary: Elizabeth Green Quesenberry's sister, Alice, married Augustin Iturbide II and had a son, #III Iturbide. He was born during the French occupation of Mexico under Maximilian. Maxmilian was Austrian and wanted a Mexican heir to succeed him, so he persuaded Alice to sign over her son for adoption. When Emperor Maximilian's empire collapsed two years later, the boy was sent with Maximilian's wife to Havana where he met his real parents. He spent sometime at his Green family's ancestral home in D.C., Rosedale (which still exists). Rosedale was in the news a great deal about a dozen years ago when a Cuban boy who had fled to America with his mother was harbored there until Attorney General Janet Reno was ordered to return him to Cuba. Anyone know what boy I'm speaking of? The object of another political game?