American Citizens Flee to Safety from Attack by Mexican Revolutionaries, November 1913
14-Feb-14
Mr. J. A. Lorenzo DeVisconti (August 10, 1836-January 13, 1918) was born in northern Italy to Lorenzo DeVisconti (an Italian count) and his wife Marie, was a Catholic priest for three years, served in the Austrian army for several years and then came to Mexico in 1863. He then moved to the U.S., was impressed in the Union army during the Civil War, escaped to New York City for the remainder of the war, lived in the Midwest for some years and then moved to Texas where he taught school and farmed. He traveled often to Mexico and his diaries and letters are very descriptive of that era. In 1890 he married his third wife, Mrs. Addie Gertrude May Dupree of Farmville, N.C., in Texas and sired two daughters Tabitha Marie and Sue May. The family moved to Farmville, N.C., after Tabitha's birth, but Lorenzo Devisconti returned to Texas in 1893. In this letter that he wrote to his daughter Tabitha, he describes his near death experience in November 1913 while fleeing Mexican revolutionaries ("constitutionalists") to get back to Texas.
Mr. J. A. Lorenzo DeVisconti (August 10, 1836-January 13, 1918) was born in northern Italy to Lorenzo DeVisconti (an Italian count) and his wife Marie, was a Catholic priest for three years, served in the Austrian army for several years and then came to Mexico in 1863. He then moved to the U.S., was impressed in the Union army during the Civil War, escaped to New York City for the remainder of the war, lived in the Midwest for some years and then moved to Texas where he taught school and farmed. He traveled often to Mexico and his diaries and letters are very descriptive of that era. In 1890 he married his third wife, Mrs. Addie Gertrude May Dupree of Farmville, N.C., in Texas and sired two daughters Tabitha Marie and Sue May. After Tabitha's birth, he and Adeline moved to Farmville where they lived until 1893 when he returned to Texas without his family; their divorce was finalized in 1901.