Henry Riggs Rathbone

Who was Henry Riggs Rathbone?

Henry Riggs Rathbone was a congressman from Illinois, USA. During their engagement to be married, his future parents were present at Abraham Lincoln's assassination at Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865. Coincidentally, he was born on what would have been Lincoln's 61st birthday.

Born in Washington, D.C., to Major Henry Reed Rathbone and Clara Rathbone née Harris, the daughter of U.S. Senator Ira Harris, he moved to Hanover, Germany, with his family in 1882 when his father was appointed consul to Hanover. The next year, Major Rathbone murdered young Henry's mother and tried to kill himself as well. Major Rathbone was admitted to an asylum for the criminally insane in Hildesheim and Henry and his siblings were brought back to the United States to be raised by their uncle, William Harris.

Despite the tragic events he lived through in his early years, Rathbone successfully graduated from Phillips Academy in 1888, from Yale University in 1892, and from the Law Department at the University of Wisconsin in 1894. He was admitted to the Bar in 1895, and commenced practicing law in Chicago, Illinois.

Rathbone later became involved in politics.