Henry Riggs Rathbone

Henry Riggs Rathbone (February 12, 1870 – July 15, 1928) 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.

Biography

Born in Washington, D.C., to Brevet Colonel 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, Colonel Rathbone murdered young Henry's mother and tried to kill himself as well. Colonel 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. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1916 which nominated Charles Evans Hughes for the presidency. He was elected as a Republican to the United States House of Representatives in 1922, and served from 1923 until his death in 1928. Rathbone served one year as President of the Illinois State Society of Washington, DC until his death in 1928. He was interred in Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago.

External links

• United States Congress. "Henry Riggs Rathbone (id: R000068)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. 
• Works by or about Henry Riggs Rathbone at Internet Archive
• Henry Riggs Rathbone at Find A Grave