US Rathbone, Clara Harris

Clara Harris Rathbone
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Born: September 4, 1834

Birthplace: Albany, New York

Birthname: Clara Hamilton Harris

Father: U.S. Senator Ira Harris 1802 – 1875
(Buried: Albany Rural Cemetery, Menands, New York)​

Mother: Louisa Tubbs 1809 – 1845
(Buried: Albany Rural Cemetery, Menands, New York)​
Step Mother: Pauline Rathbone
(Married to her father Ira Harris on August 1, 1848)​

Husband: Major Henry Rathbone 1837 – 1911
(Buried: Stadtfriedhof Engesohde, Hanover, Germany)​
Married: July 11, 1867, at Albany, New York

Children:

Henry Riggs Rathbone 1870 – 1928​
(Buried: Rosehill Cemetery & Mausoleum, Chicago, Illinois)​
Gerald Laurence Rathbone 1871 – 1936​
(Buried: Cypress Lawn Memorial Park, Colma, California)​
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Clara Pauline Rathbone Randolph 1872 – 1918​
(Buried: Grace Episcopal Church Cemetery, Casanova, Virginia)​

Antebellum History:

1848: When Clara was nearly 14 years old, her father married the widow Pauline Rathbone, making her son, Henry Rathbone, age 11, Clara's step-brother. They all began living in the same household after that. Soon, to their parents’ dismay, Henry and Clara fall in love and became engaged.​
1861: The Harris / Rathbone family moves to Washington, DC, living just off Lafayette Square at 15th and H streets​
Civil War History:

When the war began, Henry enlisted as an officer in the 12th U.S. Infantry.​
With Henry off to war, Clara had become a confident, cultured woman in the capitol, making friends with Mary Todd Lincoln, visiting the White House, and going to the Theater, all being part of her regular weekly routine.​
1865: Attended the April 14, performance of Our American Cousin with her fiancé, Major Henry Rathbone, President Abraham Lincoln and First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, in the Presidential Box at Ford's Theater in Washington, DC.​
That night, Clara Harris & Henry Rathbone Witnessed the Assassination of President Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth.​
A few weeks after the assassination, Clara posed for photographer Mathew Brady, reportedly in the white dress she wore to Ford's Theater the night Lincoln was shot.​

Postbellum History:

1867 – 1883: Wife of Major Henry Rathbone​
1882: After husband is appointed U.S. Consul to the Province of Hanover, Germany by President Chester A. Arthur, Clara moves with the family to Germany.​
1883: On Christmas Eve, afraid that he might harm the children, Clara coaxed Henry, who had never fully recovered from the Lincoln assassination, and was plagued with unexplained ailments and disorders, to the Master bedroom of their apartment in Germany, and closed the door. There, Henry shot Clara several times with a gun and killed her, before stabbing himself with a knife in an attempted murder-suicide.​

Died: December 23, 1883

Place of Death: Hildesheim, Germany

Cause of Death: Murdered by Husband

Age at time of Death: 49 years old

Burial Place: Stadtfriedhof Engesohde, Hanover, Germany
(Grave disinterred and disposed of in 1952 due to neglect, and lack of interest from the family.)​

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This is apparently a photo of "a Mrs. Harris" from the 1860s, not "the" Clara Harris of "Ford's Theater at the Lincoln Assassination" notoriety. It seems a small clerical error in the 1960's compounded by the power of the internet has made this one of the biggest mis-identified photos that you'll see.

Read All about The Mistake here...

 
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To me the woman in this picture seems to be a different lady than the one who is usually shown to be Clara Harris Rathbone. But I'm no expert here, I have great difficulties to decide if a person is the same or different when shown in a different angle, at a different age or with a different hairdo. What do you think, is this lady here the same as the one in the OP?

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Source

Here is another picture:

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I don't think she's the same. On the other hand, she doesn't seem to resemble the known photo.
 
On the 140th anniversary of her death, The Lincoln Conspirators takes another look at the tragedy of Clara Harris Rathbone:


"While Henry is the one who killed Clara in a fit of insanity 140 years ago today, he is not the sole answer to the question, 'Who could have done this?' The blood of this Christmas tragedy is also squarely on the hands of John Wilkes Booth."​
 
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Good find.

The inscriptor is Henry Riggs Rathbone, Clara's son and a Congressman from New York until his death in 1928
I believe he was a congressman from Illinois rather than New York. He went to law school at the University of Wisconsin and practiced in Chicago. Illinois had at least one at-large congressional district (in addition to the regular districts) until January 1949. Rathbone was one of the at-large congressmen from 1923 until his death in 1928. He was of the Republican persuasion. He lived in Kenilworth (extremely high-end planned lakeside community 15 miles north of the Loop that was whites only until the 1960s). The original post says he was buried at Rosehill in Chicago (which is why I looked into him). Find A Grave indicates that he was buried in Acacia Park Cemetery in Norridge (Cook County), Illinois.

 
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