Clara Harris
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Clara Harris (1834[1] - December 23, 1883) was an American socialite.
[edit] Biography
Clara Harris was the daughter of U.S. Senator Ira Harris of New York.
She and her fiancé, Major Henry Rathbone, were friends of Abraham Lincoln and were present at his assassination. Harris married Rathbone on July 11, 1867. By an unusual familial inter-connection Harris was actually Rathbone's stepsister, as her father had married Rathbone's mother. Harris had three children and in 1882, her husband was appointed U.S. Consul to the Province of Hanover (Germany), where the family relocated. Her husband's mental health deteriorated and he murdered Harris on December 23, 1883, fatally shooting her then stabbing her several times before turning the knife on himself in an attempted suicide. Rathbone was judged insane and committed to an asylum in Germany, where he died in 1911. Their children went to live with their uncle, William Harris.
Harris' grave was destroyed in 1952 after being abandoned and unattended since her death in 1883.
Her eldest son, Henry Riggs Rathbone (1870–1928), was a U.S. Congressman from Illinois.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Richard Bak. (1998). The Day Lincoln was Shot. Taylor Publishing Company. Dallas, Texas.
- Thomas Mallone (1994). Henry and Clara. St. Martin's Press. New York.
