Rindge was born in Cambridge on December 21, 1857, the only surviving son among the six children of Samuel B. Rindge (1820–1883) and Clarissa Harrington (December 8, 1822 – January 4, 1885). His siblings, including a brother named Henry and a sister named Mary, all died of
scarlet fever, also known as rheumatic fever. He grew up in the "Rindge mansion", still standing at the corner of Dana and Harvard streets in Cambridge, but spent vast swathes of his childhood very ill, condemned to bed with swollen joints, body spasms, a wildly irregular heartbeat, and other ailments. Bible stories were of some solace to him, with "tales of men defeating long odds because God was on their side" rooting him in faith and religion from a young age. His appointment opened the door for him to join the A.D. Club, "one of the oldest and most exclusive final clubs on campus" in which he met and became close friends with Theodore Roosevelt, whose conquest of his own health ailments inspired Rindge, leading to his realization that "he, too, was strong enough to travel the world and seek out the experiences that would give him the sense of making up for lost time." Rindge's travels began with a journey across the
Atlantic on the SS
Baltic. He then traversed
England,
France, and
Germany, among his many stops. Upon returning to America and Harvard, he soon fell ill again and was forced to drop out of school, moving back in with his family. He was so severely ill that his doctor suggested he might find a better chance of survival if he sought out a warmer climate than
Massachusetts could offer, which led him to
St. Augustine, Florida. As he was again on the upswing of recuperation, he explored the town, then quite remote, and even partook of some amateur excavation of long-abandoned native
Timucua villages. Later, in Colorado, he would spend a brief period as a sheep rancher. In 1883, Rindge inherited his father's estate, then worth nearly $2 million ($140 million in 2016 dollars), from his father's investments in textile mills and real estate.
Business ventures Rindge founded the Conservative Life Insurance Company (now
Pacific Life) and became vice-president of
Union Oil Company and director of the Los Angeles Edison Electric Company (later
Southern California Edison Company). His investments included land near
Stockton, California and real estate holdings in the
San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, and the state of
Sinaloa,
Mexico. He was President of the Harvard Club of Los Angeles and a member of many historical, archaeological, patriotic, and religious organizations which mirrored his interests. == Personal life ==