Rathbone was born in
Washington, D.C., to Brevet Colonel
Henry Reed Rathbone and
Clara Rathbone née Harris. His maternal grandfather,
Ira Harris, was a
United States Senator representing
New York, while his paternal grandfather, Jared Lewis Rathbone, was the first elected
Mayor of Albany, New York. Rathbone's parents had been guests in the presidential box when
Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865. He moved to
Hanover,
Germany, with his family in 1882. The next year, his father murdered his mother and tried to kill himself, then was admitted to an
asylum for the
criminally insane in
Hildesheim; Henry and his siblings were returned to the
United States to be raised by their uncle, William Harris. Rathbone graduated from
Phillips Academy in 1888, from
Yale University in 1892, and from the Law Department at the
University of Wisconsin in 1894, after which he commenced practicing law in
Chicago. ==Political career==