 George Worthington was born in Cooperstown, New York, to Clarissa (née Clarke) and Ralph Worthington, a banker and manufacturer, who had moved to Cooperstown from his birthplace of Colchester, Connecticut, at a young age.Worthington was also second cousins with the American engineer Henry Rossiter Worthington of New York.On November 16, 1840, Worthington married Maria Cushman Blackmar, and soon after, moved into his newly constructed home on Euclid Avenue, the street which would, in the second half of the 19th century, come to be known as Millionaire's Row.