Personal life thumb|upright|Birthplace in Philadelphia George was born in Philadelphia to a lower-middle-class family, the second of ten children of Richard S. H. George and Catharine Pratt George (née Vallance). His father was a publisher of religious texts and a devout Episcopalian, and he sent George to the Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia. George chafed at his religious upbringing and left the academy without graduating.Dictionary of American Biography, 1st. ed., s.v. "George, Henry," edited by Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, Vol. VII (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1931), pp. 211–212.David Montgomery, American National Biography Online, s.v. "George, Henry," February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-00261.html Accessed September 3, 2011 Instead he convinced his father to hire a tutor and supplemented this with avid reading and attending lectures at the Franklin Institute."American National Biography Online." His formal education ended at age 14, and he went to sea as a foremast boy at age 15 in April 1855 on the Hindoo, bound for Melbourne and Calcutta. He ended up in the American West in 1858 and briefly considered prospecting for gold but instead started work the same year in San Francisco as a type setter.
Personal life thumb|upright|Birthplace in Philadelphia George was born in Philadelphia to a lower-middle-class family, the second of ten children of Richard S. H. George and Catharine Pratt George (née Vallance). His father was a publisher of religious texts and a devout Episcopalian, and he sent George to the Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia. George chafed at his religious upbringing and left the academy without graduating.Dictionary of American Biography, 1st. ed., s.v. "George, Henry," edited by Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone Vol. VII (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1931), pp. 211–212.David Montgomery, American National Biography Online, s.v. "George, Henry," February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-00261.html Accessed September 3, 2011 Instead he convinced his father to hire a tutor and supplemented this with avid reading and attending lectures at the Franklin Institute."American National Biography Online." His formal edu,cation ended at age 14, and he went to sea as a foremast boy at age 15 in April 1855 on the Hindoo, bound for Melbourne and Calcutta. He ended up in the American West in 1858 and briefly considered prospecting for gold but instead started work the same year in San Francisco as a type setter.