George Worthington

George Worthington (September 21, 1813 – November 9, 1871) was a 19th-century merchant and banker in Cleveland, Ohio, who founded the Geo. Worthington Company, a wholesale hardware and industrial distribution firm, in 1829 (until 1991 Cleveland's oldest extant business), as well as numerous banking and mining concerns, and contributed to the early commercial and industrial development of Cleveland. Early life and family 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. Maria C. Worthington had eight children; five girls and three boys, one of each dying in infancy, leaving his two sons, Ralph and his younger brother, George Jr., to inherit their father's business interests upon his death in 1871. Business George's first store occupied the ground on which now stands the Bethel Building. Afterwards, he purchased the stock of Cleveland, Sterling & Co., on the corner of Water and Superior streets, where the National Bank buildings now stand, and associated with himself as business partner of Mr. William Bingham. In 1841, Mr. Bingham sold out his interest.