List of emigrants from Upstate New York

“Go West, young man!” said Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, and many people from Upstate New York have. The dream of moving west or south is common to this day. Here is a list of Upstate New Yorkers who in Huck Finn’s phrase, “lit out for the territories”:

• George T. Anthony, Governor of Kansas, born in Mayfield, New York
• Herman Ossian Armour, born in Stockbridge, New York
• Philip Danforth Armour, born in Stockbridge, New York
• Charles Reed Bishop, born in Glens Falls, husband of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Confidant of Hawaiian Royalty.^[1]
• William Henry Bissell, Governor of Illinois, born in Hartwick.
• Aaron T. Bliss, Governor of Michigan, born in Peterboro
• Gail Borden, the inventor of condensed milk. He was born in Norwich and emigrated to Mexican Texas, where he became a newspaper editor and later the Republic of Texas Customs inspector for Galveston. He returned to Upstate New York to establish the first milk condensing plant in Wassaic.
• Edward S. Bragg (1827-1912), born in Unadilla was a Democratic politician, lawyer and Union Army general from Wisconsin. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1877 to 1883 and from 1885 to 1887 and subsequently served as a foreign diplomat.
• Phil Bredesen, Governor of Tennessee, raised in Shortsville.
• Samuel Northrup Castle (1808 –1894), born in Cazenovia, became a businessman and politician in the Kingdom of Hawaii.
• Squire Park Coon, born in Covington, who became the attorney general of Wisconsin.
• Saint Marianne Cope, O.S.F., who grew up in Utica and lived for many years as a member of the member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Syracuse, before answering a call to serve leprosy sufferers on Molokaʻi in Hawaiʻi.
• Charles Crocker (1822–1888), born in Troy, founded the Central Pacific Railroad, which constructed the westernmost portion of the first transcontinental railroad, and took control with partners of the Southern Pacific Railroad.
• Edwin B. Crocker, born in Jamesville, justice of the California Supreme Court.
• George Deukmejian, born in 1928 in Menands to Armenian immigrant parents, became the California Attorney General and the 35th governor of California.
• George H. Eldridge, born in Sacketts Harbor, soldier in the Michigan Volunteer Infantry, Medal of Honor winner, and California resident.
• Josiah Failing, the fourth mayor of Portland, Oregon, born in Canajoharie
• Henry Flagler, a founder of Standard Oil and the "Father of Miami," born in Hopewell in 1830.
• Orville Gibson, luthier, born in Chateaugay
• Abijah Gilbert, born in Gilbertsville, was a United States Senator from Florida.
• Irving Gill, San Diego architect born in Tully
• William H. Gray, born in Fairfield, was a pioneer of the Oregon Country in the present-day U.S. state of Oregon. He was an active participant in the efforts to organize a government in the region. Gray came to the Oregon Country as a lay member of the Spalding-Whitman missionary group, but resigned his position and went to the Salem area in 1842 to work at the Oregon Institute.
• John P. Greene (1793–1844), born in Herkimer, was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement, and the chief of police in Nauvoo, Illinois. Prior to becoming a Mormon, he had been a Methodist minister at Mendon, New York.
• Bret Harte, born in Albany
• Chester Hazen, born in Denmark, New York
• Mark Hopkins, Jr.
• George A. Hormel, born in Buffalo
• Henry E. Huntington, born in Oneonta was a railroad magnate and founder of The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California near Pasadena.
• Charles "Pa" Ingalls, born in Cuba, Dakota Territory homesteader and father of Laura Ingalls Wilder, who had for his entire life a strong case of wanderlust. He is quoted by Laura in her "Little House" series of books as saying: "My wandering foot gets to itching".
• William Henry Jackson, artist and photographer of the American West, born in Keeseville.
• George Alonzo Johnson
• Grove L. Johnson, U.S. Representative from California, born in Syracuse.
• Gerrit P. Judd, born in Paris, became a physician and missionary to the Kingdom of Hawaii and later a trusted advisor and cabinet minister to King Kamehameha III.
• Heber Chase Kimball (1801-1868), raised in West Bloomfield, was a leader in the early Latter Day Saint movement. He served as one of the original twelve apostles in the early Latter Day Saint church, and as first counselor to Brigham Young. Prior to becoming a Mormon, he had been a potter in Mendon and a member of the Victor Flats Masonic Lodge in a time of Anti-Masonic fervor.
• Helen Mar Kimball (1828-1896), born in Mendon as the third of nine children born to Heber C. Kimball and Vilate Murray, became a wife of Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement.
• Joseph Ladue, born in Schuyler Falls, prospector, businessman and founder of Dawson City, Yukon.
• Sara Jane Lippincott (1823–1904), born in Pompey, was better known by the pseudonym Grace Greenwood. An author, poet and lecturer, she was one of the first women to gain access into the Congressional press galleries. She used her questions to advocate for social reform and women's rights.
• Feramorz Little
• Edward Livingston, a prominent American jurist and statesman, born in Clermont, Columbia County, New York. He was an influential figure in the drafting of the Louisiana Civil Code of 1825, a civil code based largely on the Napoleonic Code. He represented both New York, and later Louisiana in Congress and he served as the U.S. Secretary of State from 1831 to 1833.
• Henry Markham (1840–1923), born in Wilmington, became a United States Representative from California and the 18th governor of California.
• Henry Meiggs
• Esther Hobart Morris, born in Tioga County, emigrated first to Illinois and then to Wyoming where she became the first female justice of the peace in the United States.
• Julius Sterling Morton, born in Adams, moved to Michigan as a child and as an adult became a newspaper editor in Nebraska. He was appointed Secretary of Nebraska Territory by President James Buchanan, as the US Secretary of Agriculture under Grover Cleveland, and was the founder of Arbor Day.
• Carol Newell, born in Ogdensburg and a 1979 alumna of St. Lawrence University, is a philanthropist in Vancouver, British Columbia. She was honoured with the Order of Canada in 2007 and with a Doctor of Humane Letters by her alma mater in 2008.
• George Pack, Jr., resident of Jefferson and Madison Counties; later to become a prominent businessman in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan.
• George Willis Pack, son of George Pack, Jr., born in Peterboro, New York; following his father's footsteps, later to become a timberman and one of the most prosperous businessmen in Michigan.
• Algernon Sidney Paddock, was born in Glens Falls. He attended Glens Falls Academy and Union College. He became Secretary of Nebraska Territory, Governor of Nebraska and United States Senator from Nebraska.
• Reverend Josiah Lamberson Parrish (1806-1895) born in Onondaga County, was an American missionary in the Pacific Northwest and trustee of the Oregon Institute at its founding. He also participated in the Champoeg Meetings that led to the formation of the Provisional Government of Oregon in 1843.
• Sylvester Pennoyer (1831-1902), born in Groton, who became mayor of Portland, Oregon and Governor of Oregon.
• Legrand W. Perce, born in Buffalo, became a member of Congress from Mississippi.
• Louis McClellan Potter, artist, born in Troy,
• Orson Pratt (1811–1881), born in Hartford, was a leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and an original member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles.
• Parley P. Pratt (1807–1857), born in Burlington, New York was an early leader of the Latter Day Saint movement whose writings became a significant early nineteenth-century exposition of the Latter Day Saint faith.
• Sarah Marinda Bates Pratt (1817-1888), born in Henderson, was the first wife of LDS Apostle and polygamist Orson Pratt and a later a critic of Mormon polygamy. She was a founder of the Anti-Polygamy Society in Salt Lake City and called herself a Mormon apostate.
• Eliza Warren Price (1854–1909), born in Troy, and known as Lily, who as the second wife of George Spencer-Churchill, 8th Duke of Marlborough became Lily Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough.
• John A. Quitman, born in the parsonage of the Old Stone Church in Rhinebeck, became a Mexican–American War general and the governor of Mississippi.
• Justus H. Rathbone, born in Deerfield, was a teacher in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and the founder of the international fraternal order of the Knights of Pythias.
• William Harrison Rice, born in Oswego, became a missionary teacher in the Hawaiian Islands and managed an early sugar plantation there.
• William Wallace Barbour Sheldon, born in Westport, was an architectural engineer and pioneer of California.
• Henry Harmon Spalding, born in Bath, and his wife Eliza Hart Spalding were Presbyterian missionaries and educators working primarily with the Nez Perce in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. The Spaldings and their fellow missionaries were among the earliest Americans to travel across the western plains, through the Rocky Mountains and into the lands of the Pacific Northwest to their religious missions in what would become the states of Idaho and Washington. Their missionary party of five, including Marcus Whitman and his wife Narcissa and William H. Gray, joined with a group of fur traders to create the first wagon train along the Oregon Trail.
• Leland Stanford, railroad tycoon, Governor of California and founder of Stanford University. Stanford was born in the town of Watervliet. He attended the Clinton Liberal Institute in Clinton, New York, and studied law at Cazenovia Seminary.
• Edyth Walker, born in Hopewell, a mezzo-soprano with the Vienna Opera, the Berlin Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera.
• Washington Irving Warrey
• Henry Benjamin Whipple, born in Adams, became the first Episcopal bishop of Minnesota.
• Dr. Marcus Whitman, physician and missionary in the Oregon Country, born in what is now Rushville
• Narcissa Whitman, missionary in the Oregon Country, born in Prattsburgh
• Lyman Wight (1796–1858), born in Fairfield, was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
• Frances Willard (1839-1898), an educator, temperance reformer, and women's suffragist. Her influence was instrumental in the passage of the Eighteenth (Prohibition) and Nineteenth (Women Suffrage) Amendments to the United States Constitution. Willard was born to a schoolteacher in Churchville, but spent most of her childhood in Janesville, Wisconsin.
• N. B. Willey, born in Guilford, New York, became the second Governor of Idaho

Show biz

To make it in show business, one must migrate to New York City or California:

• George Abbott, born in Forestville, theater producer and director, playwright, screenwriter, and film director and producer whose career spanned more than seven decades
• Lucille Ball, born in Jamestown
• Tom Cruise, born in Syracuse
• William Devane, born in Albany
• Kirk Douglas, born in Amsterdam
• Annette Funicello, born in Utica
• Vincent Gallo, born in Buffalo
• Richard Gere, graduate of North Syracuse High School
• George 'Gabby' Hayes, born in Wellsville
• Philip Seymour Hoffman, born in Rochester, New York
• Mary-Margaret Humes, born in Watertown
• Grace Jones, graduate of Central High School in Syracuse, who studied theater at Syracuse University
• Michael O'Donoghue, born in Sauquoit
• David Hyde Pierce, born in Saratoga Springs
• Bill Pullman, born in Hornell
• John Sayles, born in Schenectady
• Rod Serling, born in Interlaken
• Shubert Brothers, born in Syracuse
• Hal Smith (actor) grew up in Massena, graduating from Massena High School in 1936. After graduation he worked as a disc jockey and voice talent for WIBX Radio in Utica, New York.
• Maureen Stapleton, born in Troy
• Fran Striker, born in Buffalo; a writer for radio and comics who was best known for creating the Lone Ranger and Green Hornet
• Tommy Tedesco, born in Niagara Falls, master session guitarist
• Christopher Woodrow, born in Syracuse
• George Verschoor, raised in Hoosick Falls

References