# Immigrant as a U.S. State Governor?  Has this ever happened before?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/immigrant-as-a-u-s-state-governor-has-this-ever-happened-before/206829>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 11, 2003, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/immigrant-as-a-u-s-state-governor-has-this-ever-happened-before/206829 "2003-10-11T12:15:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![dqa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dqa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dqa)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2003, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/immigrant-as-a-u-s-state-governor-has-this-ever-happened-before/206829/41 "2003-10-12T19:13:19Z")

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Alabama  
Robert Burns Lindsay, Governor Alabama 1870-1872, Dumfriesshire, Scotland

Florida  
Ossian B. Hart, Governor Florida 1873-1874, born near what became Jacksonville, Spanish territory of East Florida - on January 17, 1821, one month before it became US territory under the [Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819](http://www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/adamonis.htm).

Georgia  
Button Gwinnett, Governor (actually President of Council of Safety) Georgia 1776-1777, England  
John A. Treutlen, Governor Georgia 1777-1778, Kürnbach, Germany\*  
George Handley, Governor Georgia 1788-1789, England  
Edward Telfair, Governor Georgia 1789-1793, Scotland  
James Jackson, Governor Georgia 1798-1801, England  
David Brydie Mitchell, Governor Georgia 1809-1813, 1817-1820, Scotland

Mississippi - none that I could find.

\*For a second I thought we might have an Austrian precursor in Treutlen, as one site lists his birthplace as Austria. Best I can tell, Kürnbach was in Würtemburg at the time (1734), which was not part of Austria.

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**Author:** ![dqa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dqa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dqa)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2003, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/immigrant-as-a-u-s-state-governor-has-this-ever-happened-before/206829/42 "2003-10-12T19:14:24Z")

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Tennessee - none that I could find

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**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2003, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/immigrant-as-a-u-s-state-governor-has-this-ever-happened-before/206829/43 "2003-10-12T19:23:27Z")

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It’s not necessary to count foreign-born people who were citizens of a state when it became part of the United States. U.S. law declared all such people to be natural born citizens of the United States.

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**Author:** ![dqa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dqa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dqa)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2003, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/immigrant-as-a-u-s-state-governor-has-this-ever-happened-before/206829/44 "2003-10-12T19:29:53Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by bienville \*  
> **Have there been any other U.S. State Governors who were not born in the United States?**

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