40.3596° N, 82.2875° W
SPRINGFIELD
Most Famous People Born in Springfield, United States
- Notable people
- 936
- Peak decade
- 1950s
- Median birth year
- 1933
- Most distinctive
- Baseball 9.5×
There are several Springfields in this dataset and they blur together statistically, which is the point - the 9.5× Baseball over-index is small-town America's pre-television obsession crystallized, the era when every Midwestern Springfield fielded a semi-pro team and a few of those kids made the Cardinals or Reds. The 2.6× Lawyer ratio is the Lincoln-era Springfield, IL signal still echoing through the data.
One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Springfield during each.
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1950s with 90 notable births.
What Springfield Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Politician is Springfield's biggest profession — 13% of all notables (124).
Springfield over-indexes on baseball — 9.5× the global rate.
Springfield under-produces football — only 0.7× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of Springfield's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.
- Sports
- Politics & Law
- Film & TV
- Music
- Writing
- Science
- Other
- Filtered to 1820s Clear ×
Worthington Whittredge
1820 - 1910
Alfred Ely Beach
1826 - 1896
James M. Cavanaugh
1823 - 1879
James H. Slater
1826 - 1899
William Jayne
1826 - 1916
David Ames Wells
1828 - 1898
Michael D. White
1827 - 1917
George A. Halsey
1827 - 1894
John Davis (Kansas politician)
1826 - 1901
Samuel Bowles (journalist)
1826 - 1878
William Rice (librarian)
1821 - 1897
William Hercules Hays
1820 - 1880
William H. Miles
1828 - 1892
Oliver S. Kelly
1824 - 1904
Richard Boone Cheatham
1824 - 1877