Although he was invited by Henry Clay to settle in Kentucky, Lanman emigrated to the Michigan Territory in 1817 on the invitation of his friends, William Woodbridge (later a U.S. Senator and Governor of Michigan) and Lewis Cass (the 2nd Governor of the Michigan Territory and later the Secretary of War under Jackson, U.S. Ambassador to France under Jackson, Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler and Secretary of State under Buchanan), making the journey from Buffalo to Detroit largely on horseback.
