Kane, Thomas L. (Thomas Leiper), 1822-1883

Thomas Leiper Kane was a law clerk and Army officer.

From the description of Thomas Leiper Kane papers, 1846-1883. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122387534

In 1852, Thomas Kane traveled to the West Indies to improve his health and to study the effects of the emacipation of slaves there. This pocket diary contains his observatioins in both writing and sketches. In July 1859, Kane asked Brigham Young to give information to the US Attorney General J. Black, an account of his actions relating to the Mountain Meadows Massacre (11 Sept. 1857). Young's 15 Dec. 1859 letter is this response.

From the description of Pocket diary and correspondence, 1852-1900. (Brigham Young University). WorldCat record id: 51605889

Thomas L. Kane, son of Philadelphia judge John Kintzing Kane, was a lawyer, a social reformer, and an entrepreneur. His friendship with Brigham Young and his aid to the Mormons makes him a key figure of study among historians of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but his legacy extends beyond his friendship with the Latter-day Saints and includes his participation in the abolitionist movement, his service as a decorated Civil War Colonel, and his work in developing western Pennsylvania. Thomas and wife Elizabeth's four children were Harriet Amelia Kane; Elisha Kent Kane; Evan O'Neill Kane; and Thomas Leiper Kane, Jr. Elizabeth Dennistoun Wood Kane wrote two important works about the Mormons--Twelve Mormon Homes Visited in Succession on a Journey through Utah to Arizona (1874), and A Gentile Account of Life in Utah's Dixie, 1872-73: Elizabeth Kane's St. George Journal (1995). In addition, she recorded important information about her and her husband Thomas L. Kane's life together in journals and other writings. She was the mother of four, graduated from Women's Medical College of Philadelphia in 1883, and was an active prohibitionist.

From the description of Thomas L. and Elizabeth W. Kane paintings, circa 1860-1865. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 368048035

Army officer.

From the description of Letters of Thomas Leiper Kane, 1847-1858. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 79423751

Thomas L. Kane (1822-1883), son of Philadelphia judge John Kintzing Kane, was a lawyer, a social reformer, and an entrepreneur. His friendship with Brigham Young and his aid to the Mormons makes him a key figure of study among historians of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but his legacy extends beyond his friendship with the Latter-day Saints and includes his participation in the abolitionist movement, his service as a decorated Civil War Colonel, and his work in developing western Pennsylvania. Thomas and wife Elizabeth's four children were Harriet Amelia Kane (1854-1896); Elisha Kent Kane (1856-1935); Evan O'Neill Kane (1861-1932); and Thomas Leiper Kane, Jr. (1863-1929).

From the description of Thomas L. Kane diary, 1858. (Brigham Young University). WorldCat record id: 77529110

Thomas Leiper Kane visited the Mormon camp at Council Bluffs in 1846 and in 1858 was sent to Salt Lake City by Pres. Buchanan to deal with the Mormons.

From the description of Thomas Leiper Kane papers, [1846?]-1937. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 702126689

Thomas Leiper Kane was a lawyer and a Union major general.

From the description of Papers, [ca. 1840]-1878. (American Philosophical Society Library). WorldCat record id: 122689480

United States Army officer, known as the "friend to the Mormons."

From the description of Autograph, 1840. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 145435917

Thomas Leiper Kane was born on January 27, 1822, in Philadelphia. Due to poor health he spent several years in Great Britain and France before returning home and being admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1846. Kane had an active interest in the abolitionist movement and served in the 42nd Pennsylvania Infantry during the Civil War, when he became a major general for his service at the Battle of Gettysburg. Kane was also involved in aiding the western migration of Mormon settlers and helped Jesse C. Little petition for government aid for Mormons, which led in part to the creation of the Mormon Battalion. He also traveled to Salt Lake City in the winter of 1857-1858 to help mediate the Utah War and was a personal friend of Brigham Young. His wife, Elizabeth Wood, received a medical degree in 1883 and practiced medicine until 1909. Kane died of pneumonia on December 26, 1883. Kane County, Utah, was named in his honor.

From the description of Diary of Thomas Leiper Kane, 1858. (Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens). WorldCat record id: 662486511

Friend to the Mormons; social reformer; son of John K. Kane, a Philadelphia judge who also worked in Washington, D.C.; brother of Elisha Kent Kane, an Arctic explorer. Fought on Union side in American Civil War. Developer of Kane, an area of western Pennsylvania. Thomas and his wife, Elizabeth, lived in Kane and in Philadelphia. He traveled to Utah and other parts of the American West, as well as to Jamaica, England, France, and Mexico.

From the description of Collection, 1762-1982. (Brigham Young University). WorldCat record id: 78967788

Thomas L. Kane (1822-1883), son of Philadelphia judge John Kintzing Kane, was a lawyer, a social reformer, and an entrepreneur. His friendship with Brigham Young and his aid to the Mormons makes him a key figure of study among historians of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but his legacy extends beyond his friendship with the Latter-day Saints and includes his participation in the abolitionist movement, his service as a decorated Civil War Colonel, and his work in developing western Pennsylvania. Thomas and wife Elizabeth's four children were Harriet Amelia Kane (1854-1896); Elisha Kent Kane (1856-1935); Evan O'Neill Kane (1861-1932); and Thomas Leiper Kane, Jr. (1863-1929).

Elizabeth Dennistoun Wood (1836-1909), wrote two important works about the Mormons-Twelve Mormon Homes Visited in Succession on a Journey through Utah to Arizona (1874), and A Gentile Account of Life in Utah's Dixie, 1872-73: Elizabeth Kane's St. George Journal (1995). In addition, she recorded important information about her and her husband Thomas L. Kane's life together in journals and other writings. She was the mother of four, graduated from Women's Medical College of Philadelphia in 1883, and was an active prohibitionist. Elizabeth and Thomas's four children were Harriet Amelia Kane (1854-1896); Elisha Kent Kane (1856-1935); Evan O'Neill Kane (1861-1932); and Thomas Leiper Kane, Jr. (1863-1929).

From the description of Thomas L. and Elizabeth W. Kane papers, 1835-1931. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 367784186

Thomas L. Kane (1822-1883) was a lawyer, abolitionist, Civil War soldier, frontiersman, and Mormon advocate.

Thomas Leiper Kane was born January 27, 1822 in Philadelphia to Judge John Kintzing Kane and Jane Duval Leiper. He attained the bar in 1846, after studying law with his father. He served as clerk in his father's court until 1850, at which point he resigned due to a moral conflict with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. He went on to become an active member of the Underground Railroad. Kane became interested in the Mormon migration to the West, and was crucial in securing government aid for the movement. His friendship with Brigham Young is credited with the non-violent resolution of the Utah War. At the advent of the Civil War Kane organized a volunteer Union Army regiment known as the "Bucktails" and served as lieutenant-colonel of that outfit. He later was brevetted the rank of major-general for his service at Gettysburg. After his military service he retired to found the town of Kane, Pennsylvania. In 1853 Kane married Elizabeth Dennistoun Wood, and together they had four children: Harriet Amelia Kane (1854-1896); Elisha Kent Kane (1856-1935); Evan O'Neill Kane (1861-1932); and Thomas Leiper Kane, Jr. (1863-1929). Kane died of pneumonia in Philadelphia on December 26, 1883.

From the guide to the Thomas L. Kane papers, 1690-1982, (L. Tom Perry Special Collections)

Thomas Leiper Kane (1822-1883) was born 27 January 1822 in Philadelphia, the second son of John Kinzing and Jane Duval Leiper Kane. He had five brothers and one sister: Elisha Dent, John Kent, Robert Patterson, Elizabeth, John Kinzing Jr., and William Leiper. With the exception of John Kent, who died as an infant, and William Leiper, who died at age fourteen in 1852, all reached maturity and became respected members of their communities. Elisha Kent and John Kinzing Jr. became medical doctors; Thomas Leiper and Robert Patterson became lawyers. In addition, Elisha Kent became a well-known Arctic explorer and writer. At least three in the family were memebers of the American Philosophical Society, while the father was an officer from 1828 until his death in 1858. Robert Patterson followed his father's example in acting as one of the trustees of the Second Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia.

Throughout his life, Thomas Leiper Kane had serious health problems, the most serious of which affected his lungs. Thus, on several occasions in his life, he went on extended travels in order to recover his health. Shortly after completing his studies in 1840, he went to England for several months and then to the Continent. When he visited the Mormons in the summer of 1846, he again did so partially to recuperate; moreover, he again became seriously ill with what is now thought to have been pulmonary tuberculosis. In 1852-1853, he again needed to take an extended trip away from the cold and wet of the winter in the northeastern United States, traveling to the West Indies. During the Civil War, he contracted pneumonia in addition to being wounded in the face, which later caused intense neuralgia weakening his eyesight and leg, which bothered him for many years. One of the motives for his journey to Utah with his wife, Elizabeth, and two sons in 1872 was to regain strength by wintering with Brigham Young in St. George. He died of pneumonia in 1883.

In spite of his recurring health problems, Kane still accomplished much. He gained admittance to the Pennsylvania bar in 1846. Shortly after, he heard a public speech by Jessie C. Little, an elder in the Mormon Church, concerning the injustices suffered by the Mormons. Kane was immediately interested and, as a result, began assisting Elder Little, especially in the latter's efforts to obtain United States government help in the form of the Mormon Battalion. Kane went to Washington, D.C., in the spring of 1846 and then traveled west to visit the Mormon exiles near Council Bluffs on the Missouri River. There he assisted Captain Allen of the United States Army to obtain the five hundred volunteers to make up the Battalion.

Having returned to Philadelphia to complete his recuperation following his illness he contracted among the Mormons, Kane became involved in the slavery issue which was increasingly dividing the nation. He became a leader of the Free Soil Party in Pennsylvania and supposedly operated a station on the Underground Railroad. In 1850, following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, he resigned his appointment as United States commissioner in protest to the law. Tradition has it that his father, then judge of the United States District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania, considered the letter in contempt of court and had Thomas jailed. Thomas's reforming beliefs continued as evidenced in a letter written to his mother from the front in Virginia during the Civil War in which several months prior to the Emancipation Proclamation, Thomas called not only for partial emancipation, but for full enfranchisement of the Blacks. His participation in the Liberal Republican Convention held in Cincinnati in May 1872 further demonstrates his continued committment to reform of society. In addition, Kane was the first president of the Pennsylvania Board of Charities.

Beyond his traveling to Council Bluffs and his work in obtaining a Mormon Battalion in 1846, Thomas Kane also assisted the Mormons with careful instructions to John M. Bernhisel while the latter was a delegate from the constitutional convention for the State of Deseret to the United States Congress. In 1857, when increasing tensions between Mormons and the Federal government threatened to result in fighting between the Mormons and the Federal troops traveling to Utah, Kane went to Utah by way of the Isthmus of Panama, San Pedro, and San Bernadino, California, to arrange a compromise between Brigham Young and the troops. Previous to this, in 1850, Kane delivered an address to the Pennsylvania Historical Society on the Mormons in which he tried to reverse the negative opinion commonly held of them. Later that year, he published the address in a small book.

Beginning in 1856, when he spent the summer exploring the north central and northwest parts of Pennsylvania, Thomas Kane became a pioneer and developer. He moved his wife and two children to Williamsburg, McKean County for the summer of 1857. Shortly after his resigning from the Union Army, and undoubtedly after the birth of William Wood Kane in November 1863, Thomas moved his wife and children permanently to McKean County. A letter written in January 1864 suggests the move may already have occurred; one in May, however, details the journey. For a period of time, the Kanes lived in a barn while Thomas built a house for the family. At times, the ram he had installed to bring water into the living quarters did not function, and the family had to carry all their water about a quarter of a mile uphill. During the first winter, letters to the family in Philadelphia record freezing temperatures within the living quarters themselves.

Thomas Kane built an empire for himself, cutting and sawing timber. Some of his original purchases of land in the area were for their potential coal resources. He planned routes for railroads, especially the Sunbury and Erie and the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad and Coal Company.

Thomas L. Kane apparently succeeded equally with his family. He remained close to his parents, brothers, and sister. In 1853, shortly after returning from the West Indies, he married his second cousin, Elizabeth Dennistoun Wood. They had four children: Harriett Amelia (Harry), born 11 July 1854; Elisha Kent (Lyly and Lashy), born 25 November 1856; Evan O'Neill, born 6 April 1861; and William Wood (Willie), born 17 November 1863. William changed his name shortly after his father's death to Thomas Leiper Kane II. Elisha Kent became an officer in the United States Navy, following partially his uncle's career. The other three children became medical doctors, as did Elizabeth Wood Kane.

From the guide to the Thomas Leiper Kane papers, 1831-1880, (J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah)