Kane family papers, 1798 -1887 (majority within 1851-1866)

Summary

Creator:

Shields, Elizabeth Kane, 1830-1869

Abstract:

The Kane family papers contain letters from a large family and document various family matters.

Extent:

230 items

Language:

English

Authors:

Collection processed and finding aid created by Catalina Oyler, 2005

Background

Scope and Content:

The Kane family papers span multiple generations; they include letters, deeds, and miscellaneous documents from various members of the Kane Family and documents the family member’s lives and relationships.

Of the 225 items in this collection 185 are letters, of which 121 are dated between 1851 and 1866. Most of the letters are addressed to Bessie Kane from her brothers Thomas Leiper, Robert Patterson, and John Kintzing, and her sisters-in-law Elizabeth Dennistoun Wood Kane and Mable Bayard Kane. The correspondence also has letters to and from other members of the family and some from Mable Bayard Kane’s family. Also part of the collection, are 10 letters from 1800-1801 addressed to Elisha Kane, Sr.

The letters mostly concern family matters such as sickness, deaths, engagements, marriages, the Presbyterian religion, births, and children.

Approximately 35 letters written by Elizabeth D. Wood Kane, wife of Thomas Leiper Kane, present a portrait of a well educated and well-to-do young woman living in Fort Hamilton, New York. These letters fall primarily between 1851 and 1863 and provide details regarding clothing and fashion, her home and nursery and her feelings regarding the sickness and death of her child, Maggie, who died in 1851. She describes walking down Broadway in search of muslin mantillas, weeping over Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and expresses her concern for her husband, who was serving in the Civil War. In 1852, Elizabeth traveled to Europe and provided descriptions of Liverpool and Paris, which included witnessing the extravagant arrival of Louis Napoleon.

The few letters from Mabel Bayard Kane, husband of John K. Kane, Jr., express her feelings of loneliness, John’s leaving for the Civil War, and her appreciation for the sisterly concern shown by Elizabeth. In addition, the collection contains two letters written by Alida Van Rensselaer (1766-1834), Elizabeth’s paternal grandmother. They are written to her cousin, Jane D. L. Kane in 1819 and 1820 regarding a visit with a dying friend, family news, and reading chemistry with another female friend.

Though the correspondence continues through the Civil War few letters mention the war or the Kane family members participating in it. John Kintzing Kane Jr. wrote five letters while in Cairo, Illinois, serving in the hospital there, and one letter from Elizabeth Dennistoun Wood Kane concerns her husband, Thomas Leiper, resigning from the army.

Of note are the nine letters from John Kintzing Jr. describing his medical studies in Paris in 1857. Two letters from Thomas Leiper describe going west with the Mormons in 1846. Also, one letter of July 1855 is a petition to Judge John Kintzing Kane for three slaves being kept in Pennsylvania to be returned under the fugitive slave law.

The collection includes 14 deeds and memorandum to Elisha Kane dating from 1798-1823, most concerning H.G. Livingston and Oliver Phelps. The correspondence to Elisha Kane, Sr. primarily deals with buying, selling and farming land.

The collection also contains two of Robert Patterson Kane’s calling cards with notes on them from July 1858, a fifteen page pamphlet from 1883 on vaccination entitled “Of the Importance of General Vaccination and the Groundlessness of the Prejudices Against it A paper prepared at the request of the state board of health” by John Kintzing Kane Jr., and poem entitled “Goodbye to Noah’s Ark” by S.W.M. and copied by John Kintzing Kane, dated 1849. A sheet of paper with “Kane v. Bitchett and Livingston v. Kane” written on it and 21 miscellaneous envelopes complete the collection. A few letters from Robert Patterson Kane have pen and ink sketches, and one from John K. Kane has a small sketch of a gravestone.

Biographical / Historical:

The Kane family documented in this collection begins with Elisha Kane (1770-1834) who moved from Albany to Philadelphia in 1801 after the death of his wife, Alida Van Rensselaer (1766-1799). Kane had three children by his first wife: John, Robert Van Rensselaer, and Alida Van Rensselaer, jr. In Philadelphia Elisha Kane married Elizabeth Kintzing.

Elisha's oldest son, John Kane, adopted his step-mother's name becoming known as John Kintzing Kane or John K. Kane. John Kintzing (1795-1858) had a distinguished career as a lawyer and politician. A supporter of the Democratic Party, John Kintzing was appointed as a federal judge by James K. Polk in 1846. In 1819 John Kintzing Kane married Jane Duval Leiper (1796-1866), with whom he had seven children: Elisha Kent (1820-1857), Thomas Leiper (1822-1883), John Kent (died in infancy), Robert Patterson also called Pat (1827-1906), Elizabeth, who was also called Bessie or Bess (1830-1869), John Kinzing Jr.(1833-1886), and William Leiper (1838-1852).

Elisha Kent Kane became a well-known figure for his work in the United States Navy and as an explorer; he took part in two artic missions to map the north and locate the lost expedition of Sir John Franklin. This adventures, and his publications describing them earned his great fame in the United States, though also resulted in his early death.

Thomas Leiper Kane was a successful attorney in Philadelphia until he resigned from a position as District Court position after being ordered to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act, which went against his abolitionist sentiments. Thomas Leiper is well know for his Civil War service, for which he was made a general, and for the support he provided to the early Mormon church in their dealings with the United States government. Thomas Leiper married his English born cousin Elizabeth Dennistoun Wood (1863-1909). Elizabeth Dennistoun traveled with Thomas Leiper to Utah to visit the Mormon settlements there and published an account of her travels in Twelve Mormon Homes. In addition to her literary accomplishments, Elizabeth Dennistoun Kane returned to school and graduated from the Women's Medical College in Philadelphia in 1883 with an MD. The Kane's eventually settled in McKean County, Pennsylvania and the town of Kane, PA still bears their name.

Robert Patterson Kane also became a lawyer. He remained in Philadelphia and specialized in patent law. In 1861 Robert Patterson married Elizabeth Francis Fisher and with her had two children.

John Kintzing Kane, Jr. became a doctor and spent a year studying medicine in Paris. During the Civil War John Jr. served in a Union hospital in Cairo, Illinois. In 1863 he married Mabel Bayard (1838-1898). Mabel was the daughter of James Asheton and Anne Francis Bayard, and with John Jr. had eight children.

Bessie Kane married Charles Woodruff Shields in 1861. Shields studied both theology and science and in 1866 took a faculty position at Princeton University as professor of the harmony of science and revealed religion. Shields also published frequently on the joining of science and religion.

Bessie was very close to her family particularly her brothers, Robert (Pat), Thomas, and John Jr., and most of the correspondence to Bessie comes from her brothers and their wives. We know less about her relationship with her eldest brother Elisha Kent Kane, as none of his letters are in this collection.

Acquisition Information:

Donated by Mrs. E. Paul duPont, 1974-1980. M-1718, M-1689, M-1908 .

Custodial History:

The Kane family papers were donated to the Clements Library by Mrs. E. Paul duPont (Jean Kane Foulke) of Montchanin, Delaware, a descendant of the Kane family. Additional Kane family papers from Mrs. DuPont are at the American Philosophical Society.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged chronologically.

Rules or Conventions:

Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Related

Additional Descriptive Data:

Related Materials

The Thomas Leiper Kane Papers, American Philosophical Society

Historical Society of Princeton, N.J. for Shields/Stockton family papers (papers of Elizabeth Kane Shields)

Subjects

Click on terms below to find any related finding aids on this site.

Subjects:

Physicians--Education.

Formats:

Visting cards.

Names:

Kane, Elisha K., 1820-1857.
Kane, Elizabeth, 1832-1869.
Kane, Elizabeth Wood, 1836-1909.
Kane, Jane Duval Leiper.
Kane, John K. (John Kintzing), 1795-1858.
Kane, John K. (John Kintzing), 1833-1866.
Kane, Robert Patterson, (1827-1906)
Kane, Thomas Leiper, 1822-1883.
Shields, Charles W. (Charles Woodruff), 1825-1904.

Places:

Mississippi River--Description and travel.
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Medical care.