Biographical history

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.