The Kane Family, Part One
BY HAROLD THOMAS BECK
The earlier history of Pennsylvania, the United
States and McKean County is marked by the distinguished name of Kane. The family name was
well known first as pioneers and then associated with law, medicine, lumbering, railroad
development, and oil and gas.
John Kane, a Philadelphia lawyer and later Federal Court judge, was the father of
Elisha Kent Kane, John Kane and Thomas Kane. John and Elisha took up medicine while Thomas
studied law.
During the 1850s Elisha became an Arctic explorer. His ship became locked in ice for
nearly two years, and the expedition was assumed to have been lost. When the ship was
finally freed and the party of men returned, Elisha wrote and illustrated two books about
the adventure. These became bestsellers in their day.
Judge Kane was named one of four executors to the estate of his brother-in-law, Samuel
Leiper. In the estate was a 132,000–acre estate that covered Cameron, Elk and McKean
Counties. Judge Kane inducted his son Thomas to leave Philadelphia and open up the region.
He sought to develop coal, lumber and railroads in the area.
In 1856 an Act of the Assembly in Harrisburg created the McKean and Elk Land and
Improvement Company for the purpose of developing and selling land. This happened as
Thomas left Philadelphia. Two years later he would become land agent for the improvement
company.
While he was in Philadelphia, Thomas became involved with the Mormons. He used his
influence with his father to help the members of the faith as they ran afoul of local
ordinances and prejudices. As he moved west, so did the congregation that he had
befriended and protected.
To this day Thomas Kane is remembered by the statue erected in his honor located in the
rotunda of the state capitol, Salt Lake City, Utah. His is one of only two statues in the
entire rotunda.
The isolation of the area and later the Civil War impeded initial land sales. Most of
the McKean County land was sold by the sheriff for debts owed to Thomas Kane. These sales
took place in 1874 and 1876, and Kane purchased 95,000 acres in Hamlin, Sergeant and
Wetmore Townships. Most of these acres would later be turned over to another who had
invested in the Improvement Company with the exception of the Wetmore lands. There he had
established a town and built a sawmill. He kept Hamlin Township entirely for himself and
his family.
During the Civil War Thomas organized the Bucktail regiment. He became a major general
and was discharged in 1863 because of wounds. Subsequently Thomas would be known as
General Kane, and the site of the sawmill would become present day Kane, PA.
The General had three sons and a daughter. Three children (Harriet, Evan and William)
became physicians. The fourth child, Elisha, studied civil engineering and took up
developing the family lands.
General Kane organized the New York, Lake Erie and Western Coal and Railroad Company.
The purpose was to build south from Bradford to coal fields near Mt. Alton. When they
found the fields had little coal, they built further south to Elk and Jefferson Counties.
There they found abundant deposits.
General Kane became president of the Northwestern Mining and Exchange Company and
purchased thousands of acres of coal. He induced the Erie and Western to build south which
included construction of a narrow gauge railroad to Kane. This would probably be known as
the Pittsburgh and Western.
Before these projects could be completed, General Kane died in 1883. His son Elisha
would carry on.
COMING SOON: The Kane Family Part Two: Elisha Kent Kane, Railroad Baron and Lumberman
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