BYU Studies Quarterly Volume 48 | Issue 4 Article 7 10-2009 Tom and Bessie Kane and the Mormons Edward A. Geary Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq Recommended Citation Geary, Edward A. (2009) "Tom and Bessie Kane and the Mormons," BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 48 : Iss. 4 , Article 7. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol48/iss4/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the All Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in BYU Studies Quarterly by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Geary: Tom and Bessie Kane and the Mormons Fig. 1. Elizabeth Dennistoun Wood Kane. Wife of Thomas L. Kane and fourteen years his junior, Elizabeth, or “Bessie,” was a deeply religious woman who shared her husband’s zeal for reform. L. Tom Perry Spe- cial Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University. Fig. 2. Thomas. L Kane, photograph by Elizabeth W. Kane, who was an amateur photographer. L. Tom Perry Special Collec- tions, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University. Published by BYU ScholarsArchive, 2009 1 BYU Studies Quarterly, Vol. 48, Iss. 4 [2009], Art. 7 Tom and Bessie Kane and the Mormons Edward A. Geary homas. L Kane and Elizabeth Dennistoun Wood—“Tom” and T“Bessie”n i their personal relationship—were united during their thirty years of marriage by intelligence, idealism, and deep mutual affec- tion (figs. 1 and 2). However, they were divided by temperament and personal philosophy. Tom was ambitious yet burdened by a sickly consti- tution, resistant to religious and social orthodoxies yet preoccupied with his own social status and personal reputation; he was a compulsive risk- taker, indifferent to prudential considerations. Bessie was deeply religious, devotedo t home and family, and hungry for emotional and social security. Tom wanted to change the world through heroic action and was driven to espouse the causes of oppressed or reviled groups, including women, the urban poor, slaves, juvenile offenders, and Mormons. Bessie shared Tom’s interest in improving the world by elevating the status of women but soughto t accomplish the goal through unostentatious Christian service and a reform of social and sexual mores. Althoughi d ffering in perspective and approach, Tom and Bessie left their imprint on the history of the Latter-day Saints. Tom did so through his many years of devoted service, while Bessie contributed, more reluc- tantly, through a landmark literary treatment of nineteenth-century Mor- mon society. The Kanes’ involvement with the Latter-day Saints is too extensive to examine in detail here. Instead, this article focuses on representative elementsf o key episodes in which they interacted with the Mormons. First I will briefly discuss Tom’s visit with the exiled Saints in 1846 and his subsequent activities that culminated in the delivery and publication of his influential lecture that was published as The Mormons n si 1850 a well 121 https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol48/iss4/7 2 Geary: Tom and Bessie Kane and the Mormons 122 v Colonel Thomas L. Kane and the Mormons as his reaction to plural marriage in 1851; then I will explore Tom’s assis- tance during the Utah War in 1857 and 1858 and Bessie’s journals from the Kanes’ 1872–73 visit to Utah, published as Twelve Mormon Homes (1874) and A Gentile Account of Life in Utah’s Dixie (1995).1 A Brief Overview of the Kane Family Tom and Bessie Kane were second cousins. Their common great- grandfather, John O’Kane, emigrated from Ireland to New York in 1752; dropped the Irish “O” from his name; married Sybil Kent, the daughter of a prominent clergyman; became a prosperous farmer; and sired a large fam- ily. When the American Revolution broke out, John Kane remained loyal to the British Crown, with the result that his properties were confiscated and his family forced to spend the war years as refugees in Nova Scotia. Fol- lowing the war, the family returned to New York, where the sons estab- lished a trading firm that prospered until the disruption of transatlantic commerce by the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. Bessie’s grand- father, John, managed the firm of Kane and Brothers in New York, while Tom’s grandfather, Elisha, established a branch in Philadelphia. The sons and daughters married well, uniting the Kanes with such prominent American families as the Livingstons, Morrises, Schuylers, and Van Rensselaers.2 Tom’s father, John, adopted his stepmother’s family name, Kintzing, as his own middle name to distin- Fig. 3. John Kintzing Kane. Thomas’s father, John K. Kane, was an influen- guish himself from several cousins tial lawyer and skillful political writer also named John. John Kintzing whose anonymous articles to newspa- Kane (fig. 3) received a classical pers across the country proved suc- educationn i Philadelphia schools, cessfuln i swaying public opinion and added a degree at Yale, and then securing John political appointments. returnedo t Philadelphia for legal Thomas modeled these activities for the Mormons. L. Tom Perry Special training.e H was admitted to the Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, barn i 1817 and began a determined Brigham Young University. and ultimately successful courtship Published by BYU ScholarsArchive, 2009 3 BYU Studies Quarterly, Vol. 48, Iss. 4 [2009], Art. 7 Tom and Bessie Kane and the Mormons V 123 of Jane Duval Leiper, whose father, Thomas Leiper, was a prominent Phila- delphia industrialist. The family into which Thomas Leiper Kane was born on January 27, 1822, has been aptly characterized as “politically powerful and socially aspiring.”3 e Th family did not possess great wealth, but they lived comfortably (though with periodic money worries) on John K. Kane’s income from his law practice and from a series of political appointments.4 The chief instrument of John K. Kane’s political influence was a skill- ful e pen. Th larger American cities had dozens of competing newspapers, mostf o them aligned with a political party, and all of them eager for ma terial.5 . John K Kane supplied the papers that supported the rising Democratic Party with numerous unsigned articles reflecting his capacity “to influence, inspire, and use public opinion.”6 n I addition, he published an influential pamphlet during Andrew Jackson’s 1828 presidential cam- paign titled A Candid View of the Presidential Question that portrayed Jacksonn i heroic terms while offering a much less flattering portrait of his opponent, John Quincy Adams.7 n I 1844, John Kane turned his talents to the f service o James. K Polk and his running mate, George Dallas, who was a personal friend, publishing a campaign biography, helping to draft Polk’s messageso t Congress, and being rewarded, in 1846, with an appointment to the federal bench.8 John Kane further extended his social influence as a prominent Freemason and for many years as secretary and finally presi- dent of the American Philosophical Society.9 Unlike his father, who followed a steady career path, Tom Kane was drivenn i his early years by a restless ambition, an intense idealism, and frustrating personal limitations that included an undersized frame, fre- quent bouts of incapacitating illness, and periods of depression that he characterized as “blue devils.”10 His formal education ended at age seven- teen when he dropped out of Dickinson College following a student rebel- lion.11 After leaving college, he traveled to England and France in 1840 and visited France again in 1842–43. While there he had one brief encounter with Auguste Comté.12 Even though it is doubtful Tom entered the philosopher’s social circle, it does seem likely he discovered Comté’s writings while in Paris, probably on the second visit, and it is certain that Comté’s thought had an impor- tant influence on Tom’s intellectual development. Even after his early disa ffection from the family’s Presbyterian faith, Tom retained a lifelong interest in religion. To his brother Elisha he confided an early aspiration that I should make to me fame by a religion. You often saw me at work upon y it. B Jove it was a grand scheme:—a religion suited to the 19th century—a religion containing in itself all things and influencing all things—conduct of life—of man, nation & government— emancipating https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol48/iss4/7 4 Geary: Tom and Bessie Kane and the Mormons 124 v Colonel Thomas L. Kane and the Mormons women & slaves—industrial classes—a religion containing itself the principlef o its own change and amelioration—finally a religion of movement.13 These early ideas must have resonated with Comté’s concept of a “religionf o humanity,” not based on a belief in God or in universals, but onn a application of scientific analysis to social problems. Comté coined the word “altruism” to express the obligation to serve others and place their interests above one’s own. The opposite of egoism, which places the selft a the center, altruism accurately describes Tom’s particular brand of benevolence. Tom also found something appealing in the Catholic ascetic traditions a reflected in The Imitation of Christ yb Thomas à Kempis. Later in life, Tom settled on his own version of nondenominational Christianity that included elements of these and other religious influences. Tom’s wife, Elizabeth “Bessie” Dennistoun Wood, was born in Bootle, a f suburb o Liverpool, England, on May 12, 1836, making her fourteen years younger than her future husband. Her mother, Harriet Amelia Kane, was the youngest daughter of John Kane, who was the eldest and most influential of the Kane brothers.