Thomas L. Kane

Thomas L. Kane. . , [panel 1] , Following the days of their severest persecutions in the winter of 1846-7, when the Mormon pioneers, driven from their beloved city of Nauvoo, Illinois, by mob violence, were scattered across the frozen plains of Iowa, there came into their midst a young man, Thomas L. Kane, a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who expressed a desire to assist them in their suffering., Through the Christian and economic benefactions of Thomas L. Kane and his father Judge John K. Kane, United States District Judge of Philadelphia, the War Department at Washington, D.C. was directed by President James K. Polk to accept the enlistment of the Mormon Battalion of 500 men in the War with Mexico who under the command of Lt. Col. P. St. George Cooke marched to California, built Fort Moore at Los Angeles and aided in establishing American Sovereignty in Southern California., The government money paid the battalion members was used to feed and clothe the destitute Mormons in Iowa and this with their indomitable faith and perseverance enabled them to make their migration to the Salt Lake Valley in July, 1847., Later, on January 24, 1848, while several mustered-out Mormon Battalion soldiers were digging a mill race at Sutters Mill on the American River near Sacramento, California, gold was discovered which resulted in the California Gold Rush of 1849 which brought statehood to California in 1850., [panel 2] , In the year 1857, James Buchanan, then President of the United States, believing certain unfounded rumors that Utah Territorial Governor Brigham Young and other Utah Territorial Officers were in open rebellion against Federal Authority in Utah, sent to Utah an armed force of 25 hundred men, known as Johnston’s Army, to maintain Federal Authority., On being advised of the threatened invasion of his friends’ homeland, Thomas L. Kane against the wishes of President Buchanan, a friend of the Kane family, and his father, Judge John K. Kane, decided to again go to the aid of his Mormon friends. He sailed down the Atlantic Ocean, crossed the Isthmus of Panama, sailed up the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco, then traveled by horse and wagon to Salt Lake City., Through his efforts peace was established in Utah and a great blessing brought thereby to the pioneering people of this territory.