Thomas L. Kane

After the winter of 1846-7, when Mormon pioneers were driven from Nauvoo, Illinois, by mob violence and scattered across the frozen plains of Iowa, Thomas L. Kane of Philadelphia came among them seeking to help relieve their suffering. Through the Christian and economic benefactions of Thomas L. Kane and his father, Judge John K. Kane, the War Department in Washington, D.C., under President James K. Polk, accepted the enlistment of the Mormon Battalion of 500 men in the War with Mexico. Under Lt. Col. P. St. George Cooke, the battalion marched to California, built Fort Moore at Los Angeles, and aided in establishing American sovereignty in Southern California. The money paid to battalion members was used to feed and clothe destitute Mormons in Iowa and, together with their faith and perseverance, helped enable 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, leading to the California Gold Rush of 1849 and California statehood in 1850. In 1857, President James Buchanan, believing unfounded rumors that Utah Territorial Governor Brigham Young and other Utah Territorial officers were in open rebellion against federal authority in Utah, sent an armed force of 25 hundred men known as Johnston’s Army to maintain federal authority. Learning of the threatened invasion of his friends’ homeland, Thomas L. Kane, despite the wishes of President Buchanan and his father, traveled by sea to the Isthmus of Panama, continued to San Francisco, and then went by horse and wagon to Salt Lake City. Through his efforts, peace was established in Utah, bringing a great blessing to the pioneering people of the territory.

Salt Lake City, Utah · United States