Hon. Elias Kent Kane

1794 – 1835

Elias Kent Kane was born in New York City on June 7, 1794 and died in Washington, D.C. on December 11, 1835 . He attended public schools and graduated from Yale College in 1813. Kane was one of the first U.S. Senators from Illinois.

After he studied law, he was admitted to the bar and started practice in Nashville, Tennessee and then moved to Kaskaskia, Illinois in 1814. He was appointed a judge of the Territory of Illinois and was a delegate to the first state constitutional convention in 1818.

After an unsuccessful 1820 campaign for election to the 17th Congress, he became Illinois’ first Secretary of State, and served from 1820 to 1824. He was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 1824, and in the same year to the United States Senate. He was reelected in 1831 and served from March 4, 1825, until his death in Washington, D.C., in 1835.

On January 16, 1836, the Illinois legislature formed a new county, Kane, in honor of Elias Kent Kane.

NOTE: Death notice for Kane was published in The Troy Daily Whig on December 17, 18 and 21, 1835.