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.
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