Kane Manor Auction
230 Clay Street, Kane, Pennsylvania

Saturday, September 27, 2003
10:00 a.m.

Previews:  Sunday, September 21, noon-3:00 p.m.
Friday, September 26, 2:00-7:00 p.m.
Saturday, September 27, 9:00-10:00 a.m.
Antiques, Paintings, Prints, Furniture, Historical & Military Artifacts, Real Estate, Bed & Breakfast Inn

We will be auctioning the family home and artifacts of Anoatok, the Kane family homestead in Kane Pennsylvania. John Kane, born in Ireland 1734, immigrated to New England and later Philadelphia. He had two famous grandsons, Thomas Leiper Kane, and Elisha Kent Kane. Many of the family artifacts have bearing on significant events in American history from the Revolutionary War era through the Civil War.

General Thomas Leiper Kane (1822-1883) is revered by the Mormons for almost single-handedly averting an all-out war between the Mormons and the U.S. Government (1857-58). A county in Utah is named for him, and a full-size statue stands in the center of the rotunda of the Capital Building in Salt Lake City. Thomas befriended the Mormons, including Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. We will be selling documents including a five-page letter written and signed by Young. Kane organized the Bucktail Regiment of sharpshooters, and fought during the Civil War at Gettysburg and Chancellorsville. Wounded several times, he was captured in the Shenandoah Valley. At war's end, he was a Major General, and was later appointed Brigadier General (1862). He founded Kane, Pennsylvania, the site of Kane Manor. His wife, Dr. Elizabeth Dennistoun Wood, 1836-1909, was notable in her own right as one of the first woman Doctors in Pennsylvania. Paintings and artifacts pertaining to Elizabeth will also be sold.

Dr. Elisha Kent Kane (1820-1857) was a famous Naval Surgeon, Arctic explorer and artist. A crater on the moon, two U.S. Navy Ships and an Arctic waterway are named for him. Elisha is noted for the two U.S. Grinnell Arctic Expeditions to find Sir John Franklin, 1850-54. During the expeditions he created sketches, and authored several books about the expeditions. He commissioned James Hamilton, 1819-1878, to illustrate his Arctic narratives. Also selling in this auction is a large, luminous painting of a ship surrounded by icebergs attributed to Hamilton. The painting is reminiscent of Frederick Church's famous iceberg painting. Hamilton was teacher of Thomas Moran, a colleague of Church. Hamilton, known as the "American Turner" worked with and was a friend of Elisha Kent Kane. We will be selling sixteen watercolors by Kane or Hamilton from the Arctic Expeditions. In addition, Kane's presentation sword, two portraits, and other artifacts will be sold. He was so beloved that upon his death, the country mourned him with a month-long 2,000 mile procession. His funeral was the largest in American history, eclipsed by Lincoln's a half decade later.

After the Sale