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Thomas Kane - Kanesville
What's the Connection?
Thomas L. Kane was a personal
representative of Pres. James K. Polk when he arrived at Miller's
Hollow to meet with Brigham Young. Only twenty-four years old, he
was sent to persuade the Saints to enlist the famous Mormon
Battalion for the War with Mexico.
At the
time, Brigham was forty seven -- and still clean shaven. The two men
immediately became friends.
It can be
said that Brigham became a father figure to the younger Kane. Years
later in Salt Lake City, upon the death of his father, Thomas Kane
was consoled by Brigham.
Due in
large part to his father's influence [John Kintzing Kane a prominent
Federal District Judge in Philadelphia and confidant to several
American presidents, including Pres. James K. Polk (1845-1849], Kane came to rub shoulders with four American presidents,
Horace Greeley and powerful acquaintances in Britain and France.
Tomas Kane was a lawyer, and argued ceaselessly for redress towards
the Latter-day Saints at a time when the Eastern establishment was
largely antagonistic towards the church and its leaders.
Thomas had
lived in England for a time and had served in the American Legation
in Paris, France before being forced out by a recurrent respiratory
illness. While living at his father's house in Philadelphia
recuperating, he undertook the trip west to counsel with the LDS in
what would later become Kanesville. Kane
being ill with the old respiratory illness before leaving the LDS at
the Missouri River to return to Philadelphia was given a blessing by
Patriarch John Smith, one of Joseph's
uncles in which he was promised: "Thy name shall be had in honorable remembrance among the
Saints to all the generations."
"Come Home
to Kanesville," is, in part, dedicated to helping fulfill this
blessing.
Thomas Kane died in 1883, a
lifelong friend and defender of the Church. He was never
baptized.
Pitt's Brass Band!
What's That?
The Prophet Joseph asked
William Pitt, an accomplished cornettist, to create a brass band
which could play for ceremonial activities of the Nauvoo Legion.
William
agreed to do his best. However, searching throughout greater Nauvoo,
William couldn't find any skilled brass players. Yet, he sent back
East for instruments, and looked about to organize popular, talented
musicians.
Brother
Pitt assembled a group of local musicians who played frontier and
folk string instruments... the fiddle, guitar, banjo, mandolin...
None of his Confederates-in-Notes could read music, but led by the
indomitable William, the ensemble persisted -- they learned by rote
to play numerous military pieces for use with the Nauvoo Legion.
As the
Exodus from Nauvoo to Kanesville began, the Pitt's Brass Band often
fiddled and strummed about the campfires of Zion. They also offered
their services to area frontier farmers, who held dances with their
far-flung neighbors. The money gleaned from these "outings" was
offered to assist the church during this most difficult time.
As the
"brass band" played its way across the mud-flats of I-o-way, they
played their "native" stringed instruments. Yet, they performed
under the banner, "Pitt's Brass Band," capitalizing on their prior
"fame" as musicians for the Nauvoo Legion.
The night
before the Mormon Battalion mustered for its historical march, the
Pitt's Brass Band fiddled, sawed and plucked their way into the
hearts of the congregants for the now-legendary "Cotillion."
The
ensemble remained together throughout the westward march of the
church, and played afterwards for years in The Valley, always as
Pitt's Brass Band.
After Janie
Wallace and Rachael Goates completed their score for "Come Home to
Kanesville," we approached historical-music-recreators
Greenblatt & Seay
asking them to record the show. Their limitations were to have no
more than six musicians playing at one time, and to use instruments
which would have been played by William Pitt's "brass" ensemble
during the Battalion's farewell Cotillion.
All the
music must be played in the style of frontier America of 1850.
Unable to
procure a concertina for recording, David Seay substituted a
harmonica for the accordion-like concertina.
So now
you're in on one of our little secrets -- the harmonica wasn't
introduced until 1857.
Shh!
Don'cha dare tell, y'hear!
Oh
Promise Tree, Oh Promise Tree
Tell Me About the Promise Tree!
Have you ever
seen such a Promise Tree,
So gnarled, so gracious, so green?
With spaces neat where the leaves don't meet,
So your dreams can slip between?
Oh, That Promise
Tree, that magnificent tree
Weaves promises with dreams!
While you carve your name side your true, true love
And your promises meet, where the leaves don't meet -
So your dreams can slip between.
--- Lyrics from "Who is He, Who is She"
You'll have to
come to the show to see who
carves their names in the Promise Tree.
Come-On-Home Spoon, Did Ya Know
About the Come-On-Home Spoon?
Some folks whistle,
others yell,
Most'll clang a dinner bell
But the Martins are different, we do what we should,
When someone comes to get us with this shapely piece of wood!
You're kiddin'! A spoon!
Not just any spoon!
Great Gran 'pa Rustus
Martin
Went one day to carvin' this spoon.
It's the Come-On-Home-Spoon!
And when he sent it out the children knew without a doubt
That it was time to come home, soon!
And so each generation has passed this spoon along
To remind us who we are and where it is that we belong
Come on home! Don't delay!
You're missed and you're needed right away!
---Lyrics
from "Come On Home Spoon"
There is a history to this
song, read it
HERE.
John the Baptist, Brigham Young
and the Mormon Battalion?
Council
Bluffs,
IA,
is the only place where the Lewis & Clark Trail, the Mormon
Trail and the
Oregon Trail
overlap. One special “link” between the Lewis & Clark Trail and
the Mormon Trail is little known. Let’s investigate a bit.
In 1803, Merriweather Lewis and
William Clark were authorized by Congress to lead an exploration
west of the
Missouri River,
searching for a waterway which could join the Atlantic & Pacific
Oceans. Their expedition, called the Corps of Discovery,
paddled upstream and camped near present-day
Council Bluffs,
establishing first peaceful contact with local Indian tribes.
Further upstream in
North Dakota,
the Corps of Discovery wintered. There, they recruited a young
Shoshone slave and her husband as interpreters. Sacagawea was
about 16 years old, but she spoke several Indian languages, and
would be able to serve as both a guide and interpreter as the
Corps made its way West. As a young child, she had been
captured by Hidatsa warriors while she was “picking berries.”
She was sold to the
Mandan,
who in turn sold her to the French-Canadian frontiersman
Toussaint Charbonneau, who took her as a second wife.
About sixty days before joining the Lewis
& Clark expedition, Sacagawea gave birth to her first child,
Jean Baptiste [John the Baptist]. It is this child we see with
Sacagawea on the US $1 coin.
The following Spring [1805], the Corps of
Discovery was exploring the foothills of the approaching
Bitterroot mountains, when the 29 men, one woman and child were
unexpectedly surrounded by “several hundred” hostile Indians.
Each of the explorers had but one shot in their rifles. The
Indians bore no firearms, but were well mounted, and equipped
with spears, bows and axes. It was going to a bad day for the
explorers!
Just moments before the Indian charge,
Sacagawea jumped off her pony, dropping the infant Jean Baptists
into the rugged grass. She ran, shrieking, toward the apparent
leader of the attackers, sprang through the air, and landed on
the astonished Indian, knocking him to the ground. She sat
astride him, weeping with joy, licking his face.
Sacagawea had just been reunited with her
brother, who had become Chief during her years of captivity. In
a matter of moments, the Lewis & Clark expedition had gone from
Prey to Heroes.
And baby Jean Baptiste was no worse for
wear.
As we all know, the expedition
continued to the mouth of the
Columbia River.
In 1807, Lewis & Clark returned to
St Louis.
Only one man had been lost on the entire journey – to
appendicitis!
Young Jean Baptiste? He was adopted
by William Clark and received a stunning education. As a young
adult, he studied in
Europe,
and ultimately returned to the
US,
fluent in his native languages, English, French, Spanish and
German.
Jean Baptiste
returned to outfitting and guiding, based along the
Missouri River,
where, at an upstream outpost named Kanesville, he met with a
certain Brigham Young.
And this is how Sacagawea’s baby helped
Brigham plan the very first Mormon trek to cross the plains to
the Valley, in 1847. Brigham insisted that Jean Baptiste serve
as guide for the Mormon battalion in 1846.
A Mother Sends Her Son
to War
Adapted from the diary of Drusilla Hendricks,
speaking of her 17 year old son, William,
who marched with the Mormon Battalion.
As soon as it
was light, my William said he would go after the cows. My eyes
followed him as he started through the tall, heavy grass wet
with dew.
The Spirit spoke to my
heart. "Do you not want the greatest glory?" I
answered with my natural voice, "Yes I do." "Then how can you
get it with out making the greatest sacrifice?" said the Voice.
I said, "It is too late. They are to be marched off this
morning." That Spirit then left me with the heartache.
I got
breakfast and called the family to come to the tent for
prayers. William came, wet with dew from the grass, and we sat
around the board. My husband commenced asking the blessing on
our food, when a man came shouting at the top of his voice,
saying “Turn out, men! Turn out, for we do not wish to press
you but we lack some men yet in the Battalion!”
My William
raised his eyes and looked me in the face. I knew then that he
would go. I could not swallow one bit of breakfast, thinking I
might never have my family all together again. I had no
photograph
of him but I took one in my mind and said to myself, "If I never
see you again until the morning of the resurrection, I shall
know you are my child."
May husband
took his cane and went to where the drum was beating. I went to
milk the cows. I thought the cows would be shelter for me and I
knelt down and told the Lord if he wanted my child, to take
him-- only spare his life and let him be restored to me and to
the bosom of the Church. I felt it was all I could do.
Then the
voice that talked with me in the morning answered me saying: “It
shall be done unto you as it was unto Abraham when he offered
Isaac on the altar.”
I don’t know
whether I milked or not, for I felt the Lord had spoken to me.
Adapted from “Chronicles of Faith,” by David T. Kenison
Notes: William marched with the Battalion. Drusilla and her
family arrived in Salt Lake on October 4, 1847, and William came
from California ten days later. Drusilla was ward Relief
Society president. The family later moved to Richmond, where
Drusilla died in 1881. William married Mary Jane Andrus in
1851. They had 10 children, all of whom lived to adulthood.
William served as a bishop, stake president, and patriarch, as
well as mayor of Richmond. He died in 1909. |
