John Innes Kane

American explorer, scientist, philanthropist
Annie Cottenet Schermerhorn
​
​
(m. 1878)​
RelativesWoodbury Kane (brother)
S. Nicholson Kane (brother)
Sybil Kent Kane (sister)
DeLancey Astor Kane (brother)

John Innes Kane (July 29, 1850 – February 1, 1913)[1] was an American explorer, scientist and philanthropist who was prominent in New York Society during the Gilded Age.

Early life

Kane was born in 1850, one of eight children born to Oliver DeLancey Kane (1816–1874) and Louisa Dorothea (née Langdon) Kane (1821–1894).[2] His siblings included Walter Langdon, DeLancey Astor Kane,[3] Woodbury Kane,[4] S. Nicholson Kane. His sisters were Louisa Langdon Kane,[5] Emily Astor Kane (who married Augustus Jay and was the mother of Peter Augustus Jay), and Sybil Kent Kane.[6][7] The family lived at "Beach Cliffe", designed by Detlef Lienau, which was one of the earliest Newport cottages "to attain a sort of Beaux-Arts purity."[8][a]

Kane was a grandson of Walter Langdon and Dorothea (née Astor) Langdon and a great-grandson of John Jacob Astor. He was a cousin of Lt. Col. John Jacob Astor IV.[3] His paternal lineage descended from John O'Kane who emigrated to the country in 1752 from County Londonderry and Antrim, Ireland. During the American Revolutionary War, O'Kane (who dropped the "'O" once in America[9]) was living at Sharyvogne, his estate in Dutchess County, which was confiscated after the War due to his Loyalist ties. His eldest son, John Jr., stayed and became one of the most prominent merchants in New York.[3]

Interests and clubs

Kane inherited from his mother's family,[10] so he never took an active part in business, "but had always taken a keen interest in scientific matters, in particular those dealing with discovery and exploration. He was also fond of art and travel."[1] In 1912, the Kanes traveled to Egypt with J. Pierpont Morgan.[11] Kane belonged are the Union Club, the Knickerbocker Club, the New York Yacht Club, the Metropolitan, the Whist Club, St. Elmo, the South Side Sportsmen's Club, and the Automobile Club of America.[1]

The Kanes attended Alva Vanderbilt's famous March 1883 masquerade ball christening the Vanderbilt's new Petit Chateau on Fifth Avenue.[12] In 1892, several members of Kane's family, but not Kane and his wife, were included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The New York Times.[13][14] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom (who was the first cousin of his father-in-law).[15][16]

Kane sat on the Advisory Board of the Cooper Union museum during its first decade, up to near his death in 1913.[12] His wife bequeathed a number of European decorative arts from the Renaissance through the eighteenth centuries to the museum.[17]

Personal life

The John Innes Kane Cottage in Bar Harbor, Maine.

On December 12, 1878, Kane was married to Annie Cottenet Schermerhorn (1857–1926), a daughter of William Colford Schermerhorn of 29 West 23rd Street.[18][b] Through her mother, she was a first cousin of Rawlins Lowndes Cottenet.[20] At their wedding, Annie wore an ivory and gold satin gown with pearls by Charles Frederick Worth of the Parisian based House of Worth.[21][c] The couple did not have any children.[11]

Kane died of pneumonia on February 2, 1913, at his residence in New York City.[1] He was buried in a memorial tomb, also designed by McKim, Mead & White, at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.[23] His widow died in July 1926,[24] and left $4,000,00 to New York City charities, including $1,000,000 to the Home for Incurables and $1,000,000 to Columbia University (of which her father had been elected chairman of the Board of Trustees[25]).[26] For many years after her death, her estate continued contributing to various charitable causes in New York.[27][28][29][30][31][32][33]

Residences

After years of renting houses in Lenox, Massachusetts,[11] they acquired a summer estate on a bluff overlooking Frenchman Bay located at 45 Hancock Street in Bar Harbor, Maine.[34] There, Kane had a Tudor Revival Cottage built between 1903 and 1904, designed by local architect Fred L. Savage, that was known both as Breakwater and Atlantique (although today it is known as the John Innes Kane Cottage).[d] The interior of the house, however, featured Colonial and Georgian Revival eighteenth-century styling.[12] His widow left the home to Kane's nephew, U.S. diplomat Peter Augustus Jay and his wife, the former Susan Alexander McCook, who left it to her daughter, Susan Mary Alsop.[35]

Kane hired the prominent New York architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White to design his New York City residence. His home, located at 1 West 49th Street (or 610 Fifth Avenue), "attracted immediate attention, when completed in 1909, because of its attractive simplicity. It was built in the style of the Italian Renaissance, and its furnishings were brought from all parts of Europe."[1] The home was across the street from 608 Fifth Avenue, the home of Ogden Goelet and his wife, Mary Wilson Goelet.[36] In August 1921, a fire in the library and dining room of the home destroyed family portraits and other heirlooms of the Kane and Schermerhorn families. Reportedly, fireproof construction planned by Stanford White saved the rest of the home from destruction.[36]

References

Notes

  1. ^ "Beach Cliffe", built in 1852, was located on Bath Road at Rhode Island Avenue in Newport. It was torn down in 1939.[8]
  2. ^ William Colford Schermerhorn, a first cousin of Caroline Schermerhorn Astor (the Mrs. Astor), was a grandson of Peter Schermerhorn and nephew of both James I. Jones and Abraham Schermerhorn.[18][19]
  3. ^ Annie's wedding gown is today owned by the Museum of the City of New York.[12][22]
  4. ^ The John Innes Kane Cottage is one of a small number of estate houses to escape Bar Harbor's devastating 1947 fire.[34]

Sources

  1. ^ a b c d e "JOHN INNES KANE DEAD AT 60. Member of Old New York Family Was Interested In Exploration" (PDF). The New York Times. February 2, 1913. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  2. ^ Lamb, Martha Joanna (1921). History of the City of New York: Its Origin, Rise and Progress ... by Martha J. Lamb. Valentine's Manual. p. 754. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  3. ^ a b c "COL. DE LANCEY KANE DIES OF PNEUMONIA; Noted Horseman and Astor's Great-Grandson Initiated Coaching in America. LONG A SOCIAL LEADER Graduate of West Point Who Inherited $10,000,000 Served in the Cavalry in Our Army" (PDF). The New York Times. 5 April 1915. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  4. ^ "Capt Woodbury Kane dies of sudden heart attack" (PDF). The New York Times. 6 December 1905. p. 11. Retrieved 13 June 2009.
  5. ^ "LOUISE L. KANE DIES AFTER BRIEF ILLNESS; Granddaughter of the First John Jacob Astor Was a Benefactor of Artists. DID QUIET PHILANTHROPY Gave Much Time to Welfare Work, Aiding Bellevue Particularly -Family Socially Prominent" (PDF). The New York Times. 2 June 1927. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  6. ^ "MRS. AUGUSTUS JAY DIES IN 79TH YEAR; Widow of Diplomat Whose Ancestor, John Jay, Was First Chief Justice of U. S. LONG A SOCIETY LEADER Descended From Gov. Langdon of New Hampshire, Revolutionary Soldier, and John Jacob Astor" (PDF). The New York Times. 15 December 1932. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  7. ^ The Successful American, Vol 1, Part 1. Press Biographical Company. 1899. p. 156. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  8. ^ a b Yarnall, James L. (2005). Newport Through Its Architecture: A History of Styles from Postmedieval to Postmodern. UPNE. p. 123. ISBN 9781584654919. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  9. ^ "DELANCEY ISELIN KANE; Great-Grandson of the First John Jacob Astor Dies, 62" (PDF). The New York Times. 1 August 1940.
  10. ^ American Millionaires: The Tribune's List of Persons Reputed to Worth a Million Or More. Lines of Business in which the Fortunes Were Made. Tribune Association. 1892. p. 71. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  11. ^ a b c Gilder, Cornelia Brooke (2017). Edith Wharton's Lenox. Arcadia Publishing. p. 164. ISBN 978-1-62585-788-0. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  12. ^ a b c d Coffin, Sarah D. (28 February 2018). "Cooper Hewitt Short Stories: A Formidable Inheritance from a Gilded Age | Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum". Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  13. ^ McAllister, Ward (16 February 1892). "THE ONLY FOUR HUNDRED | WARD M'ALLISTER GIVES OUT THE OFFICIAL LIST. HERE ARE THE NAMES, DON'T YOU KNOW, ON THE AUTHORITY OF THEIR GREAT LEADER, YOU UNDER- STAND, AND THEREFORE GENUINE, YOU SEE" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
  14. ^ Patterson, Jerry E. (2000). The First Four Hundred: Mrs. Astor's New York in the Gilded Age. Random House. p. 218. ISBN 9780847822089. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  15. ^ Keister, Lisa A. (2005). Getting Rich: America's New Rich and How They Got That Way. Cambridge University Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780521536677. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  16. ^ Birmingham, Stephen (2015). Life at the Dakota: New York's Most Unusual Address. Open Road Media. p. 18. ISBN 9781504026314. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  17. ^ Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. "Mrs. John Innes Kane". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  18. ^ a b "W.C. SCHERMERHORN DEAD; Passes Away in This City After a Few Hours' Illness. Was a Member of One of New York's Oldest Families, and a Patron of Letters, Science, and Art" (PDF). The New York Times. 2 January 1903. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  19. ^ Cutter, William Richard (1915). New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of Commonwealths and the Founding of a Nation. Lewis historical publishing Company. p. 614. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
  20. ^ "MRS. SCHERMERHORN DIES.; Former Leader of Society Expires in Her Twenty-third Street Home" (PDF). The New York Times. February 15, 1907. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  21. ^ "The House of Worth, or the birth of Haute Couture". Paris Diary by Laure. 6 November 2017. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  22. ^ "Wedding dress". collections.mcny.org. Museum of the City of New York. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  23. ^ Richman, Jeff (April 17, 2018). "Only the Finest: Memorials by McKim, Mead & White at Green-Wood | Green-Wood". Green-Wood Cemetery. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  24. ^ "MRS. ANNIE C. KANE, OF OLD FAMILY, DIES Was Born a Schermerhorn and Wed a Descendant of John Jacob Astor". The New York Times. 25 July 1926. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  25. ^ "W. C. SCHERMERHORN DEAD Head of the Board of Trustees—In His Eighty-second Year". Columbia Daily Spectator. January 5, 1903. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  26. ^ "WILL OF MRS. KANE LEAVES $4,000,000 TO CITY CHARITIES -- $1,000,000 Each Goes to Home for Incurables and Columbia University". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. September 9, 1926. p. 5. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  27. ^ "$50,000 GIVEN TO SEMINARY.; Fund From Annie C. Kane Estate Goes to Episcopal Endowment". The New York Times. 26 December 1927. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  28. ^ "FUNDS ARE SET UP FOR THE NEEDIEST; Friends of City's Destitute Are Thus Able to Continue Their Gifts After Death. SEVERAL LARGE TRUSTS J.B. Wilbur and Annie C. Kane Left $100,000 Each, A.I. Siesel $107,515". The New York Times. 4 December 1933. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  29. ^ "MANY TRUST FUNDS AID NEEDIEST GASES; Set Up by Friends of the City's Destitute Who Did Not Want Help to Stop When They Died. LARGE SUMS ARE INCLUDED $107,515 Left by A.I Siesel and $100,000 Each by J.B. Wilbur and Annie C. Kane. MANY TRUST FUNDS AID NEEDIEST GASES". The New York Times. 2 December 1934. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  30. ^ "95 GIFTS ARE SENT IN DAY TO NEEDIEST; Among Them Is $5,000 From Charles Hayden and $3,989 From Annie C. Kane Fund. DONORS EAGER TO HELP Many Voice Regret That They Cannot Do More to Ease Distress and Privation". The New York Times. 3 December 1935. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  31. ^ "32 CONTRIBUTORS GIVE $702 FOR THE NEEDIEST; Largest Gift, $386, Is From the Annie C. Kane Fund". The New York Times. 9 January 1942. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  32. ^ "$809 GIVEN TO NEEDIEST; $618 Sent by Annie C. Kane Fund Tops the Day's Gifts". The New York Times. 19 January 1952. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  33. ^ "GIFTS TO NEEDIEST STRESS JOY IN AID; Long-Time Donors Express Happiness at Being Able to Help Less Fortunate DAY'S TOTAL IS $10,254 Donation of $4,094 Comes From Annie C. Kane Fund --Groups Also Assist Late Publisher Honored Work for Neediest Praised CASE 5 Dying Father CASE 34 Adrift CASE 78 Facing Blindness". The New York Times. 11 December 1956. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  34. ^ a b "NRHP nomination for John Innes Kane Cottage". National Park Service. Retrieved 2015-03-06.
  35. ^ The Down East Dilettante (16 June 2010). "Down East Tear Down". The Down East Dilettante. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  36. ^ a b "HEIRLOOM TREASURE LOST IN 5TH AV. FIRE; Library of Mrs. John I. Kane Damaged in $100,000 Blaze at 49th Street Corner. FLAMES HELD TO ONE FLOOR House Designed by Stanford White So Compact Water Did Not Even Seep Through Floors". The New York Times. 24 August 1921. Retrieved 14 March 2020.

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