PoliticalGraveyard.com
The Political Graveyard: A Database of American History
Bissell-Thomas-Kane family of Belleville, Illinois

Note: This is just one of 1,325 family groupings listed on The Political Graveyard web site. These families each have three or more politician members, all linked together by blood, marriage or adoption.

These groupings — even the names of the groupings, and the areas of main activity — are the result of a computer algorithm working with the data I have, not the choices of any historian or genealogist.

  Elias Kent Kane (1794-1835) — also known as Elias K. Kane — of Kaskaskia, Randolph County, Ill. Born in New York, New York County, N.Y., June 7, 1794. Democrat. Lawyer; delegate to Illinois state constitutional convention from Randolph County, 1818; secretary of state of Illinois, 1818-22; member of Illinois state house of representatives, 1824; U.S. Senator from Illinois, 1825-35; died in office 1835. Slaveowner. Died in Washington, D.C., December 12, 1835 (age 41 years, 188 days). Original interment in private or family graveyard; reinterment at Evergreen Cemetery, Chester, Ill.; cenotaph at Congressional Cemetery, Washington, D.C.
  Relatives: Son of Elias Kent Kane (1771-1840) and Maria 'Mary' (Leavenworth) Kane; father of Elizabeth Kintzing Kane (who married William Henry Bissell).
  Political family: Bissell-Thomas-Kane family of Belleville, Illinois.
  Kane County, Ill. is named for him.
  See also congressional biography — Govtrack.us page — Wikipedia article — Find-A-Grave memorial
  William Henry Bissell (1811-1860) — also known as William H. Bissell — of Belleville, St. Clair County, Ill. Born in Hartwick, Otsego County, N.Y., April 25, 1811. Democrat. Physician; lawyer; member of Illinois state house of representatives, 1840-42; colonel in the U.S. Army during the Mexican War; U.S. Representative from Illinois, 1849-55 (1st District 1849-53, 8th District 1853-55); Governor of Illinois, 1857-60; died in office 1860. Catholic. First Republican and first Catholic governor of Illinois. Died, at least partly from syphilis, which had crippled him, in the Illinois Executive Mansion, Springfield, Sangamon County, Ill., March 18, 1860 (age 48 years, 328 days). Original interment at Hutchinson Cemetery, Springfield, Ill.; reinterment in 1871 at Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, Ill.
  Relatives: Son of Luther Bissell and Hannah (Potter) Bissell; married, November 12, 1840, to Emily Susan James; married, December 8, 1851, to Elizabeth Kintzing Kane (daughter of Elias Kent Kane); father of Rhoda E. Bissell (who married Charles Wait Thomas); grandfather of Charles Edward Livingston Thomas.
  Political family: Bissell-Thomas-Kane family of Belleville, Illinois.
  See also congressional biography — Govtrack.us page — National Governors Association biography — Wikipedia article — Find-A-Grave memorial
Charles W. Thomas Charles Wait Thomas (1840-1906) — also known as Charles W. Thomas — of Belleville, St. Clair County, Ill. Born in Jackson County, Ill., October 6, 1840. Republican. Served in the Union Army during the Civil War; lawyer; delegate to Republican National Convention from Illinois, 1880 (alternate), 1904. Died, in Mullanphy Hospital, St. Louis, Mo., March 13, 1906 (age 65 years, 158 days). Interment at Green Mount Cemetery, Belleville, Ill.
  Relatives: Son of William Smith Thomas and Elizabeth Leffingwell (Wait) Thomas; married 1866 to Rhoda E. Bissell (daughter of William Henry Bissell); father of Charles Edward Livingston Thomas.
  Political family: Bissell-Thomas-Kane family of Belleville, Illinois.
  Image source: The Inter Ocean (Chicago), March 7, 1906
  Charles Edward Livingston Thomas (1876-1926) — also known as Charles E. Livingston Thomas — of St. Louis, Mo.; Bronxville, Westchester County, N.Y. Born in Belleville, St. Clair County, Ill., April 11, 1876. Consul for Cuba in St. Louis, Mo., 1905; gas works manager; vice-president, Bronx Gas and Electric Company. Died in Bronxville, Westchester County, N.Y., November 30, 1926 (age 50 years, 233 days). Interment at Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis, Mo.
  Relatives: Son of Charles Wait Thomas and Rhoda E. (Bissell) Thomas; married to Eugenie Papin; grandson of William Henry Bissell.
  Political family: Bissell-Thomas-Kane family of Belleville, Illinois.
  See also Find-A-Grave memorial

"Enjoy the hospitable entertainment of a political graveyard."
Henry L. Clinton, Apollo Hall, New York City, February 3, 1872
The Political Graveyard

The Political Graveyard is a web site about U.S. political history and cemeteries. Founded in 1996, it is the Internet's most comprehensive free source for American political biography, listing 338,260 politicians, living and dead.
 
  The coverage of this site includes (1) the President, Vice President, members of Congress, elected state and territorial officeholders in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories; and the chief elected official, typically the mayor, of qualifying municipalities; (2) candidates at election, including primaries, for any of the above; (3) all federal judges and all state appellate judges; (4) certain federal officials, including the federal cabinet, diplomatic chiefs of mission, consuls, U.S. district attorneys, collectors of customs and internal revenue, members of major federal commissions; and political appointee (pre-1969) postmasters of qualifying communities; (5) state and national political party officials, including delegates, alternate delegates, and other participants in national party nominating conventions; (6) Americans who served as "honorary" consuls for other nations before 1950. Note: municipalities or communities "qualify", for Political Graveyard purposes, if they have at least half a million person-years of history, inclusive of predecessor, successor, and merged entities.  
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Site information: The Political Graveyard is created and maintained by Lawrence Kestenbaum, who is solely responsible for its structure and content. — The mailing address is The Political Graveyard, P.O. Box 2563, Ann Arbor MI 48106. — This site is hosted by HDLmi.com. — The Political Graveyard opened on July 1, 1996; the last full revision was done on February 17, 2025.