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CHARLES P. KANE - The citizens of Springfield are familiar with the name of this gentleman, who is by profession an attorney-at-law. Socially he is also prominent, having been twice Eminent Commander of Elwood Commandery No. 6, K. T., Master of St. Paul's Lodge, No. 500, and Chancellor Commander of Percival Lodge No. 262, K. of P. An active Republican he is Secretary of the Republican Congressional Committee of the Thirteenth District, representing Sangamon County.

He of whom we write was born December 25, 1850, to the Rev. Andrew J. and Caroline M. (Beers) Kane, natives respectively of Guilford County, N.C., and Sangamon County, Ill. The father was born in 1818 and came to this State in early manhood in 1840. He has been a prominent minister in the Christian Church and is now one of the oldest members of the congregation which was organized at this place in 1833, and of which he was for a time pastor. He comes of an old Colonial family which was originally found in North Carolina and some of whose members served in the Revolutionary War. He and his estimable wife are still living in Springfield at a venerable old age. To them came ten children, seven of whom are living, viz: Mattie E., now Mrs. Thomas Tully, of Newburg, N.Y.; Charles P., our subject; Julia E., a resident of Springfield; Henry B., of Dallas, Tex.; Eugene S., of Huron, Dak.; Newell, of Tyler, Tex., and Isabel, a resident of this city.

The mother of our subject was born in 1827 and comes of one of the oldest pioneer families of Illinois. She is of New England antecedents, her father, Philo Beers, having been born in Woodbury, Conn., in 1793. He came to this county in 1820 and took up land in Williams Township, where he made a home and where the mother of our subject was born. Philo Beers married Miss Martha Stillman in 1820, their marriage being the first celebrated within the present limits of Sangamon County. Immediately after marriage he removed to Carlisle, Clinton County, (then a part of Washington County), Ill., and there became very prominent in its public life and was elected to the Legislature from that county. At that time Vandalia was the Capital of the State and there the Legislature convened.

Subsequently Philo Beers came north to this county again and for a few years lived on his farm in Williams Township. He finally removed to this city where he made his home, erecting the first brick dwelling house ever put up in the city of Springfield, and here he lived as a retired capitalist until his death in 1850. He was a member of the militia in his early days, was a soldier in the War of 1812, and was in the militia that was organized for the relief of Ft. Ticonderoga. The Beers family was one of the early Colonial families and moved from Watertown, Mass., to Fairfield, Conn., in 1635 and some of its members took part in the Revolution, among them being Zachariah Beers, great-grandfather of our subject, and two of his brothers. Richard Beers, the first known representative of the family in the United States, was a captain in King Philip's War. The members of the family now residing in Connecticut are very prominent there, some of them holding State offices. The maternal great-grandmother of our subject, Abigail Stillman, was one of the earliest settlers of this county, coming here in 1818 from East Bloomfield, N.Y., and settling among the pioneers of Williams Township. See Cothren's "History of Ancient Woodbury, Conn."

Charles P. Kane, the subject of this biographical review, was reared in his native city and was given a liberal education. He was graduated from the Springfield High School in 1868 and later read law with Messrs. Hay, Green & Littler, and was admitted to the bar June 13, 1871. He immediately established himself in this city, and May 1, 1874, entered into partnership with Robert H. Hazlett, formerly State's Attorney for Sangamon County. He soon became well known as a lawyer of merit and ability, and in the spring of 1878 was honored by his fellow citizens by election to the office of City Attorney, which he held for three consecutive terms, retiring from the position May 1, 1881. In 1885 he was elected by the City Council as a member of the City Board of Education and served five years with credit to himself and to the general satisfaction of the public. He is also Secretary and Treasurer of the Crass Cattle Company, having large interests in ranch and cattle property in Wyoming. Mr. Kane and Miss Flora Brittin, of Springfield, were united in marriage November 2, 1881. They have established an attractive home and their pleasant household is completed by their three children - Caroline M., Flora E., and Philo B. Mrs. Kane is the daughter of James M. and Elizabeth I. Brittin, the former a native of Illinois, the latter of Pennsylvania, now residing in Springfield, Ill. Mr. and Mrs. Kane are among the most active members of the Christian Church, of which he is an elder.