[2] His paternal lineage descended from John O'Kane, who emigrated to the country in 1752 from County Londonderry and Antrim, Ireland.
[2] 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] After prep school in New York, Kane attended and graduated from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, in June 1866.
[1] After the Naval Academy, Kane was assigned the grade of ensign and began working on the staff of Admiral David Farragut.
[1] After the Navy, he attended university in England then returned to the United States for law school, and was admitted to the bar.
"[6]Kane, who suffered from cirrhosis hepatitis, died of intestinal hemorrhages in a sleeping car in Manassas, Virginia, about thirty miles from Washington, D.C., on November 15, 1906.