Monroe County, Wisconsin - Chapter 33: Tomah, Menomonee Chief, 1912

It having been established beyond the question that the city of Tomah was named from Tliomas Carron, or "Tomah," which is the French pronunciation for Thomas, a biography of this remarkable man merits a place in this work. There seems to have been a great deal of uncertainty in the past among the people of Tomah who have been interested in investigating its early days and the reason for the name, and it has frequently been written that he was a Winnebago chief, but through the efforts of the Wisconsin State Historical Society the principal facts in his life have been gathered and are here presented.

Tomah was the most noted of the sons of the old Carron, a celebrated Menomonee chief, and was born in 1752 in the old King's village, opposite Green Bay. He was a man of magnificent appearance, being six feet tall, with dark eyes and handsome features, and was very prepossessing, with a lordly bearing. He looked every inch a king and one writer, Grignon, says that he was the finest looking chief that he had ever seen. He was firm, prudent, peaceable and conciliatory, and wfss sincerely loved alike by the white and red men of his time. In his early manhood he became the acting chief of the ^Menomonee tribe, although he had no hereditary title to the chieftainship. This was held at the time by a man about as old as himself, who was an idiot. Tomah merely ruled as the acknowledged strongest man of his nation, and this he continued to do for a great many years. The Indian tribes around him are represented as beingafraid of him, which is mentioned as a singular fact, that he never engaged in Avar with any of them while in control of the nation, but seemed to inspire awe by his great ability.

The home of this tribe was in the vicinity of Green Bay, l)ut the Indians at different times roamed tJiis entire country, and no doubt at some time the chief Tomah occupied for a brief space some portion of the site of the present city of Tomah as his camping grounds and made the acquaintance of some settler or settlers in that region, who were so impressed with his bearing and frii'n(llin(\s.s that liis name was jji-oposed for the little early settlement, and (^ver since the village, and afterwards the city, has horiK^ his name. An account Avritten by James AV. Biddle, of Pittsburgh, Pa., of a visit to the Indian trilx'S at Green Bay and vicinity along in 1810 and 1817, gives many interesting events in the history of this great chief. jMr. l^iddle relates that on his visit he learned that in 1810 or 1811 Tecumseh was forming his great combination for drivint: llic Americans back, who, like the waves of the sea, were encroaching upon their hunting grounds. AYith this vicAV he visited Green Bay, obtained a council and hearing from Tomah and his people, whom he addressed in a manner he best knew how to do, and in the course of which, in true Indian spirit, he pictured the glory, as well as certainty of success, and as omens of this recapitulated to them his own hitherto ])rosperous career - the number of battles he had fought, tlic victories he had won, the enemies he had slain, and the scalps he had taken from the lieads of the warrior-foes. Tonuili appeared sensible of this influence, for he was opposed to leading his people into war. His reply was in a tone to allay this feeling, and he closed Avith the remark to tliem that they had heard the words of Tecumseh - heard of the battles lie had fought, the enemies he iiad slain, and the scalps he had taken. He then paused, and while the deepest silence reigned throughout the audience he slowly raised his hands, and his eyes fixed on them, and in a lower I)iit not less prouder tone, continued, "But i1 is my boast that these hands are unstained with Imiiuiii blood!*' The eflt'ect is described as tremendous - nature obeyed her own impulse; an admiration Mas forced even from those who could not. or did not, approve of the moral to be implied, and the gravity of the council Avas disturbed for an instant by a murmur of ai)probation, a tribute of genius, overpowering at the moment the force of education and of haliit. He concluded Avith remarking that he had ever supported the policy of peace, as his nation Avas small and consequently Aveak; 1li;it he Avas I'lilly awai-e of llie injustice of the Anu'ricaus in tlu-ii- encroadiiiienls upon the lands of Ihe Indians, and for them feai'ed its consecjuences. I)u1 llial he sawno I'elief for it in going to Avai-. aiul therefore, as a national tiling, he Avould not do so, but that if any of his young nuMi Avere desirous of leaving their hunting grounds and foUoAving Tecumseh they had his permission to do so. His prudent councils prevailed.

remarkable one to come from a savage, for such Tomali was by l)irth and edneation, but by nature I always thought him one of the grandest specimens of humanity I had ever seen. I had not met with him at Green Ba^' ; I was only a few days here in 1816 and hurried with business, nor did I hear much, if anvthing, of him, until after meeting him the next year at ^lackinaw. The tirst I lieard of him was a prescription of his to Col. John Bowyer, tlie Indian agent at Green Bay, for the gout, of which my brother, EdAvard Biddle, told me, and a very rational one I thought it, ' to drink no whiskey, live on lean meat and wild rice and scarify his feet.' This led me to make inquiries about him when I found that my brother had become a warm friend of his - an admirer of him.

"When at Mackinaw early one morning in the latter part of May or early in June, 1817, I had come out of my lodgings and observed approaching me one of tlie many Indians then on the island, and taking a look at him as he emerged from the fog, then very heavy, I was struck as he passed in a most unusual manner by his singularly imposing presence. I had never seen, I thought, so magnificent a man. He was of large size, perhaps full six feet, with hue proportions, a little stoop-shouldered, and dressed in a someAvhat dirty Indian l)lanket, and had scarcel}^ noticed me as he passed. I remember it as distinctly as if it was yesterday. I watched him until he disappeared again in the fog and remember almost giving expression to a feeling which seemed irresistibly to creep over me, tliat the earth was too mean for such a man to walk on ! The idea, to be sure, was discarded the moment it came up, but existence it had at this, my first view, of Toraah. 1 had no knowledge at the time who he was or that Tomah was on the island, but while standing there before my door and under the influence of the feeling I have described, Henry Graverat, the Indian interpreter, came up and I inquired of him whether he knew an Indian who had just passed by? He replied yes. that it was Tomah, chief of the IMenomonee Indians, who, with his people, had arrived late the evening before and were encamped at the 'Point;' that Tomah had just been with him to ask a council with the Indian agent, Maj. Wm. H. Puthuff. The council was held at 10 o'clock and I made it my business to attend.

"To understand what follows, I must make a short digression. The British for many years had paid annual contributions, termed by them Indian annuities, giving each member of the tribe a suit of clothes, consisting of a shirt, leggins, breech-clout and blanket

- and each family a copper kettle, knives, axes, guns, ammunition, etc. For these each tribe came regularly in the spring or fall, either to ^Mackinaw or Drummond's island or the Sault Ste. ]\Iarie. Tomah was a British Indian. He had not himself engaged in the war, but his feelings were with the British, as were personally some of his young men. He had arrived on ^Mackinaw island Avith his whole people on their way to Drummond's island to receive their usual annuity, and stopped at ^Mackinaw to rest over night. There was nothing novel to us in this as a number of tribes had previously arrived, stopped and had a council, at which they told their story, always winding up with professions of love for their 'Chemuckiman Nosah,' or American father, who, they hoped, would open his heart and give their people some meat to stay them on tlieir journey, and his breasts to give them some milk - i. e., whiskey - to make them joyful. This was the usual winding up of all such councils. AVhen the council in this instance had met and the proper time offered, Tomah arose and stated to ]\Iajor Puthuff that he had arrived Avith the Menoinonee nation the night before on their Avay to visit their Britisli father, and that having stopped on the island to rest over the night he had thought it his duty to report the fact to his American father. "With this simple announcement he sat down. Puthuff, a little nettled, made a short reply and the council broke up.

"Coming out of the council house I waited for ]\Iajor Puthuff and remarked to him tliat Tomah would want some provisions for his people, and that I wished he would give me an order for that purpose. 'D - n the rascal, why didn't he ask for it, then?' 'I suppose,' said I, 'being a British Indian, he is too proud.' 'AVell, let him starve then.' 'If all are to starve who are proud, God help manj^ that I know of, major.' I had no difticulty in prevailing in the matter as the government had made provision for such issues to Indians, and Graverat and I made out an estimate proper under the circumstances to give, and Tomah and his people continued their voyage.

"In a few days he and they returned, dejected and disconsolate. A change had come over the spirit of British policy. They had just come out of a long and exhausting dance, led them by Napoleon, and were counting the cost. They had been casting around to find where surest and readiest to cut off drains upon their treasury and judging tiiat they had no further need of Indian services, lopped off the whole list of Indian annuities. This was already known to ^lackinaw and had been told to Tomah upon his arrival, but he Avould not, or did not, believe it. He found it, however, too true. There were no annuities there for him or for any of the other tribes, many of whom were there, and it was anticipated at one time that they would rise against the British force there and take what they could get. But this was not attempted.

"My brother Edward, then and now at Mackinaw, had been well acquainted with Tomah at Green Bay, and immediately after his return to the island he came into the store, spoke a few words to my brother and left. I had seen the interview and watched the result without making any inquiry, for I saw that my brother, who greatly loved Tomah, was imbued with all his melancholy. In a few moments a young Indian came into the store with a three-gallon keg, which my brother bade the young man in the store to fill with wdiiskey, which was charged on the books to Tomah. I was looking over the books but a few years ago and saw the entry on the ledger, which brought with it a train of wild and melancholy thoughts. This insult from the British authorities, as he took it, was more than his proud heart could bear. For himself he might have borne up against it, but for his people, and in the sight of those whose good offices he had refused to ask, he could or would not. The keg Avas brought to him in his tent, from which he drank alone, and to an excess that relieved him on the third day of pride, grief, joy and care. He was buried on the island. I was present at his funeral and witnessed his daughter, a young girl of nineteen or twenty, as she mournfully sang his death song at the head of the coffin just before lowering into the grave all that was mortal of Tomah. I never saw so distressed and broken-hearted a people. They said they were no longer a nation, no longer anything. Tomah could alone command and keep them together, but now they would be scattered and lost. We made a collection and bought them provisions which carried them home, where they organized under some other chief, until driven from their old hunting-grounds by you land-grasping AYisconsiners !"

Tomah died and was buried at Mackinaw, July 8, 1818, at the age of sixty-six years. On his grave IMr. John Law, of Green Bay, erected a monument with the following inscription :

"Here rests the body of Thomas Carron, grand chief of the Folle Avoine (Menominee) nation, who departed this life July 8, 1818, aged sixty-six years, regretted by all who knew him."

Thus lived and died this great man, for great he was in his day, a heroic figure of commanding ability, gifted with that nobility of character and breadth of mind which makes men great, whether civilized or savage ; and his great influence among his people and the surrounding tribes did much in keeping the friendly relations -with the early settlers, whom he invariably protected. He was fully as great as Phillip, of Pokanoket, or Pontiac, or Tecumseh, not as well known perhaps, but exhi1)iting traits of character which called for great admiration, and the city which bears his name may well be proud of it. - Ed.