According to Captain Augustin Grignon, Tomah was born about the year 1752 at the Old King's village, opposite to Green Bay, on the west bank of Fox river.
Also, Captain Grignon provided the following description of Tomah:
He was about six feet in height, spare, with a dark-colored eye, and handsome features, and very prepossessing; he was, in truth, the finest looking chief I have ever known of the Menomonees or any other tribe. His speeches were not lengthy, but pointed and expressive. He was firm, prudent, peaceable and conciliatory. He was sincerely beloved alike by whites and Indians. Tomah had three wives, by the first of whom he had three children; then separating from her, he married two sisters and lived with both at the same time as long as they lived, by one of whom he had four children, and none by the other. He out-lived both of these wives. Two sons by his first wife became chiefs, Mau-kau-tau-pee and Josette Carron, and Glode of his second family, Mau-kau-tau-pee, who served on McKay's Prairie du Chien expedition, died in, or shortly after, 1820. Josette Carron died early in 1831; and Glode, who spoke the French language well, and had no love for public affairs, died about 1848. Two grandsons of Tomah, sons of Josette Carron, are now prominent chiefs, Show-ne-on, or The Silver, now thirty years of age, and Ke-she-nah, about twenty-seven.
