When this site was selected for a settlement in 1855, one of its founders recalled an old state history saying that the Menominee Chief Tomah had once gathered his tribe in this vicinity for a conference, and he proposed the name Tomah for the new village, which was adopted. The chief's name was Thomas Carron, with Tomah being the French pronunciation of Thomas. He was born in 1752 in the old King's village opposite Green Bay and was remembered as a man of magnificent appearance, six feet tall, with dark eyes and handsome features, firm, peaceable, conciliatory, and sincerely loved by the red and white men of his time.