Me-shin-go-me-sia. His ancestors and descendants.—No reliable account of the ancestors of Me-shin-go-me-sia can be traced farther back than the fourth generation, or to the time of Osandiah, who, at the head of one division of the tribe, left Fort Wayne (at what date no one knows) and settled on the Big Miami River in Ohio. Soon after his settlement at this point he visited Gen. Washington, at that time President, who presented him with tokens of regard. This aroused the jealousy of the other tribes, by whom it is believed he was poisoned. Upon the death of Osandiah his son, Ataw-ataw, became chief, and he, in turn, was succeeded by his son, Me-to-cin-yah, who removed with his tribe to Indiana and settled in what is now Wabash and Grant Counties, and after a successful reign of many years died, and his remains were buried in Wabash County. He was the father of ten children: Me-shin-go-me-sia, Ta-con- saw, Mack-quack-yno-nun-gah, Shop-on-do-sheab, Wa-pe-si-taw, Me-tack-quack-quah, So-lin-jes-yah, Wa-cau-con-aw, Po-kung-e- yah and We-cop-eme-nah. Upon the death of Me-to-cin-yah, his eldest son, Me-shin-go-me- sia, succeeded to the chieftaincy. He was born in Wabash County about the beginning of the last quarter of the eighteenth century (the precise date not known). At the age of about thirty he married Tac-ka-quah, a daughter of So-a-nah-ke-kah, and to them were born two sons Po-kung-gah and Ataw-ataw. He was a man of great firmness, though not obstinate. He was ordinarily intelligent and always displayed judgment and good business sense in the man- agement of the affairs of his band. With his death which occurred December —, 1879, the last chief of this historic tribe passed away. The few who remain are the descendants of the old chief, and ere many years have swept away they too will have been translated to the happy hunting grounds and the last trace of the noble red man will disappear, but the romance of his life will be recited centuries after his race is extinct . "Ye say they all have passed away, That noble race and brave; That their light canoes have vanished From off the crested wave; That 'mid the forest where they roamed There rings no hunter's shout; But their name is on your waters, Ye may not wash it out."
