proud father, attended the opening ceremony of the Dawale railway station in 1900 surrounded by "a beautiful crowd of eight children." In the late 1890s, young Beyene, who was fluent in French, traveled to France and Italy with Andre Jarosseau. In 1903, on behalf of his father, he met in Dire Dawa with R.P. Skinner, the American diplomat sent by Theodore Roosevelt to sign a trade treaty with Menelik. Mersha himself was present, however, when the first-ever US diplomatic mission completed its visit and was preparing to leave Dire Dawa for Djibouti. In fact he conveyed a farewell message from the Emperor delivered over the phone from Addis. Beyene Mersha was later appointed by the emperor as head of the postal and telephone service opened in the frontier town of Dawale. During the period of uncertainty, following the emperor death, he stood on the side of those who campaigned to deny Lej Iyasu the throne, under the leadership of Fitawrari Tekle Hawaryat. In 1931, 'balambaras' Beyene was appointed director of the first Ethiopian School for Girls founded in Addis Abeba by Empress Menen. Prior to that, he was a member of the board for construction of the Dessie-Asseb road, a project undertaken by a team of Dutch engineers. Ato Denqu, husband of Negest Mersha, was appointed in 1907 as the chief of Dire Dawa's Post Office. He too traveled to Europe (e.g. Switzerland and Italy) to attend meetings of the International Postal Union after Ethiopia became a member in 1908. Many grandchildren and great-grandchildren live and work in Ethiopia and around the world. The most visible descendant today, Ato Abinet Gebremeskel, is a businessman and philanthropist in Ethiopia. Tadewos Assebework, the author of this short biographic sketch (click here for Amharic version of the Bio), is the grandson of Zegeye Mersha and great-grandson of Ato Mersha. Mersha's legacy includes a street named after him in Kezira (Gezira), a subsection of Dire Dawa during the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie. He was remembered and honored when the railway city celebrated its 105th anniversary in December 2007. However, Mersha is still very much a forgotten hero. His biography remains unwritten and his distinguished service is poorly known by many scholars and students of Ethiopian history. In his book titled Pioneers of Change in Ethiopia: The reformist Intellectuals of the early twentieth century, Professor Bahru Zewde describes the contributions of many historic personalities