Jacob Kamm (12 December 1823 – 16 December 1912) was a prominent early transportation businessman in

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, USA.

Early life

Kamm was born on 12 December 1823, in

Canton of Glarus The canton of Glarus ( ; ; ; ) is a cantons of Switzerland, canton in east-central Switzerland. The capital is Glarus. The population speaks a variety of Alemannic German. The majority of the population (81%) identifies as Christianity in Switzer ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. His family migrated to America when he was 8 to

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

and then

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. He worked as a

printer's devil A printer's devil was a young apprentice in a printing establishment who performed a number of tasks, such as mixing tubs of ink and fetching type. Notable writers including Benjamin Franklin, Walt Whitman, Ambrose Bierce, Bret Harte, and Mar ...

beginning at age 12. A story repeated after Kamm's death was that a thief stole $12 from him in 1837, leading Kamm to work on a Mississippi steamer, the ''Ark'', as a cabin boy. Trained as an engineer on the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

, he was certified chief engineer with the St. Louis Association of Steamboat Engineers at age 25. In 1849, he moved west with the

California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...

, piloting the ''Blackhawk'', a steamer, on the

Sacramento River The Sacramento River () is the principal river of Northern California in the United States and is the largest river in California. Rising in the Klamath Mountains, the river flows south for before reaching the Sacramento–San Joaquin River D ...

Oregon

Kamm moved to Oregon in 1850 after being hired by the

Milwaukie, Oregon Milwaukie is a city mostly in Clackamas County, Oregon, Clackamas County, Oregon, United States; a very small portion of the city extends into Multnomah County, Oregon, Multnomah County. The population was 21,119 at the 2020 United States Census, ...

founder Lot Whitcomb onto his ship, ''The Lot Whitcomb'', being the chief engineer on the

Willamette River The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward ...

. ''The Lot Whitcomb'' was launched on 25 December 1850. Kamm and

John C. Ainsworth John Commingers Ainsworth (June 6, 1822 – December 30, 1893) was an American pioneer businessman and steamboat owner in Oregon. A native of Ohio, he moved west to mine gold in California before immigrating to Oregon where he piloted steamships ...

joined with Abernathy and Clark, merchants from Oregon City, in 1854 or 1855 to build the ''Jenny Clark'', a

sternwheeler A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine driving paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, whereby the first uses were wh ...

on the Willamette. Kamm owned half of the ''Jenny Clark'', Ainsworth owned a quarter, and Abernathy and Clark shared the remaining quarter. They then built the ''Carrie Ladd'' steamer in 1858, called the "keystone of the

Oregon Steam Navigation Company The Oregon Steam Navigation Company (O.S.N.) was an American company incorporated in 1860 in Washington with partners J. S. Ruckle, Henry Olmstead, and J. O. Van Bergen. It was incorporated in Washington because of a lack of corporate laws in ...

". He was a founder of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company in 1879 and a shareholder in the

Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company The Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company operated a Narrow gauge railways, narrow gauge railroad that ran for over forty years from the Columbia Bar, bar of the Columbia River up the Long Beach Peninsula to Nahcotta, Washington, on Willapa Ba ...

. He built steamboats including in 1891, the ''Ocean Wave'' and in 1900, ''

Athlon AMD Athlon is the brand name applied to a series of x86, x86-compatible microprocessors designed and manufactured by AMD, Advanced Micro Devices. The original Athlon (now called Athlon Classic) was the first seventh-generation x86 processor a ...

''. One of the companies he owned was the Vancouver Transportation Company.Newell, Gordon R., ed., ''H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest'', at page 60, Superior Publishing, Seattle, WA, 1966 Kamm sold property to the city in about 1910 to construct

Old Lincoln High School Lincoln High School, also known as Lincoln Academy, was a high school for African Americans in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is commonly referred to as "Historic Lincoln High School" or "Old Lincoln". There is no connection with Leon ...

, currently known as

Portland State University Portland State University (PSU) is a public research university in Portland, Oregon, United States. It was founded in 1946 as a post-secondary educational institution for World War II veterans. It evolved into a four-year college over the next ...

's Lincoln Hall. His 1870s French Second Empire style home, the Jacob Kamm House was moved from its 14th and Main location in the 1950s to construct the current Lincoln High School. This estate near 14th and Main contained .

Personal life

Kamm married Caroline Augusta Gray on 13 September 1859 during the Pig War, on the PS ''Eliza Anderson'' steamer just outside Fort Hope, Canada. They had one son, Charles Tilton Kamm (1860–1906). Kamm was a

Mason Mason may refer to: Occupations * Mason, brick mason, or bricklayer, a worker who lays bricks to assist in brickwork, or who lays any combination of stones, bricks, cinder blocks, or similar pieces * Stone mason, a craftsman in the stone-cutti ...

, being inducted at age 21 in St. Louis. In Portland, he was affiliated with the Multnomah Lodge in Oregon City, then the Willamette Lodge in Portland. He was also a

Knights Templar The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a Military order (religious society), military order of the Catholic Church, Catholic faith, and one of the most important military ord ...

and a

Shriner Shriners International, formally known as the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (AAONMS), is an American Masonic society. Founded in 1872 in New York City, it is headquartered in Tampa, Florida, and has over 200 chapters ...

. Caroline Augusta Gray was born on 16 October 1840 at Camp Lapwai, outside

Lewiston, Idaho Lewiston is a city and the county seat of Nez Perce County, Idaho, United States, in the state's North Central Idaho, north central region. It is the third-largest city in the Idaho Panhandle, northern Idaho region, behind Post Falls, Idaho, Pos ...

. Her father was William H. Gray. She died in 1932.

Late life and death

In December 1907, Kamm was "run down by a reckless bicycle rider" in Portland. Another report described the bicyclist as a "careless boy bicyclist"; Kamm was confined to his bed for many days. Kamm became ill on 1 December 1912, "being an invalid" since the 1907 bicycle wreck. By December 13, ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the West Coast of the United States, U.S. West Coast, founded as a weekly by Tho ...

'' reported he "may only live a few hours", stating his condition was "sinking rapidly". The following day, he entered a coma and died. He was buried at the River View Cemetery in Portland. At time of death, his estate was valued at approximately $4 million. Aside from the Jacob Kamm home and property, he also owned a half-block building at Front and Pine, a quarter block at Third and Yamhill, a quarter block at First and Washington, the Vancouver Transportation Company, was a "heavy stockholder" in the First National Bank of Astoria, and a "heavy stockholder" in the First National Bank of Portland. He also owned valuable property on Market Street in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. At the time of his death, the Vancouver Transportation Company operated two ships: the ''Lurline'' and ''Undine'' on routes between Portland and Astoria. In 1929, E.W. Wright, a marine historian, wrote that Kamm was one of "two outstanding figures whose leadership in Columbia river steamboating will never be disputed".

References

External links

Biographical sketch
(with portrait) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kamm, Jacob 1823 births 1912 deaths People from the canton of Glarus Swiss emigrants to the United States People from Oregon Territory Businesspeople from Oregon 19th-century American businesspeople