As to the building of the old Lot Whitcomb, Jacob Kamm can truthfully say "all of which I saw, and a part of which I was." The Lot Whitcomb was launched at the town of Milwaukie, six miles above Portland on Christmas day, 1850, now sixty years ago. In his notice of the early steamboats Judge Strong seems to think that the Columbia, a boat projected by General Adair, and built at upper Astoria in 1850 was the first boat. But that fact can't be well decided between the two contestants for the honor, as both boats were built in the same year, and there is no accessible evidence showing which boat "took to the water" first. Strong says that the mechanics building the Columbia were paid sixteen dollars a day for their work, and the common laborers handling lumber were paid from five to eight dollars a day in gold dust. They certainly fared better than the men working on the Whitcomb, for they got no pay until the boat was running and earning something, and then they had to take pay in wheat, and farmers produce, and convert it into cash or "store pay" as best they could.
The history of the Lot Whitcomb is mixed up with the struggle between rival towns for the location of the future city. Mr. Lot Whitcomb, one of the most energetic and ambitious men of early Oregon pioneer days, had located his land claim on the present site of the town of Milwaukie, and with the aid of Captain Joseph Kellogg started in to build a city. He had got together enough machinery to build a little saw mill, and was shipping little "jags" of lumber to the embryo town of San Francisco in '49 and '50; the profits on which were so large, that he was enabled to buy the old bark Lausanne that had brought the fifty-two Methodist missionaries out here. In the Lausanne were a pair of engines and all the necessary machinery for a steamboat. These engines had evidently been sent out in the bark from New York for the express purpose of building a steamboat on the Willamette or Columbia rivers, and had been forgotten, or overlooked as not necessary to the Methodist mission; and so Whitcomb looked upon his "find" in the bottom of the ship as an act of Providence to enable him to build a steamboat, and with her aid annihilate the pretensions of the little town of Portland. Whitcomb. lost -no- time in getting those engines to Milwaukie and made all possible haste to build his boat. He had taken time by the forelock and hunted up a man at Sacramento, California, that was qualified to build a steamboat. That man he found in the person of a young man named Jacob Kamm, who was born in Switzerland, and coming to the United States and to St. Louis had learned the business of an engineer on the Mississippi river steamboats from the bottom up, and had his papers to show his qualifications. Whitcomb at once engaged Mr. Kamm, and brought him to Oregon to put up the engines and boilers, and put all the machinery in the boat.
This was a great opening for the young engineer, and Jacob Kamm was the man to fully appreciate it and make the most of his opportunity. Young, ambitious to succeed, industrious, frugal and thoroughly conscientious in the discharge of every duty, and in protecting and promoting the interests of his employer, he won the confidence of everybody, and his fortune was made in the good name and good standing he secured from this first employment in Oregon. So that from that time on Jacob Kamm never lacked employment at the highest wages, nor friends, nor chances to get ahead in the battle of life.
While Mr. Kamm was entrusted with the most important work of putting in and operating the machinery of the new boat, Mr. W. L. Hanscom was employed to build the hull and cabin. All hands worked together with a hearty good will to complete the boat and make the best showing possible; although the reputed owner'?. Lot Whitcomb and Berryman Jennings, were in such straitened circumstances as to be scarcely able to pay the board bills of the men; having expended all their means in the purchase of the engines and machinery. The boat was practically finished and launched on Christmas day, 1850. Wm. Henry Harrison Hall was employed as pilot. Jacob Kamm as engineer, while the builder Hanscom acted as master in running the boat until she was paid for and the necessary papers issued by the collector of customs at Astoria. No
