• Home
• People
• Lot Whitcomb

Lot Whitcomb

Lot Whitcomb (April 24, 1807 – March 31, 1857) was a mid-19th-century entrepreneur who built the first steamship on the Willamette River in the U.S. state of Oregon. Born in Vermont, he moved to Michigan and then to Illinois, where he served in the Illinois House of Representatives. Emigrating to Oregon in 1847, he settled on a donation land claim, built a sawmill and gristmill, and founded the town of Milwaukie in 1848. The sawmill was located near the confluence of Johnson Creek with the Willamette.Whitcomb entered the freight-hauling business in 1849, building a schooner, Milwaukie, and buying a brig, Forest, to carry lumber and other goods to markets in California. With profits from his freight business, in 1850 he started a newspaper, Western Star, based in Milwaukie. It was the first Oregon newspaper founded after formation of the Oregon Territory. In 1851, it was moved to Portland and its name changed to the Oregon Weekly Times.In the same year he started his newspaper, Whitcomb built his steamship, Lot Whitcomb. John C. Ainsworth captained the vessel, which was 160 feet (49 m) long and had side wheels that were 18 feet (5.5 m) in diameter. Jacob Kamm, who installed the steamship's machinery, was the engineer. Whitcomb, in a Western Star editorial on November 21, 1850, promoted the steamboat, meant for "river navigation between Oregon City and Pacific City, touching at every point where there is business." After the ship was launched, it made regular trips between Oregon City and Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia River. However, river shoals between Milwaukie and Portland made the latter more accessible to large vessels, and Portland soon won the competition for sea-going commerce. Whitcomb sold the ship to an Oregon City group, which in turn sold it to the California Steam Navigation Company in 1853 for use on the Sacramento River.Whitcomb's other activities included a term (1852–53) as Clackamas County representative to the House chamber of the Oregon Territorial Legislature. He served as postmaster at Milwaukie from 1851 through 1857.