Canton of Glarus
Kamm was born on 12 December 1823, in Canton of Glarus, Switzerland. His family migrated to America when he was 8 to Illinois, St. Louis and then New Orleans. He worked as a printer's devil 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, 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, piloting the "Blackhawk", a steamer, on the Sacramento River.