"An Illustrated History of Skagit and Snohomish Counties."  Interstate
Publishing Company, 1906.  p. 549.
 
JOHN W. KAMB

     is one of the self-made men of Skagit county. Born in Finland in the
closing days of our American Civil War, he is to-day one of the type of adopted
American citizens whom the native born citizen is proud to greet as brother.
John W. Kamb first saw the light in April, 1865, and fourteen years later, his
father, John E. Kamb, died in the old home across the Atlantic, leaving eight
children, of which the subject of this sketch was second. The mother, Lena Kamb,
died in her native Finland. John W. Kamb, after receiving his education in the
Finnish schools, came to the United States at the age of twenty-one years and
settled in the state of Michigan, where he lived for two years, engaging in
various lines of work. The spring of 1888 found him in Seattle, wide awake for
opportunities in the country of the Puget sound. For a time Mr. Kamb worked at
railroading in Snohomish county, later doing similar work at Olympia. Eight
months in a saw-mill at Utsalada followed, with subsequent work as a member of a
pile driving crew. In 1889 he was building dikes on La Conner flats at some
seasons of the year and at others turning farm hand. It was during this period
of his life that he learned the first principles of operating a farm, which he
has so successfully put into practice during recent years. In the fall of 1894
Mr. Kamb rented a small farm and commenced operations on his own account. That
was the small beginning of his present farm of over 100 acres of meadow, grain
land and orchard, much of which he cleared with his own hands. Mr. Kamb has
augmented his original purchase of eighty acres and now has seventy acres in
timothy, thirty in oats and a small orchard. The oat land is marvellously rich
in the elements which make for large crops, the yield on this section of the
Kamb farm sometimes being 100 bushels to the acre. Mr. Kamb has a fine
eight-room house. He takes pride in his farm buildings, the main bam being a
structure 66x114 feet in dimensions.
     In February, 1900, Mr. Kamb married Miss Sadie Rutter, a native of
Pennsylvania, born in 1870. Her father, Robert Rutter, was born near Pittsburg,
Pennsylvania, in 1847, of Welsh-English parentage. The early years of his life
were spent in his native state and in 1878 he removed to Kansas, taking up a
homestead on the plains. Eleven years were passed in Kansas and in 1889 Mr.
Rutter came to Washington and settled at Bay View, Skagit county, where he has
lived ever since. Mrs. Rutter was also a native of the Keystone state,
her parents being of German and English descent. She was the mother of seven
children, two of whom are still living. She died in Kansas in 1889. Mrs. John W.
Kamb was educated in Kansas and came to this state with her father in 1889,
marrying when thirty years of age. Of the union there are two children, both bom
in Skagit county, Oscar F., born in April, 1902, and Leona, born in March, 1905.
Mr. Kamb is a Lutheran in religious faith. As a farmer, he is a firm believer in
the advantages of stock raising on a small farm, and is an enthusiast on the
subject of fine cattle and horses. He is at present making a specialty of Durham
cattle and heavy draft horses. Essentially a self-made man, Mr. Kamb, who had
little of the world's goods to start with, has become one of the prosperous and
respected citizens of Skagit county, of which achievement he may justly feel
proud.

     
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Submitted to the Washington Biographies Project in November 2008 by Diana Smith.
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.