In the 1850’ s, Hamburg Bar on the Klamath River provided good diggings for gold miners who found nuggets weighing up to 16 ounces upriver from Hamburg at Scott Bar, Calif. Miners swarmed to the area that had been the site of large gatherings of Karuk Indians.
Sigmund Simon christened the town Hamburgh, spelled with an “h” at the end, in honor of his birthplace in Germany. He raised a flag of white flour sacks and red and blue shirts onto a pole. Born in May 1823, Simon sailed around Cape Horn to get to California. He settled at Scott Bar and opened a merchandising business.
Thirty-one years later, another mining town took its name from Simon, called Simonville, near Johnson’s Bar. Simon married Louisa Maria Nentzel there. She was the daughter of his business partner Christopher Nentzel. The couple had nine children. Though Simon mined, he was primarily a businessman. When he died in 1881 at age 58, he had been the treasurer of the Scott Bar Masonic Lodge No. 108, the Scott River postmaster and owner of the Simon and Nentzel Clothing Store in Scott Bar.
His widow became the first postmistress in Siskiyou County.
Source: Fiorini-Jenner, Gail L., and Bernita L. Tickner. Western Siskiyou County: Gold & Dreams. Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2002/2005. 49. Print.
