History of King County, Washington
By Clarence B. Bagley in 1929. Now in Public Domain
From Chapter 47: Issaquah, Pages 776-779
Issaquah: Churches
The first religious services in Squak Valley were held by Protestant ministers at irregular intervals in the '60s. The Rev. R. C. Smith, D. R. McMillan, and others preached there, the latter holding services in the Bush farmhouse. In 1875 the Rev. A. Atwood and the Rev. D. R. McMillan held a revival meeting at Squak and at Fall City. A number of persons joined the Methodist Protestant Church, represented by McMillan. A few years later Atwood held occasional services in a hall belonging to Gen. G. W. Tibbetts in the valley, also in a small schoolhouse at Monohon.
In 1889 Ingebright Wold gave a lot 50 x 120 feet for a church upon which a building 30 x 50 feet was erected in 1890, during the pastorate of George R. Osborn. A man named Hubbard built the church and money and labor were contributed by Gen. G. W. Tibbetts, James Bush, W. R. Bush, L. A. Wold, George Davis, John Friend, Peter Rippe, Peter Smith, and others. A contribution of $250 was also obtained from the Board of Church Extension of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Officers of the enterprise were J. H. Northup, D. T. Carr, and C. W. Wells, trustees of the Houghton charge. The early resident pastors were W. H. Johnstone George R. Osborn, J. M. P. Hickerson, H. Alling, E. R. King, 1892; A. Crumley, J. R. Edwards, 1893; H. D. Wadsworth, 1895; W. R. King, 1897.
On September 27, 1892, the organization was incorporated as the Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal Church of the Town of Gilman. The incorporators were as follows: John Friend, J. H. Gibson, Mrs. Aura Putnam, Mr. and Mrs. J. Leitch Parker; W. E. Gibson, Mrs. Fannie Gibson, Mrs. Ida Gibson, W. Woodruff, Carrie E. Woodruff, C. R. Shaw, and E. R. King.
In 1898, during the pastorate of W. R. King, a parsonage was built on a lot 50 x 120. King died at his Issaquah charge on April 4, 1899.
In 1900 the Methodists held a spirited revival at Issaquah and Monohon.
In 1902 L. J. Covington was Sunday school superintendent, Benjamin Price class leader, and the following were stewards: Mrs. Susan Gibson, Mrs. H. R. Corson, Mrs. H. C. Vaughn, Joseph Peck, and C. R. Berry. Trustees were as follows: Doctor H. R. Corson, Doctor W. E. Gibson, Professor Thomas Brown, William E. Vaughan, and Thomas Cubbon.
Following the death of King, Luther J. Covington took the pastorate in 1899 and was succeeded by T. J. Redfern in 1902. On September 28, 1903, the Rev. A. J. McNemee returned to his old field and served as pastor until the next year.
"Issaquah was a coal mining town of a thousand inhabitants," McNemee writes, in telling of his experiences there, in his book, cited in the chapter on the Snoqualmie Valley. "I only had a few church members and there were nine saloons in the town. The year I was there the miners had three strikes. There were many children and I did what I could to build up the Sunday School, but only had a few teachers. Monohon was an afternoon appointment four and a half miles away and it was hard work to preach three times and teach a class in Sunday School besides attending the Epworth League. At the end of the year I had a nervous breakdown."
McNemee describes the primitive conditions under which worship was carried on in these pioneer communities.
"Our church in Issaquah was built on cedar blocks from one to two feet high and the hogs made their beds under the church," he writes. "During the evening services they caused us no little trouble. Finally one of my friends and I got some lumber and boarded up the opening and also put in some heavy iron rods in the church to keep the building from spreading. We worked hard for two weeks to finish it. My friend remarked, 'I wish the church was lowered about a foot and moved over about four or five feet' as it was near the street excavation. That night there came a hard wind from the east and blew the church off the blocks and just to the place my friend had wanted it moved. The windows were smashed, the inside casings split, the chimney had toppled over and it certainly was a sorry-looking wreck after the storm. It cost us $500 to repair the damage. We later painted the church and built a fence around it to keep out the stock. Directly back of the pulpit on the outside was a knot hole in the rustic lumber which a swarm of bees discovered. They entered and nested between the wall and the wainscoting. They always got busy when our choir began to sing and almost broke up the service. I tried to drive them out but failed. The next pastor was wiser-he cut a hole through the boards and found a quantity of honey to pay for his trouble."
The Rev. S. J. Buck succeeded McNemee in 1904 and his successors, until the appointment of the Rev. C. C. Dix in 1920, were as follows: W. B. Marsh, 1905; Horace Williston, 1908; Charles A. Owens, 1909; S. G. Jones, 1911; R. G. Pike, 1915; Charles F. Johnson, 1916; A. F. Grissom, 1917, and S. V. Warren, 1918. During 1921 and 1922 the Issaquah church was supplied by the Methodist Conference. By 1923 the diminishing strength of the Methodists and the Baptists made a union of forces advisable, and the Rev. Archie M. Hurd was the first pastor of the Issaquah Community Church. In 1928 the Rev. George S. Maness, a Baptist, was pastor.
The Issaquah Baptist Church was organized on May 2, 1890, with about a dozen members. In June of the same year it entered the Northwestern Association, reporting fourteen members, with William Brown from Kent supplying them. The church was holding regular services in a good-sized room, which had been furnished for church purposes. On June 3, 1896, the church was recognized and Brown ordained as a minister by a council called for that purpose.
The Rev. Mr. Brown worked successfully at Issaquah for a while, but on account of strikes and other causes the congregation became scattered, and finally Brown gave up the work and left the town. In 1900 there were no pastor and no services. The mining company had refused to donate a lot save for union church purposes and no building had been erected. In December of that year a Baptist Sunday school and prayer meeting were organized by E. M. Sylvester, the banker, and half a dozen others in Issaquah and ten Baptists at Pine Lake, five miles away.
The Rev. Archie M. McIntosh came to Issaquah in 1903 and remained until he was succeeded by the Rev. Charles F. Eisenmenger in 1906. The latter preached there until 1913, when W. P. Hillyer came from Fall City. In 1914 and 1915 R. I. Case served the church, but during the next few years the annals of the Western Washington Baptist Convention show no minister regularly stationed there. The Rev. J. D. Nicholls finally came in 1921 and was the last regular Baptist minister at Issaquah before the establishment of the Community Church.
On September 6, 1900, a Swedish Baptist Church was established at Preston. Charter members were the following: August Lovegren, B. G. Benson, A. P. Johnson, Theodore Johnson, E. Edwin, F. 0. Lonn, Charles J. Palmquist, and G. F. Lindquist. The church has had a continuous existence since that time. The present pastor, the Rev. Axel Carlson, was appointed in 1927.
As early as the '8Os there were a few settlers in Squak Valley who desired the rites of the Roman Catholic Church. Peter McCloskey bought some land from Jacob Jones in 1879. In the early '8Os other Catholic families came, among them those of Martin Gleason, Michael Donlan, and Martin and John Heinz. The author was unable to obtain the date of the first mass, but it was held at the home of Michael Donlon by Father Emmanuel Demanez, later chaplain of Providence Hospital in Seattle. Priests came occasionally to the valley and held services in the farmhouses. Among the early priests were Father McAuley, who came from Snohomish; Fathers Victor Garrand, Reed, and Adrian Sweere, Jesuits from Seattle, and Father Peter Garde, also from Seattle.
During the present century, St. Joseph's Church at Issaquah has been conducted as a mission of St. Anthony's of Renton. In 1896 the present wooden frame church building was erected by P. J. Maloney of North Bend during the pastorate of Father Peter Van Holderbeck on property donated by McCloskey. Father Edwin J. O'Brien took charge for a year after Father Van Holderbeck and was in turn succeeded by Father Bourke, who served until 1905. In that year Father Van de Walle, now at Snohomish, took charge. In 1907 Father John Power took over the Renton parish and with it the Issaquah mission. In 1909 Father Power was relieved and since that time the mission has been attended from Renton by Fathers M. J. O'Callaghan, Joseph Cammerman, Sampson, Nicholas O'Rafferty, Ailbe Heenan, Deere, F. B. Klein, and the present pastor at Renton, Father William Carey.
Issaquah has also had a Finnish Lutheran Church for several years.
Next Page | Previous Page | Table of ContentsHistory of King County, Washington
By Clarence B. Bagley in 1929. Now in Public Domain