PRESERVING THE STORIES OF ISSAQUAH
A Memory Book Project of the
Issaquah Historical Society
Lester J. Adair
3/1/1914
My granddad settled the property in 1903. The family has lived on this property ever since.
It was home.
Issaquah Elementary beginning in 1920 when I was 6 years old and graduated in 1933 from Issaquah High School.
Our family history is discussed in the Family Book.
Ernest Edgerton, taught the sciences; chemistry, physics and physical geography.
Lawrence Jenson, taught manual training. Mr. Jenson was trained in Sweden and had a wonderful knowledge of woodworking and how to impart that knowledge.
Miss Eades, biology teacher. Along with lab and classroom work, she took the class on field trips, pointing out that which others would have missed.
Harold Byrd, typing teacher, saw to it that you learned how to type, get your class work done, and do the exercises that made your fingers more accurate.
Miss Wager taught foreign languages such as Spanish and French.
Jim Stevens taught oral English. His classes were really interesting because he was able to teach some of the girls who were really shy how to overcome their shyness, and speak in front of the class. One girl in particular was so shy she could hardly speak in class. With his training and methods, she soon was able to carry on her class work just about like everybody else in class.
The training that we got from these fine teachers had a direct bearing on how we communicate with other people as we grew up.
Minnie was originally the first grade teacher of my brother. I ran into her years later when I was working on a WPA project and she had to sign the various forms as representative of the City.
I lettered in football and track. I was too busy elsewhere for anything else.
Hiking, hunting, fishing. rockhounding.
We didn’t get into mischief that would get us into trouble. Dad made it very plain that how we were to deal with other people and other people’s property. He was a good Dad, but a strict Dad.
Grange Mercantile, Fishers Meats, Grange Supply
Dave Lewis’ Barbershop. (one of my best friends that I did a lot of hunting and fishing with.)
We purchased fishing tackle, ammunition for hunting trips, Hunting and fishing Regulation books.
Tony and Johnny’s for a long time, Red and White (Leonard Miles store) and Grange Mercantile. (Also, there was a Money Savers)
All of our groceries were purchased there. We rented the storage locker and kept it full, both of meat and fruit. Pick Pickering, the manager, was shot during hold-up there, about 1930.
We stopped in the Honeysuckle of Tom Drylie’s once in a while.
Not very often
Clam chowder
No
I had no tolerance for hard liquor and don’t like beer, so I didn’t go in those places.
The Grange handled many things for the people. In 1956 when our neighborhood had to renew our well, Mr. Stickney, the manager of the Grange, was very helpful in telling us all the various things we’d need.
Anything in the way of nuts and bolts, you got it at the Grange Supply.
I knew both Lou and Gertie because they were friendly people. They always helped you to find things on the shelf. Years later, Marcia and I were down at Westport having dinner. To our surprise, up walked Lou who was the pharmacist at the Westport local drug store to say hello.
The presence of the WPA in Issaquah made a difference in the lives of many Issaquah people who were out of work because of the Depression. Most of that time, I spent in the WPA office as a typist. Jerry Marquis was the accountant. We handled all the paperwork for the sidewalks, cemetery improvement, watershed, and city sewers.
Issaquah was also known as having the highest number of moonshine stills in the county, in the hills around the town... some no more than a mile from City Hall.
My only memory of Stella Alexander was when I was advised by a farmer in the area to take my sick hunting dog to her since she was raised on a farm and knew how to take care of animals. With her help, I managed to get my dog through a very severe case of distemper. He was an ugly beast but the best hunting dog I ever owned.
The Great Depression was a tragedy for the average working man who became unemployed because of lack of work. I saw kids wearing the same dress all week long at school because they didn’t have anything else. The boys were no better off.
I managed to pay for most of my school expenses and clothes with money that I earned trapping; mink, muskrat, skunk, weasel. One skunk hide earned $7.50. What I earned increased dramatically when I learned to prepare the hides.
We went to the movies when it was dime night. My mother and Dad spent the summers canning everything they could find, for the winter.
We ate fairly well because we always raised a cow, hogs and chickens. I raised ducks. We always had a big garden. I did a lot of hunting. Ba-Ba was our milk cow, though she was considered a pet. My Mom and Dad just about died when they had to take her to Fishers.
It had a dramatic effect on the town people because suddenly, they had to commute so far to work.
Kenneth Kobukata, a Japanese-American, lived and worked on a farm on the Plateau owned by Mr. Best.
The Kobukata family was sent to an Internment Center in Idaho, I believe.
This was usually when the rodeo was put on. Races, bucking horses, chariot races, bulldogging, carnivals along the west-side of Memorial Field (where the Library is now).
No
See above
In about 1920, there was a KKK rally down by Goode's Corner. At a given signal, the men were to remove their headdresses. They did. I was surprised to see some of the men who had hidden behind the mask.
The trail along the power long to Round Lake and Lake Tradition.
Trout, Kokanee, catfish, perch, bass, steelhead. Those were the legal catches.
In order to make home canned eggs to fish with, other fish were “snagged” out of the Issaquah Creek and it’s tributaries.
You might say so.
We had a lot of fun swimming there.
Yes
Yes and had some wonderful times. There was always a fire out by the lake and we were always made to feel welcome.
Kept a lot of guys working. I didn’t work for one. My Dad told me to get a job in the mill where I could make pretty good money. He thought the woods were too dangerous.
I remember every one of them. I worked for Carl Pearson at the Monohon Mill.
I saw the first one, in about 1926. The heat was so intense, the railroad tracks were distorted and had to be replaced.
We always had a garden. I planted corn, potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots. My Mother and I used to can everything we could.
No
After I retired from the Seattle Fire Department, I went to work for Darigold driving truck on the night shift in 1968. I worked there 8 years before retiring 1968 - 1976.
Yes, every day that I drove Engine 25 in the Fire Department.
It made it possible for people to get to Seattle quicker without having to go through Renton first.
1937 Chev Davies Chevrolet on Pike Street.
I belonged to the Knights of Pythias for a short time but I couldn’t make the meetings having to work some night shifts.
Yes.
The original location, down near Pickering curve, was in a poor location for trap shooting so the “Gun Club” bought the property up by the old garbage dump. We never called it a Sportsmen’s Club.
A friend and I helped level ground move rocks, etc. at the new location when someone came out and asked if anyone could type.
Bill Doherty asked me if I knew how to run an Emerson resuscitator. I told him yes, that we had one on the SFD rig. IVFD had one but no one in the fire department here knew how to use it. I showed them how.
Yes. Our family used to have Christmas there when our family got too big to be in one house.
Caroline mine caught on fire as a result of a forest fire so the mine was closed for a time. My Uncle, Pete Favini had to go in to check to make sure that the fire was out. We were in the tunnel 2-300 yards (a guess) when Pete asked me how long the flame was on his miner’s hat.
My response was, “Too long”. (Flame reaches out for oxygen when there is little available). We hurried out.
The mine stayed closed.
What were the working conditions like in the mine? Which mine did you work for, and what was your job?
I didn’t work in the Issaquah mines.
Birth of a Nation. For me, it was scary because I was very young. One night it was a dime. Other nights it was 15 cents. George Brunsberg held drawings once a week. The winner received a sack full of groceries.
Bethel Mission. Mr. Case was the father of Cliff Case and Reid Case (who was married to Roberta Thompson) and a minister. Mr. Case was the one who organized the boys club that was held in the church across the street from Darigold. The boys club met in the basement.
I had great respect and admiration for Rev. Lois Hines who ministered at the Bethel Mission.
In the early 1950s, around 10 or 11 o’clock at night, we heard a plane engine roaring and a very loud boom. Flames were easily seen to the South from my house. Since I was a fireman, I went to help. A passenger airplane had hit Squak Mountain across the Issaquah Hobart Road from where the hang gliders land. There weren’t any survivors.
Lester J. Adair