The Alexander family
Thomas Alexander was born in Scotland, and trained as a railroad engineer. His wife Caroline was the youngest daughter of a Manitoba wheat farmer. She was schooled in hard work and cooking for a crowd, two skills she relied on often in her married life.
Early in their marriage, all three of their children died in a diptheria epidemic. Hoping to ease her grief, Thomas booked Caroline into the railroad’s luxurious Banff Hotel. He thought a few weeks among the rich and famous would do her good, but within hours of her arrival she was in the kitchen after the tempermental French chef left in a huff. Among all those wealthy ladies, the former-farm girl was the only one who could cook.
Caroline followed Thomas wherever his work took him, even when she had to cook for her passage. Railroad work eventually brought the couple to Issaquah in the late 1880s, and Caroline insisted it was time to stay in one place.
For the next few years, he worked on the railroad and she ran a boarding house. They then bought 160 acres on the eastside of Lake Sammamish. From 1917 to the 1980s, the family ran a resort on the lake. The big house Thomas and Caroline built in 1902 was moved into town just a few years ago and restored as Issaquah’s Visitor’s Center.
Thomas and Caroline lost five children over the years, but eventually they were blessed with two daughters-Hazel and Carrie. Hazel married George Ek, and Carrie wed Mandric Crossley. Today, there are 10 descendents of Thomas and Caroline living in Issaquah, including two who still live on the original family property east of the lake.
