Issaquah’s miners were all ages. They came from all over the country, and the world, drawn by the promise of employment — at wages higher than East Coast miners were able to earn. In 1900, just over 60 percent of Issaquah’s workforce was employed in the coal mines. About half of the men lived with their families, often in housing rented to them by the mining company. Others were single or separated from their family and lived as boarders in one of Issaquah’s many hotels.

They rose early and spent 10 or more hours at work per day; in return, they earned $2.85 a day (as of 1903) — less if they were laborers or drivers, rather than miners. Working conditions were dark, dirty and cramped. Miners came out covered with coal dust and stopped in a washhouse, where they changed clothes and washed before entering their homes.

Mining was also dangerous. Even today, mining remains a relatively hazardous occupation. As of 2002, mine workers in the U.S. still had a fatality rate seven times higher than that of private industry as a whole.

Mining at the turn of the 19th century was even more dangerous. Work conditions had little regulation. Explosions, cave-ins, poisonous gases and falling rocks could kill entire work crews. Issaquah was fortunate not to experience the massive loss of life that occurred in other mining communities. Nearby Black Diamond lost more than 140 miners in the course of its mining history; Issaquah had 19 mining deaths.

Most fatalities in Issaquah involved only one miner. The greatest loss of life at the Issaquah mines was Aug. 21, 1900. A surface fire near one of the mine’s air shafts spread into the mine. As the shaft filled with smoke, two miners escaped, but returned in an attempt to save three co-workers. All five suffocated.

The second incident of multiple fatalities occurred in 1902. William Price and Bernard Sutter perished while working as “powder monkeys,” who prepared dynamite charges to take into the mine. The two men had just opened a 50 pound box of dynamite and were either capping the sticks or thawing them out with the open flame of their headlamps when they accidentally touched off the dynamite. News coverage of the mining accident was lurid, noting that there was not enough of Sutter left to examine for a coroner’s inquest.

Mining was frequently a family affair, with a father and one or more sons working together in the mines. Sometimes, the sons were adults with families of their own. But more often, they were young men still living with their parents and helping to support four, five or six younger siblings. Schooling was a luxury in this era; if economic need demanded it, then boys left school and went to work.

The 1900 U.S. census found that 18 percent of children between 10 and 15 were working, and it was not uncommon to find miners as young as 14 working in the Issaquah mines. Most of these boys worked as drivers, who worked with a team of horses or mules, hauling cars of coal to the entrance of the mine shaft.

Later, the advent of electrical power in the mines created another task for young workers. A cable pulled coal cars out of the mine, and boys removed the coupler pin from between them to allow the car to continue down the tracks, and the cable to be rolled up. Plucking the pin from between the moving cars at the right time was tricky business; many hands and arms were injured or lost in this job.

The concept of retiring from work was uncommon 100 years ago, and it was impossible for all but the most financially successful. In 1900, of 139 men who worked in the Issaquah mines, six were in their 60s and two were over 70.

The January 2006 Sago Mine disaster in West Virginia reminded us that coal mining is not only part of our nation’s history, it is part of the present as well. The last mine in Issaquah closed more than 40 years ago, but the marks of the mining industry are still visible if you know where to look: company homes that still stand on Mine Hill Road, low spots above air shafts and tunnels that sink, and the Hillside Cemetery graves of those who died mining coal.

Sources for this article include 1900 census records, Fire Rock, Issaquah Family Tree Database, the Seattle Post, and U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Web site.

Some of the city’s early mayors were doctors, including Issaquah’s first mayor, Frank Harrell. During the Great Depression, Stella May Alexander was elected the first woman mayor, campaigning on the Taxpayers’ Ticket.

She was elected to a two-year term, defeating the Progressive ticket candidate, M.H. Clark. Ninety-three percent of the city’s registered voters cast ballots and Alexander won 195-136. She lost in a recall election the following year.

In the last half of the 20th century, mayors such as Bill Flintoft and A.J. Culver had to grapple with the emerging growth of the quiet little burg on Lake Sammamish into a thriving bedroom community to Seattle.

Harrell came to the area as the surgeon of the Seattle Coal and Iron Co. He was elected mayor of Gilman without a dissenting vote in 1892. Seven years later, the town was renamed Issaquah, after the original Indian name Is-qu-ah.

In the pioneer days

Governing of the small mining and timber community was far different a century ago.

During Mayor John McQuade’s term as mayor in 1900, the town enacted an ordinance demanding that every able-bodied man over 21 and under 50 pay a yearly poll tax of $3, or two days’ labor of eight-hour periods or $4 if they could not read.

The following year, electricity was introduced to the small town of about 600 when Issaquah entered into an agreement with Snoqualmie Falls Power Co. to bring power in the form of 30 incandescent lamps powered by electrical current.

The following year, H.R. Corson, was elected mayor. A doctor by trade, he came to town as the mining company director for the Issaquah Coal Co.

Following World War I, the two-year term of mayor was changed to four-year terms with the election of P.J. Smith.

‘Like she had cooties’

No look at the city’s mayors would be complete without mentioning Stella May Alexander, the city’s first woman mayor.

Mayor from 1932-1934, Alexander was later recalled because of a variety of conflicts with the City Council and the fire chief. A decade removed from passage of the 19th Amendment specifically guaranteeing women in the U.S. the right to vote, Alexander had a strong personality and some men of that era had a hard time working with her, said Erica Maniez, director of the Issaquah History Museums.

“She was referred to as the lady mayor, the woman mayor and the petticoat mayor,” Maniez said.

In one instance, three councilmen refused to serve under a petticoat mayor, she said.

“The men acted like she had cooties,” she said. “They didn’t want to sit at the table with her.”

Some speculated that her assertiveness would have been better tolerated if she had been a man.

The volunteer fire department resigned en masse over a dispute as to whether the fire department would fight fires outside the city limits. Alexander often clashed with Fire Chief Remo Castagno, who said that “no woman is going to run this city.” Castagno later served as mayor shortly after World War II.

Alexander lost a recall election in 1934. She moved to Renton and in 1940 she ran for Secretary of State. She was described as “the famous woman mayor and councilwoman of Issaquah” in her campaign literature, Maniez said.

Growing pains of a city

The opening of the Lake Washington Floating Bridge in 1940 (today’s Interstate 90 bridge over Lake Washington) brought more people to the Eastside. In 1960, work began on Interstate 90, connecting Issaquah with Seattle. A decade later, Issaquah’s population more than quadrupled to 4,300 residents.

Bill Flintoft and Keith Hansen brought Issaquah through its growing pains through the 1960s and early ‘70s, Maniez said.

“They helped guide the city as developers came to the area, and they accommodated that growth by developing codes and ordinances for those changes,” she said.

Tom Flintoft said his father Bill brought a common sense approach to managing growth.

“He realized that Issaquah was changing fast, but he wanted it to grow sensibly,” Tom Flintoft said. “There were those promoting growth and there was a no-growth faction. He sought to find a compromise between the two.”

With the growth, he planned for the infrastructure of water and sewer lines to accommodate the additional people, Tom Flintoft said.

He also insisted on an I-90 exit at East Sunset Way when the state initially balked at the notion.

“If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t have that exit today,” he said.

From sleepy to thriving

A.J. Culver was mayor of Issaquah for most of the 1980s. Culver said he helped guide Issaquah from being a sleepy little town to a thriving commercial center.

During his term, the city approved development of the Pickering property, as well as the commercial center where Target and Safeway are located.

“It has made the difference between Issaquah being strapped for money and being financially well off,” Culver said. “And it will continue to be as a commercial center for the city. That continued by Rowan Hinds and Ava Frisinger, who is doing a fantastic job today as mayor.”

History of Issaquah mayors

F. W. Harrell —From Apr 27, 1892

Town of Gilman

(incorporated Apr 1892)

Two-year terms until 1918

From Jan. 10, 1893 — P. V. Davis

From Jan. 8, 1895 — John Davis

From Jan. 12, 1897 — John L. Hughes

From Jan. 10, 1899

Resigned Aug. 7, 1899

Henry Hunter

Town of Issaquah

(name changed Feb 1899)

From Sept. 5, 1899 — W. D. “Will” Conner, Filled unexpired term

From Jan. 3, 1900

Resigned April 27, 1900

John McQuade

April 27, 1900 – Jan. 8, 1901

Wm. E. Gibson, MD

Filled unexpired term

Jan. 8, 1901 – Jan. 10, 1905

H.R. Corson, M.D

Re-elected, served two terms

Jan. 10, 1905 – June 4, 1906

(resigned), Frank Day

June 4, 1906 – Jan. 14, 1913

William E. Gibson — Filled unexpired term and elected to three consecutive two-year terms

1913-1915 — P.J. Smith

1915-1917 — John H. Gibson

1917-1918 — C.R. Berry

1918-1921 — P.J. Smith

Two-year terms changed to four-year terms

1921-1924 — William E. Gibson

1924-1925 — V.M. McKibben

1926-1928 — P.J. Smith

1928-1930 — John Fischer

1930-1932 — L.R. Hepler

1932-1934 — Stella May Alexander,

First woman mayor

1934-1937 — Laurence J. Harris

1937-1940 — William Mitchell

1940-1947 — Thomas Gibson

1947-1948 — Albert Jensen

1948-1952 — Remo Castagno

1952-1956 — Alting R. “Buck” Lee

1956-1970 — James William “Bill” Flintoft

1970-1974 — Keith M. Hansen

1974-1981 — Herbert G. Herrington

1982-1989 — A.J. Culver

1990-1997 — Rowan C. Hinds

1998-present — Ava FrisingerSource: City of Issaquah

Issaquah’s miners were all ages. They came from all over the country, and the world, drawn by the promise of employment — at wages higher than East Coast miners were able to earn. In 1900, just over 60 percent of Issaquah’s workforce was employed in the coal mines. About half of the men lived with their families, often in housing rented to them by the mining company. Others were single or separated from their family and lived as boarders in one of Issaquah’s many hotels. 

Pictured from left to right are Joe Favini, Joe Yourglich, George Thomas, unidentified, unidentified and George Pedro, circa 1915, at the Grand Ridge Mine in Issaquah. The mine was operated by Central Coal Co. from 1909-1921 and later by B & R Coal Co. from 1937-1942. Learn more about Issaquah’s rich coal mining history at www.issaquahhistory.org.

They rose early and spent 10 or more hours at work per day; in return, they earned $2.85 a day (as of 1903) — less if they were laborers or drivers, rather than miners. Working conditions were dark, dirty and cramped. Miners came out covered with coal dust and stopped in a washhouse, where they changed clothes and washed before entering their homes. 

Mining was also dangerous. Even today, mining remains a relatively hazardous occupation. As of 2002, mine workers in the U.S. still had a fatality rate seven times higher than that of private industry as a whole. 

Mining at the turn of the 19th century was even more dangerous. Work conditions had little regulation. Explosions, cave-ins, poisonous gases and falling rocks could kill entire work crews. Issaquah was fortunate not to experience the massive loss of life that occurred in other mining communities. Nearby Black Diamond lost more than 140 miners in the course of its mining history; Issaquah had 19 mining deaths. 

Most fatalities in Issaquah involved only one miner. The greatest loss of life at the Issaquah mines was Aug. 21, 1900. A surface fire near one of the mine’s air shafts spread into the mine. As the shaft filled with smoke, two miners escaped, but returned in an attempt to save three co-workers. All five suffocated.

The second incident of multiple fatalities occurred in 1902. William Price and Bernard Sutter perished while working as “powder monkeys,” who prepared dynamite charges to take into the mine. The two men had just opened a 50 pound box of dynamite and were either capping the sticks or thawing them out with the open flame of their headlamps when they accidentally touched off the dynamite. News coverage of the mining accident was lurid, noting that there was not enough of Sutter left to examine for a coroner’s inquest.

Mining was frequently a family affair, with a father and one or more sons working together in the mines. Sometimes, the sons were adults with families of their own. But more often, they were young men still living with their parents and helping to support four, five or six younger siblings. Schooling was a luxury in this era; if economic need demanded it, then boys left school and went to work. 

The 1900 U.S. census found that 18 percent of children between 10 and 15 were working, and it was not uncommon to find miners as young as 14 working in the Issaquah mines. Most of these boys worked as drivers, who worked with a team of horses or mules, hauling cars of coal to the entrance of the mine shaft. 

Later, the advent of electrical power in the mines created another task for young workers. A cable pulled coal cars out of the mine, and boys removed the coupler pin from between them to allow the car to continue down the tracks, and the cable to be rolled up. Plucking the pin from between the moving cars at the right time was tricky business; many hands and arms were injured or lost in this job.

The concept of retiring from work was uncommon 100 years ago, and it was impossible for all but the most financially successful. In 1900, of 139 men who worked in the Issaquah mines, six were in their 60s and two were over 70. 

The January 2006 Sago Mine disaster in West Virginia reminded us that coal mining is not only part of our nation’s history, it is part of the present as well. The last mine in Issaquah closed more than 40 years ago, but the marks of the mining industry are still visible if you know where to look: company homes that still stand on Mine Hill Road, low spots above air shafts and tunnels that sink, and the Hillside Cemetery graves of those who died mining coal.

Sources for this article include 1900 census records, Fire Rock, Issaquah Family Tree Database, the Seattle Post, and U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Web site.