 On
May 20, 1870, the Squak Post Office is established. William
Pickering is the first postmaster.
On January 31,
1889, the name changed to Olney. At the time of this name
change, George Parks was the postmaster. On June 10, 1895
the town renamed itself Issaquah. When the name changed to
Issaquah, Henry Hunter was postmaster, and he distributed
mail from his drug store. On February 2, 1899, an Act of the
state legislature made the name Issaquah official. The
population of Issaquah in 1900 was 1060.
Issaquah
is located on the Eastside of Lake Washington, 15 miles east
southeast of Seattle.
The History of Squak
 L.
B. Andrews discovered coal along the Squak River in the fall
of 1862. However, mines were not developed until later when
the railroad was built to transport the coal. The name Squak
was the white man's pronunciation of the Indian name Is-qu-ah,
meaning snake.
Squak began as a farming community
from which produce began to be shipped in 1867 or 1868.
George W. Tibbetts ran a hotel, C. M. Brank served as the
blacksmith, and the Wold Brothers (Ingebright and Lars) were
shoemakers. The Wolds also planted a half acre of hops.
There were also two teachers.
Mail was delivered to
Squak by Clarence Bagley who brought it on horseback from
Seattle on a route that went around the south end of Lake
Washington. (Bagley was the future historian of Seattle and
King County.) His mail delivery route took him three days
round trip. Bagley writes, "When the soil had been placed
under cultivation, potatoes were raised for human food, and
turnips and rutabagas for feed".
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