The Lapsansky family
Issaquah’s coal miners were an international group. Coming in waves after the turn of the century, they arrived from all corners of Europe looking for a better life.
Typical of these immigrants were brothers John and Joseph Lapsansky. When relatives who had settled in Washington wrote home about their new lives, the brothers left their wives and young families in Henclova, Czechoslovakia and came to work in local coal mines. As soon as enough money was saved up, they sent for their families.
Joseph originally came to Taylor, a now vanished community, southeast of Tiger Mountain. He arrived in Issaquah in 1912, and the families lived in the area northeast of town which now fronts the gravel pits. Life was full of hard work, but there was always time to pick blackberries or gather with the other Czech families. Many of Joseph’s and John’s descendents still live here, but the family’s coal-mining days are far in the past.
