The Olson family
Helga Sunde came to Des Moines as a child from her native Sweden. Charles Olson was also born in Sweden, immigrating to the United States as a young man in 1890. The couple met and married in the Midwest, before relocating in Washington with their four little girls.
In 1911, Charles bought acreage near Issaquah and moved the growing family-which would also include four sons-to an area west of town. Charles was originally a logger in the woods of Minnesota, but here he worked for the Bratnober Mill in Monohon. It wasn’t an easy commute from his home around the south end of the lake, and he and his white horse soon became a familiar site from Goode’s Corner to Bush’s Siding.
Of Helga and Charles’ eight children, only Clifford remained in the Issaquah area. He married Carmen Ek, and they had two children. Son Chuck Olson teaches at Liberty High School.
The old Olson house stood for a long time on Newport Way just west of Issaquah, but recently it was moved further west on Newport, and remodeled into a 1990s kind of home.
