The Willig family
August Willig and Emma Pringle were both from Essen, Germany. He had served as the swimming instructor for the Kaiser’s Army, but the call of the New World was too strong to ignore. The couple immigrated to the United States through New York in the 1880s.
They traveled to the wild frontier, and were involved in the great Oklahoma land rush around 1890. But Emma did not like the dusty farming in the region, and the family headed for greener pastures. They came to Washington because there was a colony of Germans located in Bow.
In 1900, the Willigs struck out again on their own and came to Issaquah. August was made superintendent of the mines on Mine Hill, and later became the supervisor of Issaquah’s first municipal water system. He was in charge of installing the wooden pipes wrapped in wire that transported water from the hillsides east of town into the local homes.
He owned many acres in the heart of the valley, near the confluence of Issaquah Creek and the East Fork of Issaquah Creek. The land remained in the family until the 1940s, when the city bought it for its municipal shops.
August and Emma had five daughters and a son. Today the family name has died out, but there are still plenty of local people descended from the couple including six great-great-grandchildren.
