Bechtel Family

     In 1882, Issac Kinsey Bechtel (German) left wife Isabelle (Isabella) and six children in Ontario, Canada.

https://generations.regionofwaterloo.ca/getperson.php?personID=I15193&tree=generations

August 1882, Issac bought 129 acres including 3/4 mile of waterfront on the east side of Lake Washington. The price was $0.23/cents an acre. Within a few years Issac had borrowed enough money to send for Isabelle and the children.

Issac applied for and received a Patent for the land in 1889.

25n 5e Sec 31 patent 1889

https://glorecords.blm.gov/details/cdi/default.aspx?doc_id=1666017&sid=230yojo3.23n#cdiDetailsTabIndex=0

Their property was close to what is presently known as the downtown Bellevue area. 

For the next few years Isaac and sons logged and cleared the land. Other settlers followed.

|

Visit https://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/imlsmohai/id/12007/  to see the original letter from Isaac and Isabelle Bechtel letter about Great Seattle Fire, June 24, 1889, addressed to Isaac's mother, sister, brother, and family:

Issac Kinsey Bechtel was Bellevue's first area "postmaster" early in 1886.

November 14, 1890  Isaac K. Bechtel died in a logging accident while unloading timber on Meydenbauer Bay, caught in a logjam near Wildwood Park. 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5103206/isaac-kinsey-bechtel

The next day Isabella declared that she would take over his remaining duties as postmaster for the region, with Matthew S. Sharpe as an official area postmaster.

Isabella (Isabelle) Bechtel and her two daughters, Maude to her left and Jesse to her right, stand outside of the family home and the first post office in the soon-to-be-named Bellevue area.

  1909, Hunts Point School, a one-room schoolhouse opens. Miss Maude Bechtel was the first teacher. (8 grades in one room)

  Isabella Bechtel retired as postmaster only on a disputed date sometimes between 1891-1895 probably due to the financial hardship she faced after her husband’s death. In spite of having to leave the cabin where the Bechtel home and the first post office was located, Isabella landed on her feet, moving her family to a 40 acre tract of land she bought outright. 

In 1899 she was forced to give up  Isaac's logging business to pay taxes and probate attorneys.

Isabella Bechtel continued to live in Bellevue, and passed away in 1938. 

A 1929 history of King County mentioned at the time of printing Isabelle was "a great-grandmother, and highly esteemed by all who knew her."
|

Isabella Bechtel is part of the namesake for Bellevue although origins of the whole name are unclear. 

Historical sources say "because the post office needed an official designation", when two postal inspectors visited, they titled the location based on the beautiful view. 

If these Postal Inspectors were either the actual Sharpe brothers, Postmaster Matthew and Lucian, or associated with them, perhaps the city name was both tribute to Isabella (Isabelle) and inspired by the Sharpe hometown of Belleview, Indiana.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5303289/barbara-whaley

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5294416/isaac_lynn-bechtel