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Old newspapers, pinned to the places they wrote about — the streets you can still walk today.
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The high court rules that Congress has the power to abrogate treaties, effectively ending the entry of Chinese laborers to the United States.
“The decision of the supreme court is the death blow to a new form of slavery that was creeping upon us.”
A woman living in a remote log cabin on the Skokomish river suffers a mental breakdown caused by profound isolation.
“I lived so long in that lonely place, and I got so nervous. I just lost my equilibrium and somehow I cannot get it back.”
After catastrophic blazes in Seattle, Vancouver, Ellensburg, and Spokane, the Mason County Journal sounds the alarm for Shelton to modernize its water system.
“It looks decidedly as though this work was organized incendiarism, and no one can tell when it will stop.”
A Satsop Railroad locomotive plunges off the tracks after hitting a fallen tree in the fire-choked timberlands near Shelton.
“Engineer Shorter whistled down brakes, opened the sand, reversed his engine, opened the throttle wide, and jumped just as the engine left the track.”
Four Indigenous couples at Skokomish hold a ceremony to secure legal recognition of their long-standing marriages.
“These couples have lived together many years, legally from the Indian standpoint, but there is some doubt whether Uncle Sam will in the future recognize the legality of their aboriginal transaction.”
A lifelong firearms expert and pioneer gunsmith meets a tragic, accidental end at his home near Shelton.
“The accident of Saturday is yet another lesson that one cannot be too careful in handling firearms, and that although a person has used guns all his long life, he is not exempt from accident.”
Washington Territory’s new constitution asserts public control over tide lands and navigable waters, setting a precedent for state ownership of the coast.
“The state of Washington asserts its ownership to the beds and shores of all navigable waters in the state.”
After three years of legal maneuvering for the murder of hotel keeper Harry Conner and arson at Shelton’s Grand Hotel, the convicted killer is finally released on $1,000 bail.
On the Washington Southern's first run near Shelton, a tree bridging a sand cut killed a brakeman and a tender man before the engine could stop. The town mourned two young workers.
“The accident has thrown a cloud of sadness over the entire town.”
Creditors force closure of the Mason County institution following reports of bad management and dwindling public confidence.
“The trouble is due partly to mismanagement, as there appears to be no evidence of misappropriation of funds, most of which are out on notes.”
Two men face legal consequences after a construction car collision on the Satsop rail line.
“The act endangered the lives of those on board as well as the train.”
A quiet surveying expedition in the Washington timberlands turns into a tense standoff over local property rights.
“The inhabitants are determined to fight. It is considered cruel for the forces to occupy the town and then withdraw, leaving the people helpless.”
A two-hundred-and-forty-pound man looking to challenge a bear in a local exhibition is unceremoniously knocked out by a woman in the dining room.
“The people of our little town are much pleased that our obliging dining room girl can get away with a two hundred and forty pound bear wrestler.”
A look at the rapid expansion of logging in the Puget Sound region, where the arrival of railroads and new machinery is accelerating the harvest of timber once thought to be endless.
“This amount is considered by some as a quantity inexhaustible. But if such a person were to be living 50 years hence, he would see our great forests had so fast disappeared.”
As Washington prepares for statehood, a contentious legal struggle over the future of tide lands begins to take shape.
“The owners of property abutting upon a tide that ebbs and flows are known as littoral or shore owners. These last named persons can by no possible means known to the law acquire any legal rights in the soil between high and low water mark.”
Claimants in Shelton fight for their right to oyster beds, ignoring the warnings of 'boodle' newspapers.
“They claim to have created the oyster beds sought by them, and therefore demand that the same be sold to them in accordance with the laws of the state.”
A war of words erupts between a Mason County auditor and the Adjutant-General over military duty records.
“There are many things for you to learn, however, but life is too short, therefore erudition is beyond your reach, better go hold your dalliance in a soap factory.”
A multi-million dollar railroad expansion promises to connect Shelton to the Puget Sound and beyond, sparking a frenzy of speculation.
“The wharf was crowded with people and the town was considerably excited, with good reason.”
A fourteen-year-old boy, famous for fighting off a cougar as a child, is shot after being mistaken for a deer near Shelton.
“The shot was fired from a 38-58 Winchester, the ball entering his stomach three inches above the navel and passing out near the backbone.”
Citizens are left to 'go to thunder' after the City Board funnels the town's remaining street funds into a bridge project that disproportionately benefits the members themselves.
“The inhabitants in this benighted part of town can 'go to thunder,' in a figurative way... and dodge the stumps.”
By consolidating operations and forcing loggers into company-controlled boarding houses, the industry’s giants effectively reduced worker pay while crushing independent competition.
“The object is to concentrate the logging business in the hands of a few operators, reduce the wages in general, and combine to enforce the reductions.”
A local timber worker narrowly escapes death after stumbling into a den and fighting a brown bear for fifteen minutes with an axe.
“The fight that followed between the sturdy logger and his four footed opponent was terrible.”
A bitter public dispute erupts over a $500 council appropriation for a bridge project on Shelton’s First Street.
“At home, where all the parties are known, this article amounts to about as much as a tempest in a teapot.”
A squatter fights for the right to claim a six-acre island that the federal government officially claims doesn't exist.
“The land office refuses to accept a filing for the reason that the island is not shown on the plat of official government survey.”
When the town’s dominant lumber company controlled the land, the children and the schoolhouse were left to fend for themselves.
“What do they care whether there is a good school or not?—the boys will be able to handle just as much lumber for them when they are a few years older.”
A Shelton legislator's private letter describing a steamer passage up Hammersley's Inlet becomes the best prose in the paper — a circle of prismatic color, starfish, glaciers and one awestruck captain.
“"My steamer may be old, slow, small and humpbacked, but I'll bet my life she is the only steamer in the world that has steamed over two miles perched on the lower circle of a rainbow."”
The local press calls out a national magazine's exaggerated depiction of Shelton's timber industry.
“It seems somewhat strange to us why the wonders of Washington are not great enough without occasional writers going to the impossibilities in their description.”
A local man's sudden windfall leads to a cautionary tale of impulsive spending that quickly outstripped his luck.
“If I’d found twenty dollars I’d have gone into bankruptcy, hanged if I wouldn’t.”
A small-town editor explains why his paper missed a week: a red sow, a keg of ink, and a very narrow escape.
“When we get too drunk to set type we are pretty far gone. Now, the fact of the business is simply this: ... Judge Jones’ old red sow had rooted the office door down and was inside playing havoc with things generally.”
A young couple leaves Shelton for the Midwest, only to find themselves struggling and desperate to return to Washington.
“Some people do not know a good thing when they see it, and thus pass by a grand opportunity that may be the turning point of their lives and fortunes.”
Thousands of dollars in wages hit the Shelton economy as loggers prepare for a holiday of debt-paying and celebration.
“The lumbermen will receive all, or nearly all, of their wages, which will bring about $10,000 to Shelton, nearly all of which will be expended here.”
A representative of the Port Blakely Mill Company confirms plans to lay a standard-gauge steel railroad into the heart of Washington's timber country, setting the stage for industrial transformation.
“The road, as you know, will be a prime factor in securing a rapid settlement of your magnificent valley.”
Detailed 1891 logging records from Shelton reveal a booming timber industry that paid out tens of thousands in wages—but left local communities dependent on outside supplies.
“It is estimated that 45 per cent, of the total value of these logs was paid for the labor, and 35 per cent, for supplies. Nearly all of the last named large sum could be produced in this county.”
A census reveals Mason County is shifting toward a higher population class, sparking a rush of candidates vying for new, higher-paying offices.
“The conventions come soon, and the woods are full of candidates.”
Nine hundred dollars in goods vanishes overnight from a new store, leaving local law enforcement with no leads.
“The robbers used discriminating taste in selecting their boodle.”
A local butcher flees Shelton, triggering a scramble among creditors for his remaining cattle and assets.
“LeMunyon left with considerable money and his business was not in bad shape, if he had the manhood to stay and see it through.”
A blaze in a frame building swept away a general store and the local railroad company office, resulting in a significant financial loss.
“The light frame building was a mass of flames in short order.”
A local man died in a dark accident on a railroad bridge.
“The splash was heard, but before help arrived he had drowned.”
In Shelton, the nativist A.P.A. is accused of purging old-line teachers—and an Equal Rights League organizes to fight back in the grove and on the platform.
“This aroused the opponents of the secret order, and an Equal Rights League was organized.”
Frank Williamson sells 1,200 acres on Big Skookum Bay for $20,000, promising five-acre orchard tracts on easy payments.
“This will enable people to secure tracts on easy payments. The men mean business for they are all of good standing.”
A tart, hilarious correspondence reveals the friction between an autocratic Adjutant General and a defiant county official in early Washington.
“I submit the same in awe and dread, hoping the receipt of the same will calm your perturbed and bellicose spirit.”
When two skeptical Wisconsin mill men visited the Pacific coast, they tried to school the locals on timber estimating—only to be humbled by the sheer scale of Washington's old-growth forest.
“They found it was not white pine, by a jugful.”
Emily Purdy, who survived the Indian War of 1855, has passed away at 44 after thirty years of frontier life.
“A good mother, a faithful wife; with a faith in a home on high.”
With not a single vacant house in town, developer W.H. Kneeland is rushing to build four new double tenements.
“This is an enterprising move, and cannot but prove profitable, for there is not a vacant house in town.”
A satirical letter to the editor uses the 'woman question' and local chores to expose the absurdity of the disenfranchisement of women.
“I heard some men say that women were not citizens, so I determined to find out—a woman for a wonder—and I sort of trembled for fear old Webster put them down as critters.”
Clashing interests and a frozen lumber industry push the local rail line into court-appointed management.
“It is the impression that the appointment of a receiver will be a good thing for Shelton.”
A local partnership ends in a hurried exit, leaving a business partner high and dry and a town searching for a fugitive.
“A short investigation showed that Bernard had flown, taking with him all the valuable portable stock and even his tools and lathe.”
Shelton residents find themselves isolated as a local shipping sub-contractor abandons the mail route, leaving the town disconnected from Olympia.
“We have been unable to discover by what authority, or any authority, by which this change was made, the outfit doing as they pleased and drawing pay for it.”
A local dispute over stolen money devolves into a gunpoint standoff on the water near Shelton.
“Yesterday, it is said, Freeburger followed May and Ben Simmons out in a boat and held them up at the point of a gun.”
After the sheriff closed the Bank of Shelton, its president bought out the cashier and announced a $20,000 reorganization.
“I have arranged to pay dollar for dollar of all deposits.”
A neighborhood dispute over an oar results in a court case that leaves the taxpayers of Mason County footing the bill.
“It is altogether “too thin.” There is no justice in having the tax-payers put up for cases of this sort.”
A new vessel joins the fleet, promising daily trips between Tacoma and the booming town of Shelton.
“The craft gracefully riding the ways and the water.”
Escaping steam from a locomotive sends a team of horses bolting, leading to a nasty accident for a local driver.
“Mr. Leisure was thrown from the wagon and badly bruised.”
A two-year-old cow goes missing, and a hunting party tracks a massive cougar to its end.
“The cougar was taken to Kamilche, where it was viewed by a large crowd.”
A local man's efforts to help a neighbor land a deer are met with cold indifference.
“This ungrateful man took the whole deer without dividing, or even thanking Mr. Rodenberger. Wonder who he is?”
A local man tests a dubious 'elixir of life' on his lunch, with shockingly violent results for his sandwich.
“By the third application of the rejuvenator it (the bologna) was out in the woodshed fighting another cat.”
A local observer laments the destruction of high-value hardwoods, burned by settlers to make way for farming.
“It appears to be a crime to destroy such timber.”
A warning to tenants: sewer gas is a hidden killer, and your landlord’s thrift might be costing you your health.
“We employ Illness and Death as our drain detectives.”
A classic 1891 promotional scheme disguised as news, pushing a new townsite as the necessary 'natural outlet' for the region's prosperity.
“Just think of it! $30 cash and $10 per month for a beautiful lot in this growing town.”
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