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Old newspapers, pinned to the places they wrote about — the streets you can still walk today.
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Two men demand an old rancher's money, bind and club him, then ransack his cabin for a cache of cash. Seattle police arrest a suspect—and then the victim's wife.
“Give us your money.”
A rancher says George Weston, his only neighbor, fired through his cabin window and later drew a bead on him from the beach. Now Ole Christofersen wants the law to bind Weston to keep the peace.
“I will kill her just as I would a crow, and as for Chris, I will shoot him as he comes along the beach.”
A campus engineer is accused of violently attacking a student; the student body now demands the employee's immediate termination.
“The student body of the school did not attend classes today, and stated to the Times that they would quit the school in a body unless the Japanese is discharged.”
After weeks of indecision, a committee chooses Point Defiance for a massive cultural assembly site, highlighting the rapid civic growth and ambition of the Puget Sound region.
“The committee appointed to locate grounds for the Chautauqua Assembly... made their final decision in favor of Point Defiance.”
An unidentified man's remains were found stuffed inside a wooden box after washing ashore.
“The badly decomposed and horribly mutilated body of an unknown man, crushed into a wooden box and thrown high and dry by the tide.”
Three men from Burton claim they were wrongfully jailed for stealing copper cable from a local telephone company.
“Each suit is brought to recover for humiliation suffered by plaintiffs on account of their undue incarceration.”
A local editorial argues that historic promises to improve road access for Dockton residents must take priority over new proposals for a Magnolia Beach road.
“An outlet—a good road—has been promised the long-suffering taxpayers of Dockton for many years, and the promises should be fulfilled before other and more recent projects are urged.”
Homesteaders on Vashon Island petition the government to open up lands held as military reservations, arguing they are no longer strategically necessary.
“No less than six of these tiny reserves were selected to one township.”
Customs inspectors spend a day spading up an orchard on Vashon Island to recover a large stash of smuggled opium.
“It was so inaccurate that the officers spaded up half an acre before finding the dope.”
A Catholic student leaves Vashon College after being forced to attend Protestant services, sparking a debate over secular versus religious education.
“Principal Jones decided that to make this case an exception would lead to other exceptions, and finally the rule would be of no value.”
A local justice dismisses a case against hunters because the state legislature accidentally excluded deer from the law prohibiting the use of hunting dogs.
“Under a technical error, the justice decided that the motion was well-founded and dismissed the case.”
A recluse on the south end of Vashon Island shot himself after years of opium use, leaving a needle, eight ounces of the drug, and a letter blaming a man named George Weston.
“The letter is a mass of ravings such as would come from a man filled with opium and morphine.”
In June 1885, the residents of Vashon Island came together to hand-build a new Methodist church with timber from their own land.
“Log after log went up by the strong arms of forty or more willing workmen... mothers, wives, daughters and children vied with each other in raising to their places the heavy cap plates.”
An ambitious Eastern investor transforms a Maury Island homestead into an experimental fruit orchard, signaling the future of the region's agricultural ambitions.
“It is needless to add that the example set here will be but a forerunner of that time when the entire Sound shores are to be dotted with suburban farm and country residences.”
A faulty boiler plate leaves a fireman injured and passengers stranded off Manzanita Beach.
“This is the second accident of the kind to have occurred on the boat in the past two weeks.”
Leroy Lander hobbles into a Seattle prosecutor's office after his young wife, their infant and a satchel of $20 gold coins vanish with her sister — possibly bound for Alaska.
“On his return he said his wife and baby, his sister-in-law and, incidentally, the money, were gone.”
Two men receive three-year sentences for stealing a scow-load of machinery from a Vashon Island brickyard.
“Stealing a scow-load of machinery from a brickyard on Vashon island.”
A husband sues to recover his land and marriage, claiming he was kept in a drunken haze by neighbors who poisoned his wife's opinion of him.
“She would have a dog's life of it, as her husband would keep her continually at hard and menial labor and in enforced isolation from the society of her friends.”
A report on the Grand Lodge of the I.O.G.T. session, highlighting the rising influence of local temperance activism.
“God speed the day when the white ribbon shall encircle the earth from pole to pole, and purity and truth shall be reigning principles.”
Island growers urge the County Commissioners to purchase a communal power-sprayer to combat orchard blight.
“A spraying outfit for the Islands is a pressing need and it is hoped the request of the petitioners will be granted.”
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