To our readers
Old newspapers, pinned to the places they wrote about — the streets you can still walk today.
Showing Walla Walla only. Show the whole archive · browse other towns
In the high-profile Spencer trial in Spokane, witnesses testified that Edward Spencer drank absinthe to sober up before killing Ella Mundt. The court heard he was 'jolly' until the end.
Col. Wright's campaign is declared over; Owhi is shot near the Snake River, and the Herald celebrates executions and hostages as peace.
“Their leaders have been hung or shot, and they have given hostages for their future good faith.”
Ratified in 1859, the 1855 treaties with tribes across Oregon and Washington promised annuities, schools and mills while ceding millions of acres to settlement.
“all difficulties in the way of the settlement of the country have been effectually removed”
A federal investigation reveals how the Northern Pacific Railroad manipulated land office officials to claim 600,000 acres of prime territory in the Walla Walla Valley.
“The Northern Pacific Railroad has surveyed three lines in Washington Territory, and has kept the lands bordering on these surveys out of the public market as long as possible.”
A local restaurant keeper is fighting for his life after a violent confrontation in the Rose Street red light district.
“Literally slashed to ribbons, George Ortell... is at the Walla Walla hospital with a fighting chance for life.”
After escaping Walla Walla’s jail, George H. Porter and a mysterious posse held up a farmhouse at gunpoint for a fresh horse and supper.
“Under the circumstances, the only safe alternative, was to comply with Porter’s request, and furnish him a horse.”
Wong Look and Ah Doan were taken from the county jail to Seattle and a steamer for China after a federal commissioner found them without the papers required by the Chinese Exclusion Act.
“They were unable to dig up their credentials, and in a hearing before the court commissioner were ordered deported.”
A major blaze destroys a local mattress factory and blacksmith shop as faulty infrastructure prevents emergency response.
“Somebody is to blame for today's blunder, and it will be the duty of the council to place the blame where it belongs.”
A massive blaze tore through the Whitehouse-Crimmins planing mill and lumber yards early Sunday morning, leaving $75,000 in damages and sparking a local controversy over fire department performance.
“The blaze started about 1:15 yesterday morning in a small building and pile of lumber... and was undoubtedly of incendiary origin.”
A historical look at the community's desperate efforts to preserve the military reservation as a public asset.
“It is not too late for Senator Ankeny to hold the fort.”
A quarrel between two 'sports' on Main Street ends in the death of Reuben Highbarger.
“The 'luxury' of shooting at and shooting men in Walla Walla, has become, so to speak, a merchantable affair.”
Thousands flooded the Inland Empire capital to witness Theodore Roosevelt’s arrival, turning Kirn Street into a sea of flags and applause for the man who rules the United States.
In May 1888, John Ham was sentenced to death for murder in Washington Territory. His mother, Mrs. Pyle, broke down in court, while their co-conspirator fled the state, leaving the family to face the ultimate penalty.
President Roosevelt’s visit to Walla Walla sparked a political firestorm and a rare moment of cross-cultural connection.
A local savings bank president is charged with larceny and receives a stinging rebuke from the bench over his bond amount.
“Thirty thousand dollars for the money you have stolen, and for the crime you have committed.”
A Walla Walla coroner suspects a jail prisoner died not from his wounds, but from an intentional, unnecessary surgical procedure designed to silence him.
“The wound in his back was practically healed. It was giving him no trouble. His temperature was normal. He was feeling well. Thomas died; he had to. He was killed.”
A twelve-year-old girl pleads with a judge to send her to reform school to escape her abusive stepfather.
“There is where I want to go, judge. I am afraid of my father. That is why I left home.”
A landslide vote rejects private control in favor of a new municipal gravity system.
“Tonight the city is illuminated with bonfires and fireworks, in celebration of the event.”
A threshing crew allegedly used a fabricated charge of sexual assault to justify the violent beating of a fellow laborer.
“The whipping, he claimed, was the result of spite work... As an excuse for the whipping, the story of an attempted assault on an old woman employed in the cook wagon was hatched up.”
A critical look at the failing 'cell system' and the questionable state industries in Washington’s state prison.
“Instead of discharging a man from the penitentiary with an acquired industrial habit, a taste for reading and a sober and temperate constitution, this system discharges a morose, sullen, lazy and rotten wretch.”
A Walla Walla man faces federal charges for bringing a French woman to the United States under false promises of marriage and coercing her into sex work.
“The man she had supposed would wed her insisted, she testified, that she earn money, intimating that it could be earned easier by leading the life of a fallen woman.”
Walla Walla voters are presented with evidence that Mayor Gilbert Hunt allegedly funneled city and school district contracts to his own private manufacturing company.
“No officer of such city shall be interested, directly or indirectly, in any contract with such city... and any claim or compensation for work done, or supplies or materials furnished, in which any such officer is interested, shall be void.”
A local resident dies after a tragic accident when his team is spooked by an early automobile.
“Two minutes afterward the team became scared at a passing automobile and started to run.”
A coroner’s inquest casts doubt on medical practices after a patient dies following an allegedly unneeded operation at Providence Hospital.
“The bullet wound was not such as could possibly cause death and this was healed in perfect form.”
A Kennewick woman survives a harrowing hospital fire in Walla Walla that leveled the historic building.
“As soon as it was seen that the building, which was entirely of wood, could not be saved, the firemen let the flames have their way unhindered.”
A Chinese cook is bound over for trial following a string of mysterious fires that terrorized the city.
“A very noticeable fact is that since Lee has been incarcerated, there has been an entire absence of the annoying fires.”
As the city weighs Mill Creek against artesian wells, old-timers warn that riparian lawsuits could drown the project.
“Owners of irrigation rights in this country are not noted for their generosity in surrendering their claims for the good of municipalities.”
A historic troop deployment brings the grim realities of the Great War to the Inland Northwest.
“The farewell was a sad one, nearly every eye being dimmed with tears, and it was evident that the departure of the Battalion had awakened the people to the grim realities of war.”
The Statesman accuses the city administration of forcing a contractor to take the fall for a costly legal infringement on a flume project.
“It is an injustice to lay the blame for the infringement of the Allen patent upon Contractor Worley, who did not make a cent upon the East Alder street flume, but came out several hundred dollars in the hole.”
Dr. J. F. Cropp leads a crusade against the Northwestern Gas and Electric company, armed with petitions and a list of rates from 27 other cities.
“To use a homely expression, the doctor was loaded for bear when he was given permission to address the council.”
Walla Walla residents head to the polls to rectify the school board's unauthorized debt, but skeptics wonder who really benefits from the higher interest rates.
“The board should have included the estimated cost of the high school building in the amount of bonds they ask the people to authorize... Otherwise they will not escape legal complications that may seriously embarrass the district for years to come.”
A bank depositor in Walla Walla opens fire on a financier in the streets after the collapse of their local savings bank.
“The shooting is a result of the failure of the bank. Tobin was a depositor in the sum of $2,000 and claims that a few days before the bank suspended he demanded his money, but Edmiston put him off.”
A massive fire wipes out a half-block of wooden buildings, revealing the city's total lack of adequate firefighting equipment.
“The fire demonstrates the total inadequacy of the current outfit in the case of even a small fire.”
A critical editorial weighs the staggering costs and civic risks of the city's proposed Mill Creek water project.
“We want an increased water-supply. We want to own the water. We want pure water. We want the system to be built and operate at a cost within reason.”
A faulty fire response and a quick-moving blaze gutted a landmark hotel in the heart of downtown, leaving guests fleeing for safety.
“The fire department responded promptly, but owing to some difficulty the engines failed to raise steam, and it was fully ten minutes before water was secured.”
A convict who had waited years for the man who testified against him finally gets his chance at Walla Walla — and takes it with an ax.
“Since that time Hoyt has been laying for him and today was the first opportunity he had a chance at him.”
The bodies of a mining investor and a teenage academy student were discovered in a hotel room, sparking a mystery over their final hours.
“I hate to do this, but am powerless to prevent it. You will find my papers in my gatchel. May God forgive me.”
A government intervention restores a third of Northern Pacific's land claims in Washington to the public domain, sparking a bitter feud between settlers and the railroad.
“A man who settled within the lien limits did so at the risk of having his claim taken from him as soon as his labor had made it desirable.”
A Thanksgiving-week letter from Andrew Carnegie promises a library building for the city, on the condition that Walla Walla furnish a site and $2,500 a year. The council has not yet voted, and the Statesman is impatient.
“…the great philanthropist who is trying to absolve himself from the sin of dying rich.”
Sixty-five, penniless and 'bent and weary,' Alice Hess writes from the Spokane County poor farm asking whether the law can force her wealthy Whitney relatives — a nurseryman, a Big Bend doctor, a sitting legislator — to keep her alive.
“"There is no home for you here," father told me. "You may sleep here tonight, but tomorrow you must go away and never come back."”
Local farmers and merchants brace for economic disaster as officials weigh the abandonment of the town's military post.
“Walla Walla should make every effort to retain the post not only for what prominence it gives the city by being here but for the enormous amount of money that is distributed throughout this section.”
In December 1903, an editorial backed Councilman Glasford's plan to use Thomas Springs rather than buy bank-owned ranch land or bond for Mill Creek water.
“The people will never vote to abandon this valuable right in order to increase the market value of the land for the benefit of the First National Bank...”
Corporations are using the lieu land law to snatch up millions of dollars worth of public timberland in the Pacific Northwest, leaving the honest homesteader with nothing.
“The honest homesteader and homebuilder is left in the lurch.”
A bridge collapse near Walla Walla sent a tender, fifteen freight cars and a caboose into a ravine, leaving three railroad men badly injured and one likely to lose an arm.
“The engine passed over in safety, but the tender, fifteen cars heavily loaded, and the caboose went down.”
Military brass push to abandon the historic garrison, sparking a fierce local campaign to keep the troops in the valley.
“It remains to be seen whether or not Senator Ankeny is alive to the interests of his home town as well as to those of other sections of the state.”
An expert’s report finds that J. K. Edmiston used the failed bank’s money for personal claims, had the books “fixed,” and left more than $151,000 in worthless notes.
“Edmiston had a habit of using the bank's money to dispose of claims which he held for his personal charges for commission or interest, and the bank is now holding such paper as part of its assets.”
New evidence in a string of assaults in Tacoma suggests that a man currently serving time in the Walla Walla penitentiary may be innocent.
“Many now believe that Blaisdell may be the culprit for whom Stundon is in a felon's cell.”
Walla Walla's council will let voters choose between a $191,000 pipeline up Mill Creek and a cheaper gravity system at Thomas Springs — but the editor suspects a land speculation scheme is baked into the ballot question.
“It is a holdup game pure and simple.”
A political operative is arrested in Walla Walla for allegedly padding voter rolls with illegal naturalizations of Russian laborers.
“The charge preferred against Smith is perjury and brings to light what appears to have been a wholesale attempt to vote members of the Russian colony.”
A doctor, paralyzed after a carriage accident, finds that her husband legally owns her right to sue for her own injuries.
“Such is the common law nonsense that has been handed down to us from England.”
Walla Walla voters face a looming financial crisis as the school board scrambles to validate illegal warrants while the city faces mounting debt.
“The discussion of the high school question has had one good effect at least. It has opened the eyes of the people to the fact that the school directors handle very large sums of money.”
The Northwestern Gas and Electric Company mortgaged its Walla Walla County plants, franchises, and water rights to secure a major bond issue—and announced new power development on the Walla Walla River.
“The mortgage covers all the gas and electric light plants of the company in Walla Walla county and also all the real estate, franchises and water rights owned by the company in this vicinity.”
Voters hand a crushing defeat to the local political machine, rejecting entrenched interests and the influence of gambling money.
“The machine should learn from yesterday's election that it pays even politicians to be decent. The people won't stand everything.”
After Washington's territorial courts stripped women of the right to vote in 1887, three Walla Walla women took the fight to the courthouse.
“Mrs. J. D. Laman, Mrs. S. B. Davenport and Mrs. Charles Burroughs, of Walla Walla, have brought suit against the inspectors and judges.”
After A. J. Hunt shot a cavalry soldier, a mob of soldiers stormed the Walla Walla county jail and executed the prisoner.
“The sheriff had six deputies with him guarding the prisoner, but the soldiers had battering tools and threatened to blow the building up with dynamite.”
A vigilante guard in the northern district botched a midnight stakeout for a suspected arsonist, leaving neighbors on edge.
“A series of fires in the northern part of the city, all of undoubted incendiary origin, has had the effect of keeping residents of that district in a constant state of terror.”
Angus McPhail, convicted of murdering a Darrington saloonkeeper, is sentenced to death at the state penitentiary.
“The sentence of this court is that you be delivered into the hands of the warden at Walla Walla and there be hanged by the neck until you are dead.”
Accused of selling prison-made sacks to middlemen and brutalizing convicts, Walla Walla’s warden answers his critics with a detailed defense—and a challenge to inspect the prison.
“I challenge the Telegraph … to visit the penitentiary and investigate the management of that institution.”
Military leaders move to shutter the historic post, leaving local officials scrambling to prove its worth to the federal government.
“Nothing but a strong pull, a long pull and a pull all together on the part of the citizens of Walla Walla can save the fort.”
A 25-year gas and electric franchise goes before the council tonight, rewritten to bury every wire on Main and Alder and to hand the city a grand total of $7,750 by 1928.
“It is also provided that during the life of the franchise the price charged consumers shall be reasonable.”
After collapsing on a Walla Walla street, a young woman details a coerced journey from Boise and a harrowing attempt to force her into sex work.
“She said that there was a great deal of money to be made in Walla Walla if I would assist her. She said she would go on with her fortune telling and that I should become an inmate of one of the houses of ill fame.”
An intoxicated man hunts down his grandfather, killing him and burning the family home to the ground.
“The murderer is 30 years old and has a wife and five children near Waitsburg. His reputation has been bad throughout Walla Walla county for many years.”
A preliminary hearing reveals the brutal details of a knife attack at a North Fourth Street restaurant.
“The coat and shirt showed where the knife cut through and were plentifully sprinkled with dry blood.”
After a devastating local fire, the city council faces allegations of corruption, backroom dealing, and profit-seeking at the expense of public safety.
“There has been no time within the last year that the people would not have voted bonds for the construction of a gravity system had the question been presented free from all private grafts.”
Walla Walla officials discuss zoning 'houses of ill fame' away from residential districts after a formal complaint.
“If Walla Walla is to tolerate houses of ill fame, they must be kept west of Third street and out of the residence district of the city.”
Heavy winter storms have unearthed a historic burial ground on the Walla Walla River, revealing items from the Hudson Bay era and beyond.
“The recent find created a great deal of interest along the Walla Walla river and a Statesman representative who visited the Boylan farm last Sunday afternoon found a very large crowd around the graves of the one time Indian warriors.”
A Frenchman sleeping in a Spofford grain office was crushed when heavy rains caused the building to buckle under its own weight.
“A swale ran under the center of it, which had always made trouble in wet weather.”
Lee Gee, the proprietor of the Eagle restaurant, becomes the first Chinese resident in Walla Walla to purchase property, planning a two-story brick building.
“To Lee Gee, proprietor of the Eagle restaurant in Main street, falls the unique distinction of being the first Walla Walla real estate owner among the Chinese residents of the city.”
On a sweltering Monday in May 1903, Teddy Roosevelt nearly derailed his own parade in Walla Walla, demanding the military stop marching through clouds of dust that coated him and his party.
A Christmas evening dispute between locals turns into a violent street encounter near Lincoln School.
“Reck struck Knupp in the face with his fist, when the latter drew a pistol from his pocket and threatened to do him bodily harm.”
When an aerialist and her husband faced medical catastrophe, the community rallied for a benefit show at the park.
“Mrs. Kober and her husband, Walter Kober, are professional acrobats and aerial performers and are well known all over the United States.”
A sheriff's demonstration of a murder weapon goes awry, nearly striking a spectator in the courtroom.
“The sheriff claims that he took the cartridges out of the pistol yesterday in court, and never thought of it. It was a narrow escape for several people in the room.”
Wong Look, a Walla Walla resident of ten years, faces expulsion after being unable to produce his registration certificate.
“Me got certificate. Me all light. Wha' mattah?”
Federal Judge Grosscup denounces the 'polite swindlers' of Wall Street, sparking a local debate on the influence of railroad lobbyists in Washington state.
“When I see the laws of my country intended to enable men to consolidate money for the public good turned into an excuse for swindles that should land the promoters in the penitentiary... every drop of my blood boils with hate and revenge.”
When a rowdy group of cattle herders spent their gold with 'prodigal hand' at local saloons, they turned the street into a chaotic scene that tested the resolve of city officials.
“There must be no half-way policy with regard to such characters if the good name of Walla Walla is to be taken into consideration.”
John Bushey, a displaced laborer from Pendleton, was arrested in Walla Walla after claiming he carried a rifle and cartridges for both Theodore Roosevelt and the German Emperor.
A fiery local editorial clash exposes the bitter rift between competing political machines in Walla Walla.
“It is also a matter of common knowledge that the man was 'guilty as charged.' It is also a matter of common knowledge that the man was protected by Senator Ankeny and his friends.”
A Walla Walla man stands accused of perjury in a federal case involving the citizenship of local Russian immigrants.
“It is not a fact that you have been very active in politics, and have been called 'the mayor of Little St. Petersburg?' — 'No, sir,' replied Schmidt, 'the Statesman is the only one that has given me that title; no one else.'”
A sudden, shifting gale rips roofs from elevators and destroys miles of railroad sand fencing across the valley.
“The suddenness with which the wind swooped down on the valley was a surprise.”
Johnny Clancy, known as the 'boss gambler' of Seattle, publicly assaults clothing merchant Jules Redelsheimer in his own store after alleging that Redelsheimer propositioned Clancy's wife on the street.
No stories match these filters.
Try a wider date range, another category, or clear everything and start again.