March 2 – August 31, 1878
The Great Delinquency: Snohomish’s 1878 Tax Auction
One Snohomish tax list and many Seattle notices document 1878 forfeitures.
20 reports in Puget Sound Dispatch and The Northern Star, March 2 – August 31, 1878.
The story
In March 1878 the Northern Star in Snohomish City published a sprawling list of property seizures for unpaid taxes, with one report noting debts as small as twenty-two cents. Through the same spring and summer, the Puget Sound Dispatch in Seattle published numerous lists and legal notices of delinquent tax rolls, foreclosures, and sheriff’s sales in Seattle and King County. The archive offers only one Snohomish report and many Seattle/King County notices, so it does not provide a single consistent account of the Snohomish auction.
Told from the 20 reports below. The reports are the record.
The archive grouped these reports automatically, by date, place and subject.
The reports 20
- Puget Sound DispatchThe Great Seattle Land Foreclosure of 1878
A sweeping list of hundreds of local property owners faced with losing their land to the county for unpaid taxes, signaling the precarious nature of early Seattle real estate.
- Puget Sound DispatchThe Delinquent Tax Rolls of Territorial Seattle
A haunting, granular list of property owners from 1875 and 1876 whose land was seized by the county, documenting the precarious nature of early Seattle ownership.
- The Northern StarThe Great Delinquency: Snohomish’s 1878 Tax Auction
A sprawling list of property seizures offers a rare window into the instability of early Snohomish settlers, who faced total loss of their homesteads for debts as small as twenty-two cents.
- Puget Sound DispatchThe Delinquent Tax Auction of 1878
A sweeping list of King County residents facing property forfeiture offers a window into the messy, frontier-era accumulation of Seattle real estate.
- Puget Sound DispatchThe Price of Early Seattle Speculation
A series of 1878 sheriff's sales reveals the precarious nature of land ownership during Seattle's early frontier development.
- Puget Sound DispatchThe Price of Industrial Expansion
A sheriff’s auction reveals the crushing debt behind the rise of Seattle’s coal industry in the 1870s.
- Puget Sound DispatchThe Price of Frontier Survival: A Seattle Sheriff's Sale
A 1878 legal notice reveals a bleak snapshot of life in early Seattle, where debt-ridden families faced the auction block under the gaze of a booming young city.
- Puget Sound DispatchThe Price of Industrial Expansion: A Sheriff's Sale on the Duwamish
In 1878, a court-ordered auction of land near the Duwamish River revealed the high-stakes debt and legal entanglements defining early Seattle development.
- Puget Sound Dispatch1878 Sheriff’s Sale Lists King County Land
A 1878 legal notice reveals a forced property sale near the Duwamish River, capturing the raw reality of early Seattle’s land-based economy.
- Puget Sound DispatchThe Price of Failure on the Duwamish
As Seattle grew, a wave of court-ordered property auctions flooded the local papers, displacing families and settling debt with the cold finality of the sheriff’s gavel.
- Puget Sound DispatchSeattle Sheriff's Auction Over an 1878 Debt
Legal notices from 1878 reveal a stark trail of property foreclosures, sheriff's auctions, and financial upheaval in the early days of King County.
- Puget Sound DispatchThe Price of Seattle’s Growth: A 1878 Land Liquidation
A wave of court-ordered property auctions in 1878 reveals the precarious nature of land ownership and debt in early Seattle, as local families and businesses faced the loss of their holdings.
- Puget Sound DispatchA.A. Denny’s Seattle Addition Lots Sold at 1878 Sheriff’s Sale
A sheriff’s notice reveals the brutal efficiency of debt collection in 1878, as land in Denny’s Addition and the Duwamish River banks are liquidated to satisfy private loans.
- Puget Sound DispatchThe Price of Panic: Foreclosures in 1878 Seattle
A wave of Sheriff’s sales, spurred by defaulted debt and legal judgments, reveals the precarious financial reality of Seattle property owners during the late 1870s.
- Puget Sound DispatchCourt Orders Sale of Denny's Addition Lots, 1878
A wave of court-ordered property auctions signals a struggling post-boom economy in the late 1870s.
- Puget Sound DispatchThe Price of Seattle's Expansion: A Sheriff's Sale
Legal notices from 1878 reveal a community grappling with debt, foreclosures, and the relentless churn of land ownership in the rapidly developing territory of Washington.
- Puget Sound DispatchA.A. Denny's Addition Property Sold for 1878 Judgments
A wave of sheriff's sales across King County in 1878 signals the brutal fallout of debt and property litigation in a young, boom-and-bust frontier city.
- Puget Sound DispatchThe Price of Development in 1878
A wave of land foreclosures hits King County as local settlers see their riverfront properties seized to satisfy debt.
- Puget Sound DispatchThe Price of Panic: Seattle's 1878 Foreclosure Wave
A legal notice detailing the seizure of property in Seattle and King County reveals a landscape defined by debt, land disputes, and the brutal finality of the Sheriff’s gavel.
- Puget Sound DispatchThe Great Seattle Construction Boom of 1878
Falling material costs spark a building frenzy in the frontier town, signaling a rapid expansion for early property owners.
From the pages8 of 20
Puget Sound Dispatch · Mar 2, 1878
Puget Sound Dispatch · Mar 2, 1878
The Northern Star · Mar 6, 1878
Puget Sound Dispatch · Mar 23, 1878
Puget Sound Dispatch · Mar 30, 1878
Puget Sound Dispatch · Apr 6, 1878
Puget Sound Dispatch · Apr 13, 1878
Puget Sound Dispatch · Apr 27, 1878
Library of Congress, Chronicling America. Public domain.