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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 421 |
| 1877 | 288 |
| 1878 | 80 |
| 1880 | 80 |
869 stories
- The Integrity Test of 1876
A young dressmaker, struggling against the poverty of pioneer-era Seattle, faces a life-changing moral dilemma when she discovers a hidden fortune in an old waistcoat.
- The Miracle Crop of the Duwamish Valley
In 1876, a local farmer touted the 'Hulless Oat' as an agricultural revolution for the Seattle region, promising heavier yields and sweeter grain than traditional varieties.
- Waddell & Miles Stocked 50 Stove Styles in 1877
A look at the bustling specialized trades and supply chains that built a growing Washington Territory city in 1876.
- The Iron Heart of Industrial Seattle
A look at the expansive storefront of Waddell & Miles in 1876, a one-stop shop for the pipes, stoves, and industrial machinery that built the frontier.
- The City Hack and the California Horses
As Seattle transitioned into a bustling trade hub, local entrepreneur T.W. Hyndman introduced a new fleet of horses to modernize the city’s burgeoning transportation network.
- The Seattle Correspondent’s Gaze on China
A disorienting, 1877 report from a Seattle newspaper explores the rigid social hierarchies and gender dynamics of the Qing Dynasty through a lens of Victorian fascination.
- The Midnight Mutiny of Annabel McCarty
A young socialite’s debut party in 1877 Seattle takes a turn when she decides the festivities are entirely overrated.
- The Miracle Tonic of Seattle's Mill Workers
In an era of snake-oil medicine, a sawmill worker swears by a mysterious 'physician' to cure his industrial fatigue.
- The Indestructible Spring Chicken
A satirical look at local wildlife hunting and the legendary toughness of the American barnyard bird.
- The Gambler’s Gamble: How a Frenchman’s ‘Little Bit’ Sparked a Seattle Riot
In the early days of Seattle, a dispute over a small sum of money at a boarding house escalated into a violent brawl involving three gamblers and a local resident, highlighting the volatile nature of frontier justice.
- Seattle’s 1876 Fourth of July Extravaganza
As the United States approached its first centennial, Seattle civic leaders mobilized to prove the frontier outpost was a city of substance, dignity, and unity.
- The 1876 Land Hustle
A classic real estate promotion from the era offers a 'buy one, get one' incentive to settlers willing to build homes in early Seattle.
- The High Stakes of 1878: A Seattle Sunday Outing
Before the city’s rapid industrialization, residents looked to the local race track for leisure, with the railroad offering half-fare tickets to draw crowds to the spectacle.
- The Rising Forests of Belltown
A 1875 dispatch captures a neighborhood in metamorphosis, as the deep woods of Belltown are rapidly cleared to make way for cozy cottages and the expansion of Seattle.
- The Mud-Hole of Commercial Street
An 1876 editorial campaign to transform Seattle's 'wretched' mud-caked thoroughfare into a paved road using convict labor and harbor ballast.
- The Great Seattle Housing Shortage: Why Immigrants Are Skipping Town
Despite a slowdown in new construction compared to last year, the city is facing a critical shortage of boarding houses and homes. Officials warn that without immediate building, the next wave of immigrants will bypass Seattle for other cities.
- The Dream of a Seattle Rail Empire
An 1876 editorial envisions a booming Seattle as the Pacific terminus for a global transit hub, connecting the rails of the East to the wealth of the West.
- The Struggle to Launch Seattle’s Shipbuilding Future
A century and a half ago, Seattle’s local editors argued that the city’s vast timber resources should have made it a global marine power, but capital and labor were held back by East Coast monopolies.
- The Transformation of the 'Lava Bed'
A historic Seattle neighborhood known for 'drunken revelry and hellish orgies' faces an impending industrial rebirth.
- The Boomtown That Was: A Glimpse of Seattle in 1876
A survey of the territory paints a portrait of a frontier Seattle defined by the roar of sawmills, the promise of coal, and the ambition to conquer the Cascades.
- The Price of Building a City: 1877 Tax Defaults
As Seattle began to rapidly expand, a long list of property owners faced the loss of their land for unpaid taxes—revealing the precarious nature of early urban ownership.
- The Last Laugh of 'Old Si': A Black Veteran's Take on War and Wages in Pioneer Seattle
In a rare moment of candid journalism from 1877, the *Daily Intelligencer* sits down with 'Old Si,' a local African American man who served as a Union soldier. His unvarnished take on racial loyalty, wages, and the upcoming Centennial Exposition reveals the complex social fabric of early Seattle.
- The Pioneer Struggle for Seattle’s Water Supply
In 1876, the city of Seattle debated whether water should be a public utility or a private asset, setting the stage for decades of infrastructure fights.
- Milling Corporations Snap up Washington Territory's Timber Lands
How corporate mills monopolized Washington's forest wealth while the government looked the other way.
- The Fire That Built a City: Seattle's Timber Boom Rises from the Ashes
Three years after the Great Fire of 1889 devastated the waterfront, Seattle’s lumber mills are running at full capacity, shipping millions of feet of wood to Hawaii and beyond to rebuild not just this city, but the Pacific.