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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 3 |
| 1858 | 13 |
| 1859 | 27 |
| 1860 | 6 |
| 1861 | 6 |
| 1863 | 5 |
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 11 |
| 1877 | 11 |
| 1878 | 12 |
| 1879 | 5 |
| 1880 | 3 |
| 1882 | 3 |
| 1883 | 56 |
| 1884 | 25 |
| 1885 | 43 |
| 1886 | 26 |
| 1887 | 70 |
| 1888 | 34 |
| 1889 | 76 |
| 1890 | 6 |
| 1891 | 48 |
| 1892 | 267 |
| 1893 | 263 |
| 1894 | 243 |
| 1895 | 182 |
| 1897 | 1 |
| 1898 | 7 |
| 1899 | 30 |
| 1900 | 1 |
| 1903 | 64 |
| 1904 | 848 |
| 1905 | 2 |
| 1907 | 7 |
| 1908 | 1 |
| 1909 | 758 |
| 1910 | 5 |
| 1912 | 1 |
| 1914 | 3 |
| 1916 | 9 |
| 1917 | 5 |
| 1918 | 1 |
| 1923 | 2 |
| 1924 | 4 |
| 1925 | 1 |
3,195 stories
- A Former County Commissioner's Despair Ends in an Old Tacoma Room
Charles T. Fay, a well-known Steilacoom settler and ex-county commissioner, shot himself after financial worries and an election defeat.
- Tacoma Petitions to Throw Open the Puyallup Reservation
Businessmen, railroad men and politicians circulate petitions to oust the Puyallup Indian agent and dismantle federal restrictions, arguing the reservation's lands and rail routes should be 'opened' — a dispossession dressed as progress.
- Buy Our Waterworks, or We'll Sell You to a Syndicate
Tacoma's Light and Water Company files its inventory for a $1.75 million city buyout — and a critic notes that the company has always known how to win a Tacoma election.
- Tacoma’s Electric Light War
A private power company accuses the city of selling light below cost to drive it out of business—and of a local editor gagging the story because he runs his own hotel plant.
- The City Against the Light Company
A judge threatens Tacoma's public works board with contempt as the city and a private electric company go to war over rates — and a newspaper editor with his own private electrical plant gets called out in the process.
- How Tacoma Beat Seattle for the Railroad—and Who Paid for It
An Eastern paper says Northern Pacific officials picked an inferior Tacoma site because it let a small coterie profit from townsite speculation, while Seattle refused to hand over its waterfront.
- The Night Steilacoom's Records Burned
A Tuesday-night blaze destroyed the county auditor's office, forced the demolition of a neighboring building, and nearly took Anthony's Hotel—until soldiers joined the bucket brigade.
- A Settler's Plea for Too-e-pi-ti
An old Pierce County resident says a white man, Jim Riley, shot an Indigenous man without cause—and asks voters not to let the case die.
- The Sewing Machine Tragedy
A neighborly loan of money for a sewing machine leads to a fatal confrontation on a Steilacoom road.
- A Widow's Estate, a Suspicious Death, and the Fight to Deny an Assyrian Immigrant His Inheritance
In Tacoma, the sudden death of Marie J. Bernhardy sparks a bitter battle over her estate, with influential locals trying to block her Assyrian husband, Michel Jasous, from claiming his rightful share.
- A $40 ‘Loan’ to a Judge Landed a Tacoma Editor in Jail
The Tacoma Evening Call’s W. A. Berry was arrested for criminal libel after allegedly saying Judge Fremont Campbell took $40 while Berry’s case was pending.
- A Tacoma Marriage Ends in Murder and Suicide
Isaac H. Bratton shot his wife and then himself after weeks of suspicion, religious friction, and threats—a domestic tragedy that consumed a Tacoma household.
- Burning Oil, a Shattered Shanty, and a Logger Who Threw Two Men to Safety
Chester LaChapelle rescued his cousin and a roommate after a gasoline stove exploded near Kapowsin, sacrificing his own face and hands to the flames.
- A Railroad Cut Off This Tacoma Mill. Now the City May Give It a New Way In.
The North Shore Lumber Company wants to rebuild its burned plant beyond Old Town, but Northern Pacific condemnation left it without waterfront access. A permit to sluice logs over Alder Street could bring 100 jobs and a 100,000-foot-a-day mill back to the gulch.
- Tragedy at the Carbonado Coal Mines
A young miner is killed in a horrific industrial accident while performing routine maintenance.
- A Decoy Letter, a Lonely Road, and a Confession
Charles Wezler admits to shooting his former mother-in-law to death on a Gig Harbor country road after a fake letter lured her there — a desperate scheme over children and alimony that ended in murder.
- A Mayor's Daughter, a Botched Kidnapping, and a Crushed Rib
In Tacoma, would-be abductors snatched the wrong 10-year-old girl, then dumped her bleeding in the street—hours before her father was injured in a city hall elevator accident.
- A Blockhouse, a Murder, and a Rumor of War
After a killing on the Snohomish, settlers in the Puyallup Valley put their families in a blockhouse. One farmer rode out to look for signs of an uprising—and found none.
- He Shot His Wife, Then Himself at Fern Hill
A Tacoma carpenter and mail carrier, described as a heavy drinker, carried out a threatened revenge before turning the gun on himself.
- Tacoma's Water Was Cut Off by a Court Order—and the City Went Looking for Wells
A judge holds Tacoma officials in contempt for ignoring an injunction over Clover and Spanaway creeks, forcing the city to shut off a major source and scramble for gulch water and Northern Pacific wells.
- A City Accused of Stealing Its Water by Night
A rancher with an injunction, a mayor at the end of his borrowing power, and a reservoir that empties at dusk and fills by dawn: Tacoma's fight over Clover Creek water becomes a standoff between the city and the man who owns the creek.
- A $2 Million Power Plant Would Harness White River for Tacoma and Seattle
Promoters behind a New Jersey-chartered company plan a Lake Tapps reservoir and a Stuck Valley generator, aiming to power an interurban railroad and industry in Tacoma and Seattle.
- A Dance, a Rock, and a Confession: The Kvalshaug Murder Plot
Charles Newcomb and Mrs. Kvalshaug admitted ambushing Martin Kvalshaug near his home after a dance, then firing five shots into his body. Newcomb said the plot began with the wife.
- A Cook's Last Night in Tacoma
Injured, stranded ashore and facing the loss of his berth, a steamboat cook spends his final hours quarreling with his wife before swallowing morphine in a boarding-house room.
- Shanghaied in Tacoma: How a Sailor-Crimping Ring Hijacked a Ship's Crew
Affidavits from the Coast Seamen's Union describe a brazen scheme to force a captain to hire a crew through boarding-house bosses—then leave the sailors to pay.