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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1888 | 34 |
| 1889 | 65 |
| 1891 | 31 |
| 1892 | 246 |
| 1893 | 259 |
| 1894 | 239 |
| 1895 | 182 |
1,056 stories
- The Disappearing Daughters of Tacoma
Local detectives launch a search for two young women who have fled their homes, leaving police tight-lipped about the details.
- Engineering Tacoma's Waterfront
Tacoma will build a $20,000 bridge to its new filled waterfront, where teredo worms eat untreated pilings.
- A Police Raid on the Iroquois Club
Detectives break up a poker game at the Iroquois clubrooms, highlighting ongoing tensions between gambling houses and city law enforcement.
- A Fatal Accident on the Tide Flats
A local hotel proprietor dies in a hunting accident near the Tacoma waterfront.
- Tacoma Cracks Down on Gambling and Licensing
The city council pushes for reform by replacing a compromised license inspector and moving to suppress gambling.
- Tacoma Mill Closes, Leaving Sixty Workers Jobless
A receivership dispute leads to the shutdown of the Tacoma Lumber and Manufacturing Company, with laborers left in the cold.
- The Intellectual Con Artist of the Fife Hotel
A well-dressed man claiming to be the former secretary to Sir John Macdonald flees Tacoma after leaving behind a trail of worthless checks.
- The Professionalization of Seattle Architecture
A call for ethical standards in an era of rapid, often shoddy construction, as Seattle architects move to join the American Institute of Architects.
- The Political Deadlock in Tacoma
A fractured city council faces a week of partisan infighting as factions refuse to form a quorum, paralyzing municipal business.
- Presbytery Suspends Minister for Slander
A long-running ecclesiastical dispute concludes as Reverend M. G. Mann is convicted of slandering his successor using hearsay from the Puyallup reservation.
- A Fair Held 'To Spite Bennett': Tacoma Refuses to Be Killed Over Union Labor
Nelson Bennett attacked the Interstate Fair for hiring union workmen and nearly broke the enterprise. The trustees answer with a whoop: the fair goes on, and Seattle says it will stand by it.
- A Gun Goes Off in a Passing Hand and a Fox Island Rancher Dies
Handing her husband his gun as he stepped into a boat, a Fox Island woman accidentally discharges it at point-blank range, killing him in front of her.
- Tacoma Refuses to Play Dog-in-the-Manger on Seattle's Ship Canal
When Seattle's chamber pushed a Lake Washington ship canal, Tacoma's president said regional gain mattered more than blocking a rival—then hedged.
- The Many Lives of J. S. Howell: Gold Miner, Town Founder, Tacoma Broker
A Tacoma pioneer dies at his Twelfth Street home. His obituary is a tour of the nineteenth-century American West — Wisconsin lumber, Colorado gold, an Iowa townsite he platted and owned, and finally real estate in a rising Tacoma.
- The Packing Plant That Wasted Nothing
At Meeker on the Seattle–Tacoma line, the Pacific Meat Company turned cattle, hogs and sheep into cured meat, sausage and fertilizer with almost no waste—and kept a small town working.
- Tacoma Man Sets the Record Straight on the Northern Pacific Land Grant
Paul Schulze writes to correct a special telegram claiming the Supreme Court annulled the railroad's land grant from Portland to Tacoma, arguing the decision was narrow and fears of a land rush are overblown.
- A Judgment Against the Man in the Moon: Tacoma's $2 Million Water Bond Fight
Judge Stallcup tried to invalidate $2,130,000 in water bonds. The water company's lawyer shrugged—and warned that bondholders would haul the city into court if interest went unpaid.
- A Quiet Seattle Prospector Dies in a Hotel—and There Will Be No Inquest
John B. Conrad was found dying at the Grand Hotel; a friend from Seattle could offer no reason for suicide, and the case was closed without an inquest.
- The Courthouse Math Behind a Judge-Shrinking Plan
Tacoma officials weigh merging the Pierce and Thurston judicial districts to save $10,000 a year, even as prosecutors ask for more help.
- The Puyallup Indian Agency Was Abolished
Federal officials declared the agency obsolete, shifted its schools to a new superintendent, and retired Agent Eells after more than 23 years.
- A Backroom Vote Redraws Tacoma's First Ward
Tacoma Republicans reverse the base for municipal convention apportionment, threatening Council President Harris and the Wickersham faction's grip on the First Ward.
- A Railroad Clerk's Side Hustle: 150 Pounds of Opium Land in Tacoma
M. M. Perl, chief clerk to a Northern Pacific superintendent, imported prepared opium from China aboard the Kingston—while federal agents seized a rival shipment under an 1881 treaty.
- A Steam Pipe Bursts Aboard the Nineveh
A donkey engine hoisting ballast aboard the British ship Nineveh exploded at Tacoma, leaving ship carpenter McPherson badly scalded and fighting for his life.
- A Rejected Suitor, a Pistol, and a Tacoma Courtroom
A German servant girl accuses a suitor of drawing a gun on her when she chose another man—and he takes the stand to explain his broken heart.
- The Horse, the Furniture, and the Sumner Theft
An abandoned horse and a cache of furniture tie a Sumner arrest to a grand-larceny investigation.