Research the archive
Narrow 27,002 newspaper stories by words, years, place, newspaper and subject. See when and where they ran, then download what you find.
Put a phrase in quotes ("rent strike") or leave a word out with a minus (strike -baseball). Old scans misspell names, so when little is found, near-spellings are offered.
Refine2 on
Show the numbers
| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1888 | 34 |
| 1889 | 65 |
| 1891 | 31 |
| 1892 | 246 |
| 1893 | 259 |
| 1894 | 239 |
| 1895 | 182 |
1,056 stories
- A Deadly Dispute on the Waterfront
A local longshoreman is accused of murder after a violent fight leaves one man dead and his ex-wife seeking justice.
- Midnight Raid for Water Pipes
The City of Tacoma seizes infrastructure from a private utility company in a daring, late-night maneuver.
- Terrified Chinese Immigrants Flee Tacoma Station
Fearful of mob violence in an anti-Chinese city, seven men abandon their luggage and run for their lives to escape a perceived threat.
- Legal Battles Over the Puyallup Farm
Trustees and the government clash over the status of land patents and tribal property.
- Tacoma’s Water Crisis and the Million-Dollar 'Steal'
A court injunction cuts off the city's primary water source, prompting fears of pestilence and highlighting a suspicious, debt-laden municipal purchase.
- The Fetting Murder Mystery Claims Another Victim
After the unsolved murder of Charlotte Fetting, the man suspected of knowing the truth is found dead in the Tacoma bay.
- The Newsboys' War Against the Ledger
Tacoma’s newspaper war turns street-level as organized newsboys mobilize to block the sale of a scab publication.
- The Puyallup Nation Defies the Commission
Declaring they will no longer participate in negotiations, the Puyallup people reject the federal government's attempt to sell or partition their lands under the Wilson-Dawes measure.
- The Collapse of the Merchants' National Bank
Tacoma’s banking elite face a ruinous assessment as the city’s failed financial institutions attempt to settle their debts.
- Discord Over Puyallup Tribal Land Sales
Conflicting signatures and disputed authority stir tensions among the Puyallup tribe as federal commissioners push for land sales.
- The Collapse of Tacoma's Merchants' National Bank
As the bank's receiver publishes a grim accounting of assets, depositors learn that their savings are being liquidated to cover loans made to the institution's own directors.
- The Real Estate Titan Who Fell to Earth
Allen C. Mason, the man who built the Tacoma boom, sees his mortgage empire collapse under the weight of taxes and hard times.
- The Boodle Battle: Political Corruption and Vagrancy in Tacoma
As local politicians fight for control of city offices, Tacoma's Populists take aim at 'boodlers' and the importation of vagrants to influence local elections.
- The Mysterious Death at Steilacoom Asylum
Did a state representative die of natural causes, or was he poisoned by a lover?
- The Commonweal Army's Standoff in Puyallup
While General 'Jumbo' Cantwell rallies unemployed protesters with fiery rhetoric, Northern Pacific officials and U.S. marshals prepare for a train-seizure confrontation.
- Tacoma’s Wealthy Elite Demand End to Public Schools
A committee from the Chamber of Commerce, led by industrialist Nelson Bennett, argues that public education is a wasteful burden on taxpayers and poor citizens.
- The Bank Failure Vendetta
After his bank deposits evaporated, an enraged depositor stalked a banker to Tacoma, bringing a revolver and a sense of ruinous betrayal.
- The Puyallup Protest Against Land Commissions
Indigenous leaders unite to condemn fraud, bribery, and intimidation by federal land commissioners.
- Ambushed by the Tracks
Striking workers and federal marshals exchange fire on the rails near Puyallup as the 1894 Pullman strike grips Western Washington.
- The Guard Mutinied Over a Railroad Strike
A 1894 court of inquiry found Tacoma’s Company G guilty of mutiny, cashiered a captain who surrendered to strikers at Sprague, and exposed a forged strike-edition letter.
- The Whatcom Widow Who Bought the Coffin Before the Death
A five-times-married former Whatcom County first lady is back in the news—and old suspicions about her commissioner husband’s death at Steilacoom have followed her east.
- The Battle for the Waterfront
Tacoma and Seattle clash with the state over who owns the land between the high tide line and the harbor.
- The Booster Who Sold a Forest by the Lot
A Tacoma real-estate promoter turned a virgin forest into a one-day $135,000 land rush—then got lost in the woods and stumbled on a surveyor’s stake from his own subdivision.
- The Tacoma Gold Rush That Was Salted With Quicksilver
A mining journal exposes how placer claims on Tacoma school land turned a public trust into a speculative jackpot—complete with imported gold, alleged bribery, and a land office that kept saying yes.
- The Ledger Went Into the Furnace
A Tacoma courtroom heard how 94 company books were burned on orders from the assignee—while stockholders testified that minutes were falsified and $42,000 had vanished.