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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1891 | 12 |
| 1892 | 11 |
23 stories
- Caught in the Dynamo: A Tacoma Worker Squeezed to Death at His Post
Edward H. Curran was at his station in the Tacoma Light and Water Company's electric plant when the machinery pulled him through a gap far too small for a man, breaking nearly every bone in his body.
- A Tinker's Alibi: How Tumwater Witnesses Overturned a Tacoma Murder Conviction
George Stowe was serving twenty years for shooting Enoch Crosby on a Tacoma street. Then residents of Tumwater swore they had watched him mend tinware miles away on the day of the murder.
- The Last Chapter at 1344 C Street
After her abusive husband hanged himself in the Tacoma city jail, a Swedish-born woman shot herself—and the policeman who had tried to save her stayed at her bedside until the end.
- Seven Inches in Ten Days: The Flood That Broke Puget Sound
A warm Chinook melted mountain snow into relentless rain, washing out the Northern Pacific, wrecking the Naphtha launch works, and isolating towns from Tacoma to Seattle.
- 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.
- 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.
- The Fifteen-Year Flood That Cut Puget Sound Apart
A massive storm inundates Puget Sound lowlands, blocks the Northern Pacific, washes out county bridges, and sends Tacoma developers scrambling to control the Puyallup River.
- A Schoolteacher Vanishes Between Fargo and Puget Sound
A letter to Washington's school superintendent asks after Minnie Cooper, last heard from in Tacoma and bound for a country school west of the city.
- Unemployment and Drink: A Death at Tacoma’s Palace Lodging House
P. N. Taylor, out of work and struggling with liquor, cut his throat beside his wife at Eleventh Street and Tacoma Avenue; he died three hours later.
- Tacoma's Fire Chief and Driver Crash on Their Way to a Blaze
A small house fire on Hood Street led to a collision at Pacific Avenue that cost driver H. M. Packenham his arm and left Chief Lillis with a possible brain injury.
- A Gold Cure Too Late for Robert J. Walker
A nephew of James G. Blaine dies in a Tacoma hospital, and the Olympia Tribune wonders whether a dubious 'bichloride of gold' treatment could have saved him.
- Tacoma’s 1892 Election Was a Republican Rout—and a Democratic Feud
Herbert S. Huston won the mayor’s office as Republicans swept Tacoma’s city ticket. The paper saw the real drama in a 27-year-old Democratic operative, a losing bet, and a party eating its own.
- The Candidate Who Wanted Cheap Labor
As Tacoma debated the anti-Chinese movement, a political rival accused Democratic mayoral candidate Alexander Parker of opposing it for a very practical reason: he wanted cheap labor.
- Twelve Puget Sound Steamships Ground to a Halt as Engineers and Pilots Dig In
A bare-knuckle jurisdictional feud between the Marine Engineers' Association and the Brotherhood of Pilots leaves the Sound's biggest passenger boats idle and 300 men out of work.
- The 'Daisy' Who Insured Tacoma
A Tacoma insurance man mortgaged Southeast Tacoma lots at $90,000, then told assessors the same ground was worth a fraction of that.
- The Mountain Tacoma Tried to Take
A railroad president's marketing decree put 'Tacoma' on maps of the great peak across the East — while Seattle refused to surrender the name of a British admiral who never saw it.
- An Italian Fruit Dealer Beaten to Death in His Tacoma Cabin
Conchilla Siverdore, 32, was found dead in his bed at Nineteenth and D streets, his skull crushed and three stiletto wounds over his heart. Two of his neighbors were arrested on suspicion.
- Tacoma's 'Life Insurance' Was a Flim-Flam, and the Law Is Closing In
The West Coast Life Insurance Company's officers face prosecution after state examiners expose a sham; a receiver takes over.
- Jailed for a Malicious Complaint, Freed by the State Supreme Court
A Pierce County jury found George Locke not guilty and decided his accuser, Leonard Permstick, had complained maliciously. The court ordered Permstick to pay $275.85 in costs or stay in jail—until the Washington Supreme Court ruled the commitment void.
- Tacoma’s Democrats Wake Up to a Republican City
A bitter municipal election leaves Tacoma’s O’Brien Democrats stunned, as Republicans take the mayor’s office and most of the council.
- The Lease a Husband Had No Right to Sign
A Tacoma mercantile firm stopped paying $500-a-month rent, arguing the leased property was community property and the wives had never signed. Washington’s Supreme Court said the lease was not absolutely void—but the tenants had rights too.
- The Railroad vs. the Harbor Line
A federal court steps in as Northern Pacific claims a 200-foot right-of-way along Tacoma’s waterfront, blocking harbor commissioners from fixing new lines.
- Tacoma Tries to Sell Itself to a Visiting New Yorker
A New York Tribune interview with Charles S. Smith set off a Tacoma-Seattle inferiority complex: real railroads versus prospective ones, wheat and coal versus new blocks and fine homes.