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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 112 |
| 1877 | 184 |
| 1878 | 146 |
| 1879 | 34 |
476 stories
- The Looming Crisis in Snohomish Schools
A blunt warning from the school board highlights the fragility of local education funding in 1878.
- The Mukilteo Colony Dream
Promoters pitched a 32-tract 'colony' in Mukilteo as a perfect, self-sustaining opportunity for families to own land and work the Sound, promising everything from shipbuilding to fertile marshland farming.
- The Political Landscape of Snohomish, 1878
As the November election approaches, the citizens of Washington Territory weigh the merits of local candidates for Sheriff, Auditor, and beyond.
- Sultan River Prospectors Build a Half-Mile Flume
Deep in the Snohomish backcountry, a group of determined prospectors labors to divert the Sultan River in hopes of striking it rich.
- The Final Edition of the Snohomish Sun
After three years of chronicling the growth of Puget Sound, the publisher of the Snohomish Sun shutters his paper, citing bankruptcy, personal heartbreak, and the 'paralyzed' logging industry of 1879.
- The Last Breath of Susie Shouts: A Mother’s Grief in the Garden Lands
In March 1877, just as the Northern Star was extolling the fertile promise of Snohomish’s tide marshes, a local family lost their four-year-old daughter to acute bronchitis at the Riverside Hotel.
- The Ghost Land Claim of Snohomish County
A territorial land office notice reveals the mystery of a missing homesteader and the fight for his claim near the Snohomish River.
- Snohomish Land Claim Dispute Heads to Probate Court
A legal summons from 1877 reveals the precarious reality of early Washington settlers who vanished from their claims, leaving behind only government paperwork and public notices.
- The License Law: Who Gets to Drink in Snohomish?
A new interpretation of the Territory's temperance laws gives local boards sweeping power to deny liquor licenses based on 'moral character,' effectively letting neighbors veto their neighbors' businesses.
- The First Poet of Snohomish: A Captain’s Verse and a Hotelier’s Blunder
A retrospective on the town's earliest settlers reveals that E. I. Tucker wasn't just a steamboat engineer—he was also its first literary figure, while his father’s linguistic mishaps provide a glimpse into the colorful social life of the era.
- The Great Snohomish Jailbreak: A Bank Robber’s Midnight Escape
While the town slept, a prisoner charged with robbing an Olympia bank picked his way out of the Snohomish jail. He is still at large.
- The Zephyr’s Preacher: A New Church Rises in Snohomish
Rev. J.H. Thompson arrives by steamboat to organize the Union Presbyterian Church, marking a spiritual milestone for the growing city.
- The Murder on the Train: A Snohomish Mystery
An Indian man is found dead with his throat cut aboard a local train; suspicion falls on two men from Pratt Point.
- The Spoils System Must Go
In an 1880 letter of acceptance, a presidential candidate lays out a radical vision to dismantle political patronage and return to a government based on merit rather than party service.
- The Sermon on Snohomish: A Frontier Pulpit Feud
A local clergyman takes to the press to defend his ministry against an anonymous critic, sparking a heated public debate on science, theology, and the moral state of Snohomish.
- The Man Who Left for Seattle and Never Arrived
A Snohomish man set out to arrange his family’s move. Days later, searchers had only a sighting near a shingle house and two troubling theories: sudden illness or foul play.
- Tragedy at a Family Gathering
A young boy, visiting family in Snohomish, is killed by a horse kick in a sudden and heartbreaking accident.
- Surveyors Blocked by Federal Red Tape
A new federal funding measure renders land surveying in Western Washington practically impossible, stalling pioneer settlement expansion.
- The $1,300 Christmas Miracle: How Snohomish Ladies Saved the Town's Soul
In an era of economic panic, a group of 'enterprising young ladies' raised over $1,300 in gifts for the poor, proving that community spirit was the town's strongest currency.
- The Man Who Vanished Into the Slough
A Snohomish resident borrows a skiff for a trip to Thornton Mellan’s and never returns; neighbors find only his clothes on the riverbank.
- The Marsh That Swallowed the Land: A Call to Drain Snohomish
Local farmers face ruin as winter rains turn fertile bottomlands into impassable swamps; experts propose a collective drainage project to save the region's agricultural future.
- Taming the Snohomish Valley Marshlands
A look at the settlers turning the muddy, fertile banks of the Snohomish River into a bustling agricultural hub through sweat and engineering.
- The 'Atheneum' Dream: A Vision for Snohomish Intellectual Life
A group of forward-thinking Snohomish residents formalizes a new society dedicated to science, literature, and civic improvement, challenging the town to invest in its own cultural growth.
- The Great Ditch: How Snohomish Settlers Tamed the Marsh
Before the land was dry, a few determined pioneers took shovels and grit to the wetlands behind Snohomish to carve a new path for trade and transit.
- Falling Log Crushes Andrew Gullen's Leg on the River
A tragic accident on the Snohomish River leaves a young logger struggling for survival, highlighting the brutal toll of frontier labor.