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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 1 |
| 1858 | 1 |
| 1859 | 2 |
| 1860 | 1 |
| 1863 | 1 |
| 1865 | 2 |
| 1872 | 2 |
| 1876 | 17 |
| 1877 | 12 |
| 1878 | 8 |
| 1879 | 3 |
| 1880 | 2 |
| 1882 | 3 |
| 1883 | 12 |
| 1884 | 9 |
| 1885 | 12 |
| 1886 | 5 |
| 1887 | 8 |
| 1888 | 8 |
| 1889 | 17 |
| 1890 | 3 |
| 1891 | 18 |
| 1892 | 36 |
| 1893 | 40 |
| 1894 | 39 |
| 1895 | 28 |
| 1898 | 2 |
| 1899 | 6 |
| 1900 | 1 |
| 1902 | 1 |
| 1903 | 24 |
| 1904 | 18 |
| 1905 | 2 |
| 1908 | 9 |
| 1909 | 13 |
| 1910 | 4 |
| 1911 | 1 |
| 1915 | 2 |
| 1916 | 6 |
| 1917 | 1 |
| 1923 | 2 |
| 1925 | 1 |
42 stories matching confin
- The Great Jailbreak of 1878
Five inmates, including a man held for attempted murder, escaped a Seattle jail using a key hand-crafted over six weeks.
- The Land Grabber of Kittitas Valley
A sick man discovers his homestead has been stolen out from under him while he was confined to his bed.
- The Silent End of an Unknown Man
A condemned prisoner faces the gallows in Snohomish with a chilling, final mystery: he refused to reveal his real name, dying as an enigma.
- The Man Who Lost His Mind to a Will: A Snohomish Tragedy
A wealthy local man, stricken with paralysis after a legal dispute over his inheritance, is now confined in the Washington Asylum for the Insane. His family’s fortune may have cost him his sanity.
- The Great Seattle Jailbreak of 1878
Sheriff Lewis V. Wyckoff offers a reward for the capture of five men who vanished from the King County jail in the dead of night.
- 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.
- Midnight Fire at the Mill
A sawmill employee barely escapes a late-night cabin blaze, losing his winter supplies to the flames.
- The Pioneering Female Physician of Seattle
Dr. S. D. Hewes, the first woman graduate in medicine to establish a practice in the Washington Territory, brings a decade of experience to the frontier.
- Sheriff Offers $250 After Five Escape King County Jail
When five prisoners escaped from the King County jail in 1878, the local sheriff issued a bounty for their capture—a high-stakes display of frontier justice.
- The Doctor Is In, and She's Taking Patients by Mail
Mrs. S. D. Hewes, one of the first female medical practitioners in Seattle, opens her doors to the sick in 1878.
- The Gambler’s Pistol and the Marshal’s Mercy
A violent confrontation on a Tacoma wharf in 1876 reveals the raw, lawless edge of early Pacific Northwest frontier justice.
- The Siege at the St. Charles Hotel
A young woman recounts a harrowing night of confinement after a local man tricked her into his room, only to be met with a public denial and claims of 'blackmailing.'
- A Night of Music and Politics in 1872 Seattle
A town gathering for a local official reflects a brief moment of unity in a territory weary of 'Carpet Bag' appointments.
- The Great Fire on Washington Street: A Narrow Escape from Ashes
A blaze in the upper story of a building near Pike Street threatened to consume Seattle’s growing commercial district, but the quick arrival of the fire engine saved the day.
- The Butter Sculptor of Snohomish
How a farmer's wife from the Arkansas wilderness used humble tools to carve her way into the art world.
- The Horror on Fifth Street: A Seattle Tragedy in 1877
A prominent local businessman, once a logger and grocer, descended into a violent, drug-fueled psychotic break that devastated his family and left the community reeling.
- The Coal Rush: How 1876 Industry Linked Seattle and Tacoma
A historic editorial argues that the expansion of Northern Pacific Railroad coal lines from Puyallup will drive mutual prosperity for Seattle and its southern neighbor.
- The Jailhouse Serenade: Seattle’s Most Popular Prisoner Refuses Bail
Val Wildman, proprietor of the 'Vanity Fair' lottery, sits in King County Jail refusing to pay his fine. When friends and influential citizens gather outside to raise the money for his release, he turns them away—insisting his imprisonment is a matter of principle.
- The Great Seattle Cow Menace of 1877
Before the city was paved, Seattle’s early residents struggled with 'educated' cows that dismantled fences and destroyed gardens under the cover of night.
- The 'Disgusting Custom' of Victorian Child-Kissing
As diphtheria claimed lives along the Pacific Coast, public health experts in 1877 issued a stark warning against social rituals that helped the contagion spread.
- The Skagit River Snag-Clearer's Defense
After volunteers broke their backs clearing river jams, a community organizer had to fight off accusations of embezzlement.
- The Jail That Took Too Long
A Snohomish correspondent laments the bureaucratic foot-dragging that delayed the construction of the county's first lock-up.
- The Forgotten Quest for an Agricultural Mortgage Bank
An 1877 op-ed from the Seattle Daily Intelligencer argues that the Territory's economic future depends on fixing the rural credit crunch.
- Seattle’s Surprisingly Mild Winter of 1876
While outsiders imagined the Pacific Northwest as a frozen, inhospitable tundra, locals were enjoying a 'genial' December filled with blooming garden flowers.
- The Midnight Escape from the King County Jail
When four inmates mysteriously vanished from their cells, the local authorities were left baffled and scrambling to track them down along the muddy roads of old Seattle.