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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 48 |
| 1877 | 17 |
48 stories
- Two Hundred Lives, One Closed Door: The Pacific Inquiry
Witnesses swore in Port Townsend that the steamer Pacific was rotten when she sailed. Now the very inspectors who certified her seaworthy are investigating her loss — in secret.
- Seattle's Street Grading Unearthed Native Remains—and Discarded Them
In 1876, as Seattle graded its streets, workers found the remains of dead Indians and disposed of them without ceremony. A local paper reported it as just another improvement.
- The Hatch Left Open: How a Passenger's Injury Put a Steamship Under Arrest
Mary Phelps was permanently maimed when a crew removed a hatch aboard the City of Panama. When the vessel reached Port Townsend, U.S. Marshal Hopkins seized it—prompting citizens to raise a $100,000 bond.
- The S'Klallam Village That Bought Its Own Ground on Dungeness Bay
A traveler describes Jamestown, a community of young Clallam Indians who pooled their earnings to buy a 160-acre farm and built an orderly village beside the logging railway.
- A Wood Wagon Sank in the Mud Outside Good Templars' Hall
A Port Townsend editor told the new town trustees to fix existing roads before launching grand new ones—after neighbors had to unload Peter Smith's wagon to free it.
- The Pacific’s Lesson: Floating Decks and Real Sailors
A correspondent proposes turning steamer decks into life-rafts—and blames the wreck of the Pacific on owners who replaced seamen with freight handlers.
- The Smallpox Ship at the Wharf
In September 1876, Port Townsend citizens met at the Old Court House to demand accountability after the steamer Dakota brought smallpox into their port.
- The Coin Toss That Named Portland — and the Man Who Founded Port Townsend
A.M. Pettygrove comes back to the town he laid out in 1851, and the Argus retells how a flipped coin gave Portland its name, how a claim was sold for $5,000 in cash and leather, and how a Puget Sound bluff became a city.
- A Drunken Stabbing—and a Churchgoer Shot Without Cause
On one violent Sunday, a wife stabbed her husband through the heart, and a young man shot a girl on her way to church before turning the gun on himself.
- Three Days Adrift: A Ferryman's Rescue Off Point Wilson
A German sailor in an open skiff, barely able to speak or move, is pulled from the water by Mr. Benson and brought to Port Townsend.
- A Crew Called the Iona Unseaworthy. The Cutter Called It Mutiny.
Before the Italian bark Iona could leave Port Townsend, its sailors refused to sail. A survey said the ship was sound; a revenue cutter's officer put the men in irons and warned them of a mutiny trial.
- The Body in the Bay: Peter Samuelson's Mysterious Death
After nearly two weeks missing, a Port Townsend man was found dead on the shore, his boat capsized and his pockets still heavy with gold. A coroner's jury ruled accidental drowning.
- The Pioneer Who Built Port Townsend's First Wharf
Captain Enoch S. Fowler, a Maine-born mariner turned merchant and officeholder, dies at 63, leaving a town shaped by his ships, wharves, and stone buildings.
- A Seven-Foot Sea Serpent Washes Up Near Cape Flattery
Capt. Stratton of Neah Bay brings a finned, many-toothed monster to Port Townsend, and the local editor reaches for the Laocoön to describe it.
- The Monster Canoe That Defeated a Donkey Engine
Judge James Swan's colossal Northwest canoe sat nine months on the wharf — until one determined shipping agent and a hundred willing hands hauled it aboard the Dakota for Philadelphia.
- The Preacher Who Turned 170 Acres of Wilderness Into a Home
When Port Townsend could not pay its Methodist minister enough to live on, Rev. Laubach moved to Discovery Bay and built a farm — house, fences, orchard and skiff — with his own hands.
- The Parade Ground Is Now a Ward: A Visitor Walks the Territory's Asylum
Where the 4th Infantry once drilled to fife and drum, a correspondent finds sagging fences, two overworked keepers to a men's ward, and a lone matron holding the women's department — all on an appropriation he calls 'a shame to our people.'
- Old Yank, the Sequim Inventor Who Rigged His Counter to Sting Thieves
A correspondent visits Professor Watkins of Sequim Prairie, an eccentric mechanic whose inventions ranged from a needle-spring burglar trap to a wooden mowing machine and a windmill made to grind the prairie's wheat.
- A Ferry Before the Ferry: The Fight to Replace Open Boats on Admiralty Inlet
Whidbey Islanders were crossing to Port Townsend in open rowboats through tide rips and chopping seas. Local merchants and an island resident with $4,000 wanted piers, a steamer and a regular route.
- Olympia Rolls Out the Torchlight for Judson
John P. Judson's 1876 campaign swing through Olympia brought cannon fire, bonfires and a packed Columbia Hall—and the Argus predicted a Democratic landslide.
- A Campaign Comes Ashore in Port Townsend
In 1876, Democratic candidates arrived by steamer to cannon fire and a cornet band, then packed Good Templars Hall for a night of speeches.
- A Desperate Note Sealed in a Bottle Washes Ashore at Admiralty Bay
A corked vial found on the beach contained a pencilled message of exhaustion and despair—and three initials no one could explain.
- The Sickening Sight: A Pardoned Murderer Left to Die in Port Townsend
John N. Young's cancer-eaten face shocked an editor into asking why Washington Territory released sick convicts to become county burdens.
- Twelve Days in Jail for a Drunken Woman—and the Men Who Walked Free
A Port Townsend letter protests a double standard after a woman is locked up for disorderly drinking while the town's inebriated men go unpunished.
- The Ship That Could Be Scraped With Fingernails
A Port Townsend jury acquitted a sailor who refused duty on the bark Caroline Reed after the vessel was shown to be dangerously rotten.