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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 2 |
| 1877 | 2 |
| 1878 | 9 |
| 1879 | 3 |
| 1882 | 1 |
| 1885 | 4 |
| 1886 | 5 |
| 1887 | 3 |
| 1888 | 3 |
| 1889 | 4 |
| 1891 | 3 |
| 1892 | 4 |
| 1893 | 10 |
| 1894 | 7 |
| 1895 | 6 |
| 1898 | 1 |
| 1899 | 1 |
| 1902 | 1 |
| 1903 | 3 |
| 1909 | 8 |
| 1910 | 2 |
| 1911 | 2 |
| 1914 | 1 |
| 1915 | 1 |
| 1923 | 1 |
| 1924 | 1 |
| 1929 | 1 |
20 stories matching livelihood
- Abandoned with an infant, a woman sues for her livelihood
A Seattle dentist’s wife seeks legal support after he leaves her and their child destitute, exposing the stark financial vulnerability of women in the 1887 frontier.
- Total Loss at Black Diamond
A hotel fire in the mining town of Black Diamond leaves residents homeless and penniless.
- The Price of Refusing the Knights of Labor
A Seattle tavern keeper finds his livelihood evaporating after he crosses a powerful labor union, proving the reach of social and economic pressure in 1886.
- The Landlord's Coup: A Woman’s Restaurant Seized by Force
In a bold display of property rights and gender dynamics in 1888 Seattle, Mrs. Mary Ostedberg took to the justice court after William Brown forcibly evicted her from the St. Elmo restaurant she had leased.
- The Teamsters’ First Stand
Facing mounting pressure from streetcar companies and civic authorities, Seattle’s cab drivers and carters organize a collective defense to protect their livelihoods.
- The Great Seattle Fire of 1889: Surviving the Flames
While the city turned to ash, local business owners turned to their safes to see what remained of their livelihood.
- The Union Siege of Newcastle
A standoff between organized labor and mine management reveals the growing power of the Knights of Labor in the coal fields near Seattle.
- The Waterfront Cold War: Seattle’s Battle Over the Tideflats
As railroad companies choked off the tideflats with unpermitted pilings, local manufacturers fought to keep their water access open in a clash between industrial expansion and small business survival.
- Vigilante Arsonist Attacks Chinese Gardeners
A Spokane farmer’s livelihood was destroyed and his livestock slaughtered in a brutal, racially-motivated attack.
- The Unseen War for the Puget Sound Pantry
An 1882 look at how San Francisco's economic grip and 'unfriendly agencies' were stifling the potential of Washington Territory's fishing industry.
- The Rising Voice of the Labor Movement in 1885
As Seattle's local assembly of the Knights of Labor gains traction, General Master Workman T.V. Powderly outlines a vision for the 'complete emancipation of the slaves of the earth' from the tyranny of capital.
- The 1888 Tariff Scramble: How Labor Markets Dictated Washington's Future
A historic dispatch from 1888 Seattle reveals how workers and manufacturing interests in the Pacific Northwest saw their livelihoods tied directly to the political tug-of-war over trade policy.
- The Forgotten Dry Dock: Seattle's Missed Opportunity
In 1887, a committee’s failure to finalize a dry dock project drove local jobs away, forcing the city to reckon with the consequences of industrial stagnation.
- The Strange Case of the Smuggler-Poet
A woman caught smuggling contraband in her skirts makes a stunning plea for mercy in a Seattle courtroom.
- The Soap-Making Distillery Bust of South Seattle
A federal raid on a modest South Seattle property reveals an enterprising soap-maker operating without a permit, leading to the seizure of his entire livelihood.
- The Deserted Town: Yakima Residents Fight the Railroad
When the Northern Pacific Railroad bypassed established homes to build a new town, citizens fought to prevent the destruction of their livelihoods.
- The Street Hawker's Stand Against Discriminatory Laws
When a Chinese produce seller was arrested for violating city peddling ordinances, he challenged the legality of a law targeting his livelihood all the way to the Chief Justice's chambers.
- The Jealousy That Shut Down a Shop: A Seattle Woman’s Fight for Livelihood
In 1888, a Seattle lumber shop owner saw her business destroyed not by market forces, but by the petty sabotage of her customers' wives. Her story reveals the fragile economic existence of women in the frontier city.
- The Vanishing Sidewalks: How Seattle’s Council Cleared the Streets of 'Obstructions'
In a bold move to modernize downtown, the City Council ordered the immediate removal of all fruit stands, bootblack benches, and candy vendors from the city's busiest thoroughfares. The result? A clash between civic order and the livelihoods of informal street merchants.
- The Judge Who Declared Unions Illegal
In a landmark charge to the grand jury in 1893, Chief Justice Thomas Burke declared that any combination of workers preventing employment was a 'conspiracy against the law of the land,' effectively criminalizing the labor movement before Washington even became a state.
Also about this, in other words
- The Brutal Statistics of Poverty in 1880
A report in the Seattle Daily Intelligence uses cold, hard data to argue that the 'reproduction of capital'—human life—is threatened by the crushing weight of poverty and labor conditions.