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1. The City with Two Police Chiefs

   While a legal battle over the city charter rages in court, Seattle finds itself in the absurd position of having two men claiming to lead the police force at once.

   May 26, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerJames Street, Seattle, King CountyCity Hall

2. The Wild West Street Brawl Between Two Police Chiefs

   A power struggle in Tacoma turned into a street-side standoff, forcing residents to choose sides as two men claimed the title of Chief of Police.

   May 27, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerTacoma, Pierce CountyCity Hall · Scandal

3. The Rivalry That Built the Sound

   In 1887, C.B. Wright, a key figure in the development of Tacoma, reflects on the 'nip and go' panic that forced the Northern Pacific terminus to choose between Tacoma and Seattle.

   Jun 28, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerTacoma Hotel, Tacoma, Pierce CountyBoom & Bust

4. The Boomtown Blueprint: Seattle's 1887 Construction Frenzy

   Before the Great Fire, Seattle was a city transformed by a sudden, massive wave of brick, sandstone, and ambition.

   Jul 3, 1887Seattle Daily Post-Intelligencer1st Avenue & Columbia Street, Seattle, King CountyBoom & Bust

5. The Day Seattle Marched: Labor, Liberty, and the 1887 Fourth of July

   A massive parade of unionized labor, from shipbuilders to coal miners, takes over Seattle’s streets for a patriotic Fourth of July that doubles as a fierce critique of land monopoly.

   Jul 5, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerCommercial Street, Seattle, King CountyWork & Pay

6. The Deadly Accident at the Little Sisters’ Hospital

   Two young brothers play near the Seattle hospital, ending in a sudden and heart-breaking tragedy.

   Jul 12, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyDisasters

7. The Doctor’s Debt: A Patient’s Humiliating Public Seizure

   A Tacoma woman's attempt to board a train to Chicago was halted in the cruelest fashion when a sheriff seized her luggage over an unpaid medical bill.

   Aug 9, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerTacoma, Pierce CountyScandal

8. The Senator and the Invisible Mountain

   A visiting U.S. Senator’s high-profile welcome to Seattle is punctured by the realization that local landmark Mount Rainier is nowhere to be seen behind the heavy, industrial smog of the 1880s.

   Aug 17, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyBoom & Bust · Strange But True

9. The Tragic Cost of a Railroad Crossing

   A young bride’s life is cut short in a harrowing rail accident while rushing to her husband.

   Aug 31, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyDisasters

10. The Tragic Final Wages of John Smith

    A deckhand on the steamer 'McNaught' met a mysterious and lonely end on the Seattle waterfront, leaving behind nothing but a tragic search for dignity.

    Sep 2, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerSeattle waterfront, Seattle, King CountyTrue Crime

11. The Night Seattle Celebrated a Railroad Power Shift

    When Henry Villard returned to the Northern Pacific board in 1886, thousands of Seattle citizens flooded the streets, hopeful that a friend of the city would finally ensure fair play for its local economy.

    Sep 16, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerOccidental Square, Seattle, King CountyBoom & Bust

12. The Price of Resistance: Seattle Unions Take On 'Dark' Boarding House Practices

    While Seattle’s 1887 press was full of land speculation and railroad hype, a quiet labor dispute reveals how maritime workers fought back against predatory rooming house keepers who swindled sailors out of their hard-earned pay.

    Sep 25, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerSeattle Waterfront, Seattle, King CountyWork & Pay

13. A Miraculous Escape at the Old Town Mill

    A worker's arm was caught in a drive belt, and his body was hurled through an eight-inch opening in the floor, yet he survived with only a broken ankle.

    Sep 30, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerOld Town, Tacoma, Pierce CountyWork & Pay · Disasters

14. The Sting on Washington Street

    A bold bribery attempt backfires when a Seattle constable and a city official lure a man into a trap, leading to a dramatic arrest.

    Oct 19, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerFront Street & Washington Street, Seattle, King CountyCity Hall

15. The Violent End of the McDonald Marriage

    A domestic dispute over a $100,000 ransom led to a desperate shoot-out at the Arcade Hotel.

    Oct 21, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyScandal

16. The Wild West of Seattle Grading

    In the late 1880s, Seattle’s haphazard street construction and 'dirt-moving' contractors left the city a muddy, confusing, and financially murky landscape for residents and letter carriers alike.

    Oct 23, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerSouth 5th Ave & S Jackson St, Seattle, King CountyBoom & Bust

17. A Marriage Held at Gunpoint

    A Seattle woman files for divorce, revealing a harrowing home life where her husband enforced isolation with a revolver and staged nightly terrors.

    Oct 25, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerThird Street, Seattle, King CountyScandal

18. The Tragic Last Notes of L. R. Shaw

    A desperate local resident details his financial ruin, drug dependence, and final instructions to his family in a series of haunting letters before taking his own life in Seattle.

    Oct 29, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King County

19. The Political Tightrope of Territorial Seattle

    In a 1887 campaign speech, future Seattle Mayor T.J. Humes attempts to balance the demands of laborers, miners, and the controversial issue of women's suffrage.

    Nov 17, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerFront Street, Seattle, King CountyCity Hall

20. The Strange Legal Battle of Two Men Claiming One Wife

    A quarrel between two men over a woman leads to a courtroom standoff in Seattle, revealing a messy web of bigamy, divorce, and personal vendettas.

    Nov 30, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyScandal

21. The Perils of the Seattle Tideflats

    A mother survives a terrifying fall through a rotten wooden sidewalk into the mud-filled depths of the Seattle tideflats, exposing the dangerous state of the city's infrastructure.

    Dec 1, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerMain Street, Seattle, King CountyCity Hall

22. The Hidden Anarchist Dens of Old Seattle

    A reporter goes undercover into the city's dimly lit saloons to find the radicals, the red-eyed agitators, and the illicit literature that supposedly threatened the order of the growing town.

    Dec 13, 1887Seattle Daily Post-Intelligencer1st Street & 2nd Street, Seattle, King CountyNightlife

23. The Perilous Trek of Miss O'Leary

    A young woman survives a harrowing, lonely walk from Portland to Seattle in the depths of winter.

    Dec 14, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyStrange But True

24. The Political Pilgrimage to Steilacoom

    In 1887, Washington Territorial legislators took a collective trip to inspect the state's asylum, but the solemn mission quickly devolved into a social affair that kept the real results hidden from the public.

    Dec 16, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerWestern State Hospital, Steilacoom, Pierce CountyCity Hall

25. The Desperate 'Stake' of a Fugitive

    After shooting an employer in Seattle, a wounded man is discovered in a cabin near a brickyard, revealing a tale of poverty, gambling, and a botched robbery.

    Dec 25, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyTrue Crime

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