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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 62 |
| 1858 | 29 |
| 1859 | 52 |
| 1860 | 27 |
| 1861 | 101 |
| 1862 | 87 |
| 1863 | 69 |
| 1864 | 32 |
| 1865 | 11 |
| 1871 | 11 |
| 1872 | 140 |
| 1876 | 812 |
| 1877 | 678 |
| 1878 | 526 |
| 1879 | 64 |
| 1880 | 180 |
| 1882 | 130 |
| 1883 | 911 |
| 1884 | 499 |
| 1885 | 838 |
| 1886 | 492 |
| 1887 | 484 |
| 1888 | 440 |
| 1889 | 1,324 |
| 1890 | 287 |
| 1891 | 1,115 |
| 1892 | 2,855 |
| 1893 | 2,829 |
| 1894 | 2,116 |
| 1895 | 1,830 |
| 1896 | 2 |
| 1897 | 62 |
| 1898 | 196 |
| 1899 | 446 |
| 1900 | 114 |
| 1902 | 34 |
| 1903 | 1,332 |
| 1904 | 1,126 |
| 1905 | 124 |
| 1907 | 53 |
| 1908 | 351 |
| 1909 | 1,545 |
| 1910 | 413 |
| 1911 | 160 |
| 1912 | 73 |
| 1914 | 261 |
| 1915 | 300 |
| 1916 | 545 |
| 1917 | 332 |
| 1918 | 45 |
| 1919 | 5 |
| 1920 | 1 |
| 1922 | 18 |
| 1923 | 185 |
| 1924 | 151 |
| 1925 | 64 |
| 1928 | 14 |
| 1929 | 19 |
1,830 stories
- A City Turned Out to Bury George Heilbron
In 1895, Seattle’s governor, mayor, judges, businessmen and laborers filled the First Unitarian Church for the funeral of a civic leader who had helped build the young city.
- The Ground Under Rainier Addition: A Seven-Year Title Fight Ends—for Now
After three trials and repeated reversals, Henry S. Alger is declared owner of a tract already platted into lots and improved by buyers who trusted the Hill title.
- Seattle's Canal Backers Turn Up the Pressure—and the Cash
Boosters behind the Lake Washington canal reported fresh subscriptions, promised a gravity water supply for the tide flats, and argued the city could not afford to miss its chance.
- The 750-Page 'Blue Book' That Could Cost Seattle Its Customs Inspector
A federal official fights for his job as Washington weighs a massive volume of testimony — including a scheme to bill the government for steamboat rides he never paid for.
- The Railroad Land Agent Who Chose Death Over Ruin
Paul Schulze, the Northern Pacific’s former land agent and a promoter of Tacoma streetcars and Yakima irrigation, shot himself as receivers took over his enterprises.
- The Telephone Monopoly Seattle Refused to Break
A national syndicate promised cheap telephones and a rival to Bell. Seattle's aldermen said no, and the city stayed in the Sunset Telephone Company's grip.
- The Streetcar Franchise Fight That Put Seattle’s Council on the Spot
Property owners demand the double track promised with their $900,000 subsidy; delegates reject an extension, and aldermen agree to hear the crowd.
- Seattle Wagers Half a Million on a Canal — and a Fortune on Mud
Hoping to unlock $2 million in St. Louis money, the city scrambles for a $500,000 subsidy for the Lake Washington waterway — with the dredged earth destined to turn Elliott Bay's tide flats into gold.
- The Deputy Who Outdrew Tom Blanck
Wounded in the wrist and neck, John Shepich recounts the railroad-track shootout near Kent—and insists that the fatal bullet was his alone.
- A Bullet Meant for a Lover Killed the Wife
In Pataha City, a butcher who blamed a neighbor for breaking up his home took a shotgun to the man—and shot his wife instead. The town's sympathy lay with the shooter.
- A Fireman Died in a Flood-Swollen Culvert. Now His Widow Wants the Railroad to Pay.
E. G. Cole left a widow and three daughters, including six-month-old twins. His estate is suing the Oregon Improvement Company for $12,480, alleging the company ran a train through a flooded, defective roadbed.
- Seattle Planned to Grow Three Square Miles Out of the Tide Flats
A Hartford paper marveled at a city that had burned down six years earlier and was now preparing to fill the harbor, cut two 1,000-foot waterways to the Duwamish, and wall off the waterfront.
- Seattle's Schools Were Running on Borrowed Money—and the Bill Was Due
In 1895, the school board urged voters to ratify a stack of bonds and warrants incurred to build schools, warning that the alternative was a six-month school year—or repudiation.
- The Hanging Party That Wasn't: Puget Sound's First Murder Arrest
A retired sailor recalls the day a ship's crew nearly lynched a stevedore at Port Blakely—and the strange reunion that followed years later.
- Harry Fraser Took a Bullet at the Northern Hotel—Then Seattle Defended His Name
A shooting in a hotel bar left one man wounded and another in jail, but the loudest fight the next day was over a rumor about the victim.
- A Saloon Shooting Becomes a First-Degree Murder Case
Harry L. Fraser died after Paul Page's revolver went off at the Northern Hotel saloon. Page will be charged with murder as Fraser's widow takes his body home to California.
- Five Masked Men, a $50,000 Payroll, and a Train Robbery That Fell Apart
A planned holdup of the Northern Pacific's No. 2 near Cle Elum unraveled when the train stopped 500 feet too far ahead, leaving two would-be robbers to run straight into a waiting posse.
- A $10 Bill, a Loaded Dice Game, and a Fatal Shot at the Hotel Northern
Paul K. Page's preliminary hearing lays out how a friendly dice game in a Seattle saloon turned deadly when a disputed ten-dollar bill ended in murder — and how the state's star witness had secrets of his own.
- Bondholders Ask Seattle for More Track, More Time
With Pike Street paving looming, the receiver and first-mortgage bondholders of the Lake Street railway seek a longer franchise to reorganize, rebuild and keep the line solvent.
- Seattle's Streetcar Franchise Fight: A City Council Asked to Extend a Struggling Railway's Lease
In 1896, the Seattle Consolidated Street Railway Company asked the city to extend its franchise to fifty years and share gross returns, arguing that a mandated paving bill would otherwise bankrupt the line.
- The Railroad Land Agent Who Embezzled for Ten Years and Chose Suicide
A Northern Pacific land agent's decade-long scheme to skim payments on timber and farm contracts unravels into a $350,000 shortage — and a bullet.
- The Great Seattle Tide-Land Land Rush
When the sixty-day window for claiming harbor tidelands closed, a flood of overlapping applications landed in Olympia — and the state had to decide who owned the young city’s waterfront.
- Seattle Raises a Half-Million to Cut a Canal to the Sea
In a dreary year, the Queen City's newsboys, millionaires and merchants finished a voluntary $500,000 subsidy for the Lake Washington ship canal—proof, admirers said, that Seattle could fight its own battles and win.
- The South Seattle Cabin Murder Goes to Trial
William A. Wilcox's jury is finally seated after thirty veniremen and a defense blizzard of motions; the state opens with a story of chloroform, a stocking, and a dead mother on the South Seattle hillside.
- The Blaine Fisherman Who Pulled Seven People Out of the Water and Never Told Anyone
Hans Nielson is 24 years old, slight of build, and has saved seven lives in ten years — two in Denmark, five around Blaine — and calls each rescue a thing 'only incidental to the life of a water toiler.'