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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
- Ballard’s War on 'Street Education'
A local councilman proposes a curfew to keep children off the streets, fearing the 'evil habits' they might pick up after dark.
- A Midnight Ditch Plugging in the Snoqualmie Valley
A water dispute near Tolt (now Carnation) turned neighbor against neighbor, with accusations that O'Leary plugged a shared ditch under cover of darkness.
- Tide Lands and Populists: Tacoma's 1895 City Hall Fight
Eight council seats are up, the Chamber of Commerce wants a business ticket, and the city's war on corporations may decide the election.
- The Free-Water Fight and the 'Idle Single Men'
A proposal to give the Seattle Industrial Co-operative Society free water for two months set off a council debate over poverty, manhood, and who deserved public help.
- The Lake Washington Land Fight That Turned on a Cabin, a Railroad Claim, and 'Crazy' Miller
A decade-long homestead contest ends with William L. Miller keeping first claim—if he or his guardian can prove it within 90 days. His rival says the cabin was never really a home.
- The Opium Smuggler Who Beat Prison by Oversleeping
A Tacoma jury convicted Jack Forbes of smuggling 110 pounds of opium—but the defendant slept through the verdict, and the judge let him go until a new trial.
- He Heard His Friend Cry for Help in the Dark
Joseph Pfahl, a Lake Washington rancher, fell from a boat-house incline at the foot of Madison Street after a Druids meeting; his friend heard his cries but could not find him in time.
- The Coal Company That Wanted One Vote Per Miner and an Eight-Hour Day
The Renton Co-operative Coal Company incorporated with $100,000 capital, promising shareholders a preference for work, one vote per person rather than per share, and an eight-hour day underground.
- The Unknown Man of Lake Washington
A decomposed body found near the Madison Street wharf is briefly linked to a notorious double drowning before being buried in potter's field.
- Tacoma's Waterworks: A Buyback Offer Raises Eyebrows
Former owner C.B. Wright offers to repurchase the city's water plant—and a $50,000 commission to the man who brokers the deal—as contempt proceedings against city officials continue.
- Walla Walla Farmers Take On the Railroads
A $5,000 fund is being raised to bring a freight-rate case before the Interstate Commerce Commission, as farmers grow impatient with legislative inaction.
- Ten Days Over Cascade Pass—and No Wagon Road
A member of Mayor Curtis's 1894 party recounts the camps, storms and lost pack animals on the route from Marblemount to Winthrop.
- Creditors Circle a Seattle Hotel as an Heir Fights a Forced Sale
The executor of the Harmon estate asks for time to collect a judgment and mortgage the New England Hotel, while an heir accuses creditors of trying to seize valuable property at a sacrifice.
- Something for Something: The Salvation Army's Beds, Baths and Basket Looms
At South Second and Weller the Salvation Army feeds and houses 150 jobless men — and makes them earn it, in half-hour shifts at a spruce basket factory and a bathhouse run on posted rules.
- A Senate Report Exposes the National Guard's 'Go-As-You-Please' Spending
A military deficiency report finds the Washington National Guard has escaped civil control and wasted money, including $1,000 for each election of Adjutant General O'Brien.
- Seattle's Early Basketball Craze: Church Teams Pack the Y.M.C.A.
In 1893, just two years after basketball was invented, Seattle's church teams drew a standing-room-only crowd to the Y.M.C.A. for a lively night of hoops.
- Fleeing the Blizzard: Farmers Look to Puget Sound
Colonies of farmers from North Dakota, Minnesota and Michigan—some worth up to $50,000—are selling out and heading west to Whatcom, Skagit and Whidbey Island, drawn by railroad inducements and a milder climate.
- A Good Samaritan’s $10 Went Straight to the Bar Tab
Woodinville’s A. G. McLean stepped between a bully and a smaller man at a Seattle hotel saloon. The bully thanked him by lifting a $10 bill and buying the house a round.
- An Unwitting Race on the High Seas: Seattle-Bound Ships Battle Without Knowing It
The ship Spartan beats the bark Nith by three hours in a San Francisco-to-Seattle dash that neither captain knew was a competition.
- The Hermit in the Hollow Pine: Loony Bill Comes Back From the Dead
Given up for drowned after his log raft broke apart in the Columbia rapids, an eccentric backwoodsman turns up alive — living inside a giant hollow stump.
- A Medicine Man Buried on the Green River, Kin to the Chief They Hanged
James Bootsoish was killed by a father whose children he could not cure. A hundred mourners, a Catholic burial on the riverbank — and a family name that reaches back to Leschi and the war of 1855.
- Three Deaths Haunt One Ship in Port Townsend Harbor
Archibald Anderson is knocked into the hold and killed instantly, capping a grim three-month run of fatal misfortune aboard the British ship Linlithgowshire.
- The Man Who Brought the Stars to Seattle
John Maguire opens at the Seattle Theater with Maude Granger in 'Inherited.' He recalls the early days of Northwest theater, when he played at Tester's hall across from the P-I office and lost his equipment in the great fire.
- The Cable Car That Killed a Boy—and the Safety Rules That Followed
A coroner’s jury clears the gripman and conductor, then demands guards on the front of every dummy car and bells at crossings.
- A Polish Colony in the Washington Woods
Organizers are recruiting hundreds of dissatisfied Polish and Swiss families from the Midwest to a planned settlement called Rapperswyl, on the south fork of the Nooksack — a Swiss name planted on the edge of Whatcom County.