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• 1895 ×

1. Seattle’s Free-Silver Crusaders Take On the Gold Standard

   At a municipal courtroom meeting, Seattle silverites launch a party-independent campaign to spread free coinage and prepare for visiting national advocates.

   May 16, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyFollow the Money · City Hall

2. Seattle's Night-Owl Law Couldn't Make a Man Explain Himself

   A police-court ruling struck down the city's after-hours suspicion ordinance — after a red-haired stranger from New Westminster wandered into a Bell apartment house looking for a fire.

   May 16, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyCity Hall

3. Elma’s Mill Burned at Dinner Hour—and Nothing Was Insured

   A noon-hour fire destroyed the John L. Hill saw and shingle mill in Elma, consuming 800,000 shingles and 50,000 feet of finished lumber while the crew ate dinner.

   May 17, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerElma, Grays Harbor CountyDisasters · Gone Forever

4. The Senator Who Came to Bless the Canal

   Illinois senator Shelby Cullom tours Seattle's proposed Lake Washington ship canal, flirts with a presidential run, and tells boosters their city needs 'a little Chicago push.'

   May 17, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyBoom & Bust · City Hall

5. The Last Class at the Old U—and the Girls Win the Spade

   In May 1895, the University of Washington’s Class of ’95 held its final class-day exercises in the original downtown building, with women delivering the spade orations for the first time.

   May 19, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyGone Forever

6. The Whaleback That Made Puget Sound Look Impossible

   Seattle crowds toured the strange, cigar-shaped City of Everett before it steamed out with nearly 4,000 tons of coal—the largest shipment yet from the Oregon Improvement Company’s bunkers.

   May 20, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyBoom & Bust

7. The Burglar Who Wanted a Razor Before Walla Walla

   Richard H. Ford, a self-styled 'famous burglar' with a morphine habit, was shipped off to the state penitentiary—after begging for a shave and trying to dig through the jail floor.

   May 20, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerKing County Jail, SeattleTrue Crime

8. A Gold Rush Above the Snow Line

   A Spokane traveler reports from the new Methow Valley mining camps, where promoters are laying out towns, charging $3.50 a day for trail work, and warning poor men to stay away until the snow melts.

   May 20, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerMethowBoom & Bust

9. Scarlet Fever Closes In on Seattle's Schools

   Forty cases since April 1 and the tally still climbing — the city's health officer orders two school buildings disinfected, then finds he cannot get the supplies to do it.

   May 22, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King County

10. The Railroad That Quietly Claimed the Sauk and Skykomish Country

    In May 1895 the Great Northern filed land-grant selections for river and mountain tracts in Snohomish and Skagit counties—turning a federal subsidy into private ownership of some of the Puget Sound hinterland.

    May 24, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSkykomish Station, SkykomishFollow the Money

11. No Money, No Jury: Tacoma's Judge Stops Court to Prove a Point

    Judge Stallcup vacated a jury order because the county had no cash to pay jurors—and his suit over Tacoma's water bonds made the bench itself the story.

    May 24, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerTacoma, Pierce CountyCity Hall

12. A Frontier Editor Tells a Political Rival to Sink His Soul in the Columbia

    The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reprints a rival editor’s furious attack on Hon. M. W. Miles, a Waterville politician accused of writing to the editor’s ex-wife—and the insults get very personal.

    May 25, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerWaterville, Douglas CountyScandal

13. The Fire Chief Who Wouldn't Take Orders

    Seattle's fire chief refuses to recognize the assistant chief appointed by the commissioners, setting up a courtroom fight over who runs the department.

    May 26, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyWork & Pay · City Hall

14. Tacoma's Biggest Real Estate Deal in Months: Bennett Sells Prime Corner for New Commercial Block

    Nelson Bennett sells the southeast corner of Eleventh and Pacific to the Peoples Store Company, paving the way for a three-story brick and glass building.

    May 27, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerTacoma, Pierce CountyBoom & Bust

15. The Old Soldiers Wept as Seattle's Schoolchildren Sang

    Memorial Day 1895 found Grand Army veterans in Seattle classrooms, trading Antietam memories for recitations of 'Barbara Frietchie'—then preparing a parade to the Seattle Theater and View Cemetery.

    May 30, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King County

16. A Union Widow and a Confederate Mother Clasp Hands at an Unknown Grave

    In Sedro, Washington, Memorial Day brought together two women on opposite sides of the Civil War—over a flower-covered mound meant to stand for all the dead.

    Jun 1, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSedro-Woolley, Skagit CountyStrange But True

17. Three Men Vanished Into Commencement Bay

    A sailboat left a Tacoma boathouse with three unknown men aboard. Days later, searchers were still scanning the Sound.

    Jun 2, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerTacoma, Pierce CountyTrue Crime · Disasters

18. He Wed to End a Lawsuit, Then Fled His Bride at the Gate

    W. Estabrook married the plaintiff in a Woodinville breach-of-promise case, slipped out of Seattle, and ran from his new wife when they reached her gate—then disappeared again when she came looking.

    Jun 2, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerWoodinville, King CountyScandal

19. A Vassar of the West: Pullman Builds a Home for College Women

    In 1895, Washington Agricultural College regents approved a granite-and-brick women’s dormitory with parlors, a recreation hall and suites modeled on Eastern colleges.

    Jun 2, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerStevens Hall, Washington State University, PullmanHousing & Rent

20. Washington's First Soldiers' Monument Rises in Port Townsend

    On May 30, 1895, the Woman's Relief Corps presented a cannon-on-pedestal monument to Farragut Post—the first soldiers' monument in the state—as two little girls pulled the cord and an evening crowd gathered at the courthouse.

    Jun 2, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerLaurel Grove Cemetery, Port TownsendGone Forever

21. A Brothel Fire, a Woman Thrown From a Window, and a Logger Burned to Death

    A 5 a.m. blaze in Aberdeen killed one man and fatally injured a woman; a survivor jumped naked through flames to the street.

    Jun 3, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerAberdeen, Grays Harbor CountyDisasters · Nightlife

22. A Parish Divided in Colton

    A local priest denounces a young couple for their choice of marriage officiant, sparking a revolt among his congregation.

    Jun 3, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerColton, Whitman CountyCity Hall

23. The Redcoats Have Landed in Seattle

    A detachment of Northwest Mounted Police arrives in Seattle, turning heads and fraternizing with U.S. sailors before heading to the Yukon.

    Jun 4, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyBoom & Bust

24. A Courtroom Brawl Narrowly Averted

    Tempers flared between attorneys John F. Dore and Will E. Humphrey outside the courthouse following a heated trial.

    Jun 5, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyScandal

25. Night Watchman Shoots Intruder at West Seattle Elevator

    A thief attempting to steal grain sacks from a West Seattle elevator was shot in the leg by a vigilant watchman and forced to surrender.

    Jun 7, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerWest Seattle, Seattle, King CountyTrue Crime

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