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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 1 |
| 1858 | 2 |
| 1859 | 4 |
| 1861 | 5 |
| 1862 | 2 |
| 1863 | 1 |
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 21 |
| 1877 | 12 |
| 1878 | 4 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1880 | 2 |
| 1882 | 2 |
| 1883 | 13 |
| 1884 | 8 |
| 1885 | 10 |
| 1886 | 9 |
| 1887 | 11 |
| 1888 | 9 |
| 1889 | 27 |
| 1890 | 1 |
| 1891 | 18 |
| 1892 | 32 |
| 1893 | 34 |
| 1894 | 58 |
| 1895 | 65 |
| 1897 | 4 |
| 1898 | 3 |
| 1899 | 7 |
| 1900 | 2 |
| 1903 | 21 |
| 1904 | 19 |
| 1907 | 1 |
| 1908 | 5 |
| 1909 | 14 |
| 1910 | 7 |
| 1911 | 1 |
| 1914 | 5 |
| 1915 | 3 |
| 1916 | 9 |
| 1917 | 3 |
| 1918 | 1 |
| 1923 | 2 |
| 1924 | 3 |
| 1925 | 1 |
65 stories matching sustain
- A Miner's Life and Limb
A worker sues the Seattle Coal & Iron Company for $7,450 after a roof collapse in the Gilman colliery.
- Investigation Clears Orting Soldiers' Home
Legislators find that the 25 percent pension deduction at the state home was used to provide for the veterans' own care, not for drink.
- The Judge Who Cleared the Way to Sell Puyallup Reservation Land
In April 1895, a federal court refused to block the sale of Puyallup Indian Reservation lands, ending an injunction and setting the stage for dispossession.
- A Mutual Aid Lifeline for Seattle’s Unemployed
In the midst of economic hardship, a local cooperative provides food and shelter to hundreds, sustained by community donations and church support.
- Tacoma's Water and Light Bonds Survive Their Day in Court
Judge Stallcup's suit to invalidate the city's light and water bond issue was dismissed in superior court; the case will go to the state Supreme Court.
- The Unemployed Built a Co-op That Served 10,000 Meals in 34 Days
In the winter of 1894-95, 130 jobless Seattleites pooled donations and odd jobs into the Industrial Co-operative Society—and reported a $52.10 balance.
- The City Could Still Take the Land
Judge Humes ruled that Seattle’s constitutional debt limit does not interfere with eminent domain, clearing the way for the Howell Street extension through the Ivey property.
- The County Farm That Feeds the Poor—and Buries Its Unknown Dead
Diked, drained and worked by its own patients, King County's poor farm on the Duwamish is nearly feeding itself, with a new potter's field filling at its southern edge.
- The Judge Who Was Drunk on the Bench and Threatened to Fill a Man with Lead
A legislative committee in Olympia substantiates charges that Chehalis Judge W.W. Langhorne dismissed cases unread, threatened a man with a revolver, and traded court favors for political help.
- Tacoma Sues Its Ex-Treasurer Over Public Money Lost in Failed Banks
The city argues George W. Boggs should answer for funds left in banks that collapsed — but a judge rules the council had no right to name depositories in the first place.
- Washington House Passes Sweeping Freight Rate Bill
After a day of intense debate and amendments, the legislature moves to regulate railroad rates for farmers across the state.
- Who Pays When the City's Warrants Go Bad?
A judge says Olympia cannot be forced to cover special improvement warrants with general taxes, leaving the loss to fall on the people holding the paper.
- The One-Ton Ring That Bore Three Tons—and Left a Worker Paralyzed
Thomas O’Leary was repairing the City of Kingston when a bad iron ring gave way. He sued for $2,500, bedridden from the chest down, as doctors called him a cripple for life.
- The Pigeons That Flew Down From Rainier With News the Mountain Was Smoking
Seven homing pigeons carried dispatches from Mount Rainier's slopes, disproving the era's altitude limits and delivering word that the volcano was steaming.
- The Night They Broke Down the Fence at Lake Union
A squatter’s float, a disputed shoreline and a forcible takeover produce a lawsuit that collapses twice on technicalities.
- The Conductor Caught Between Two Cars on the Counterbalance
Charles Brevort sues the Madison Street Cable Railway for $6,000, testifying that an inexperienced gripman ran his car into him at the turntable and crushed his spine.
- The Conductor, the Turntable, and the Judge Who Said 'Somebody Has to Pay'
A Seattle streetcar conductor sues the Madison Street Cable Railway for injuries, but Judge Humes rules the company isn't liable — because the tracks were slippery and the man should have known better.
- A Six-Month Divorce Rule Meets a Quick Idaho Wedding
A Spokane court asks whether a divorced woman's speedy remarriage makes her an adulteress—and whether hundreds of local marriages and land titles are at risk.
- The Fire Commissioner, the Cockfight, and the Deed to His Mother
Seattle’s joint council weighs whether George T. Masel was a freeholder or merely a meddler—while a West Seattle cockfight and a suspiciously late property transfer steal the show.
- A Captain's Fortune and the Daughters Who Couldn't Prove They Were Family
Washington's supreme court threw out a contest over the $500,000 estate of Port Blakely mill man William Renton because the claimants could not show they were adopted.
- Ten Cents a Month to Read: Seattle Votes to Put Its Library on the Payroll
After a night of wrangling, the Board of Aldermen and the House of Delegates agree to spend $250 and charge adult borrowers a monthly fee to keep the circulating department open — over the objection that the city cannot afford it.
- The Judge Who Kept His Robes
A House committee found Spokane's Judge Jesse Arthur 'grossly improper' for the bench. The legislature then voted 21 to 47 to drop the whole matter.
- Told to 'Subsist on the Climate': A Homesteader's Plea Denied
A poor woman near Port Angeles asked the General Land Office for leave to leave her claim and earn money to improve it. The commissioner refused, and told her she would have to stay home and live on the weather.
- The Quillayute and Makah Had Been Trading Across the Strait for Years. Then the Customs Inspector Arrived.
Inspector Fisher of Port Angeles seized $1,500 in blankets, sugar, rope and tinware bought in Victoria, and arrested two Quillayute men who freely admitted the practice — and pleaded it was the custom of years.
- When Populists Ran the Courthouse, County Warrants Fell to 74 Cents
A cost-cutting order from Whatcom's Populist commissioners has clerks and deputies refusing to obey, while the county's paper warrants slide toward junk.