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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1859 | 1 |
| 1864 | 1 |
| 1876 | 5 |
| 1877 | 8 |
| 1878 | 4 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1883 | 7 |
| 1884 | 3 |
| 1885 | 7 |
| 1886 | 4 |
| 1887 | 2 |
| 1888 | 4 |
| 1889 | 6 |
| 1891 | 1 |
| 1892 | 18 |
| 1893 | 15 |
| 1894 | 20 |
| 1895 | 29 |
| 1898 | 1 |
| 1899 | 3 |
| 1900 | 2 |
| 1902 | 1 |
| 1903 | 10 |
| 1904 | 4 |
| 1905 | 1 |
| 1909 | 9 |
| 1910 | 1 |
| 1911 | 1 |
| 1916 | 4 |
| 1917 | 1 |
| 1923 | 1 |
| 1924 | 3 |
29 stories matching unexpect
- The Afternoon a Seattle Crowd Cheered the Chinaman
A boy’s taunts, a slap, and an arrest near Pike and Fourth drew a crowd—and its sympathies ran unexpectedly toward the Chinese prisoner.
- The Smoke House Kid Comes to See His Dead Chief
A fugitive from a deadly Seattle jailbreak is caught on the street and taken to the morgue, where he stands over the body of the outlaw Tom Blanck.
- Divers Hunting a Sunken Safe Find a Watchman in the Harbor
While searching Tacoma harbor for a Northern Pacific safe and $14,000, Seattle divers uncovered the body of William Hansen, drowned months earlier when the pump house went down in a Thanksgiving landslide.
- 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.
- Sudden Death of a Civic Leader: Seattle Mourns George H. Heilbron
A prominent newspaperman's unexpected passing prompts a sermon on mortality, a city funeral, and closed banks.
- A Centralia Tragedy: A Logger's Jealous Rage
After a week away at a logging camp, a man returns home to commit a double murder-suicide, leaving behind a chilling note.
- The Gambler’s Three Widows
A Portland gambler’s estate sparks a bitter legal battle between three women, each claiming to be his rightful wife.
- 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 City Balked at the Price and Walked Away From the Jury
Facing a jury ready to award thousands for a lot Seattle wanted for a street extension, the city's corporation counsel dismissed the condemnation suit rather than pay what he judged too much.
- Seattle's Revenue Cutter Heads to Bering Sea to Crack Down on Seal Poachers
The U.S. revenue cutter Grant sails from Seattle for Sitka and the Bering Sea, carrying orders to seize illegal sealers; two fast new launches are being built at Port Townsend.
- The Library Was Not a Luxury
An 1895 editorial made the case that a free public library was civic infrastructure, not charity—and that starving it of funds betrayed the city's future.
- A Fight for the Right to a Shave in Pioneer Square
H. R. Cayton, editor of a Black Republican weekly, is thrown out of a barber shop after the proprietor demands an old debt, sparking a scuffle and a smashed window.
- A Girl Died in a Magnetic Healer’s Home. Her Father Was Kept Outside.
Vina Kelly, 14, died at her brother-in-law’s West Street practice. The coroner ordered an inquest after conflicting death reports and a father’s late-night grief.
- A Landlord, a Seized Trunk, and a Lady Left in Her Shift
After months on the run, a Populist orator is arrested at a poultry show for holding a tenant's only clothes hostage over unpaid rent.
- The State Tried to Plat Their Islands
Brawley and Kinnear went to court to stop a state tide-land plat from turning 140 acres of Elliott Bay into lots and streets.
- A Dead Explorer's Lantern Slides: Alaska Comes to the Seattle Theater
J. O. Hestwood recounts the Yukon route, the Grand Canyon rapids and the cost of the northern gold fields, illustrating the journey of the late explorer Wilson with views projected on the screen.
- A Funeral with Flowers, a Minister—and No Mourners
Vina Kelly's funeral became a public spectacle when her family failed to appear. Then the coroner's post-mortem answered a rumored pregnancy and found pneumonia.
- 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.'
- A Monster Rally Against Rome: Nativists Pack the Seattle Armory
Anti-Catholic secret societies and the American Protective Association fill the Armory to protest 'papal interference' in American politics and to promise a fight at the ballot box.
- The Senator Who Came for the Canal
A visiting New Hampshire senator tours the route of the proposed Lake Washington canal, charms the Chamber of Commerce, and promises his vote — while predicting Seattle will one day rival the great ports of the world.
- 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.
- She Sued Him for $10,000—Then Married Him Before Trial
A long-running Woodinville breach-of-promise case collapsed when a minister, a widow and a reluctant bachelor slipped out of the courthouse and came back married.
- Nine Minutes to Acquit: A Kent Killing Ruled Self-Defense
A jury took barely nine minutes to free a longtime King County man who killed a neighbor with a pitchfork after a quarrel over money on the road home from Kent.
- The Seattle Editor Who Worked Himself to Death in a Bathroom
George H. Heilbron, editor-in-chief of the Post-Intelligencer, was only 38 when apoplexy killed him at his Cherry Street home. His doctor blamed years of nervous exhaustion from overwork.
- 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.