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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1891 | 242 |
| 1892 | 226 |
468 stories
- The Judge, the Stenographer, and the $2,000 Bill the County Refused to Pay
A Yakima County water-rights trial dragged on for weeks. When the judge tried to stick taxpayers with the stenographer's tab, the state Supreme Court stepped in and said no.
- A Deal to Fix Maple Park—If the City Does Its Part
Maple Park's property owners offer to grade their streets if the city fixes the central park—and a plan surfaces to remake the square in front of the new courthouse.
- The Electric Railway Creeps Toward Tumwater
Olympia’s new electric line gets a revised route through town and out to Tumwater, with poles slated to go in tomorrow—if the two companies can agree on where.
- Olympia City Council Rejects New Sewer System
City officials pivot away from the 'Camp' or 'Warring' system after consulting with sanitary engineers, opting instead to hire local expertise.
- A Night of Dolls, Knives, and Highland Flings
Olympia’s 'Little Helpers' sewing society hosts a lively children's party at the Unitarian church, complete with fancy dancing and a contest for the oldest, ugliest, and most historic toys.
- Olympia’s Industrial Ambitions
Local leaders invest in tide lands to lure manufacturing to the city.
- Olympia’s Main Street to be Ripped Up for Electric Rails
A long-standing conflict between local transit companies is resolved, clearing the way for new track construction and pole installation.
- Andrew Carnegie’s Advice to Washington
The steel magnate urges the state to showcase its vast iron ore deposits at the upcoming World’s Fair.
- The Editor Who Fled to Seattle: An Olympia Newspaper War Turns Personal
The Tribune accuses Col. Thomas Henderson Boyd and a 'political combination' of running a second-hand press to purge anybody — Republican or Democrat — who won't think their way, and gleefully reprints the Skagit Valley insult that called him a cowslip in trousers.
- The Publisher Who Forged a Telegram
In 1892, the Morning Olympian’s publisher was accused of sending a fake dispatch under another correspondent’s name—then caught by his own handwriting.
- The Women Who Packed Washington Into a World's Fair
At the Olympia Hotel, local women joined two state commissioners to plan wood carvings, wildflowers, art and industry for Chicago's 1893 Columbian Exposition.
- The Train That Didn't Whistle
A Seattle teamster loses a leg at a blind railroad crossing, and the Washington Supreme Court weighs whether his failure to stop and listen bars his claim against the Northern Pacific.
- Thurston County Farmers Petition for a Chehalis River Bridge
Residents south of the Chehalis ask county commissioners for a crossing near Rochester and Gate City, saying they are cut off from Olympia markets for half the year.
- Olympia to Boston: 'The Athens of the Northwest' Makes Its Case
A Unitarian minister's letter to Eastern readers insists that the capital city, older than Seattle or Tacoma, is no backwater — and that the whole Sound country is bound to Boston by blood and history.
- The Paper War That Split Thurston County
A rival weekly, a political machine, and a defiant editor: Olympia’s Tribune accuses the Owings-Murphy ring of spending thousands to “down” it.
- Colonel Turner's Stand: A Property Owner Blocks the Electric Railway
Ben Turner obtains a restraining order to halt the Olympia Light Power Company from grading through his donation claim, vowing no road shall pass.
- A Downtown Church Outgrows Its 1856 Home
Olympia's Methodists are quietly preparing to raise a new church at Fifth and Adams, honoring the pioneers who built the old one on Fourth — and the 375 souls who now fill the pews.
- The Governor’s Daughter Weds Beneath Ivy and Calla Lilies
Olympia’s St. John’s Episcopal Church filled with hundreds as Lizzie Ferry married Hon. John Leary, then a steamer carried the wedding party to the governor’s mansion and on toward Japan.
- The westernmost town in America bets its future on a telegraph wire
Ocosta-by-the-Sea, on Grays Harbor, is wired to the world and promoters promise a seaside metropolis — cottages, plank roads, a clam bake and a coming railroad.
- Council Trims the Streetcar Franchise
Olympia’s aldermen refused the franchise on Union Street and Maple Park Avenue, barred local freight hauling, and demanded free use of the company’s poles for the city’s fire alarm.
- The Boat Builder and the Missing Cornerstone
Courtland Ethridge arrived in Olympia in 1851, built some of its earliest landmarks, and left behind a Masonic hall with a mystery buried under it.
- Forty Thousand Bricks Rejected at the New Courthouse
Superintendent Rogers refused to let nearly 40,000 soft bricks from a Westside yard go into Olympia's new courthouse, warning contractors that the specifications would be enforced.
- Olympia’s ‘Miserable’ Street Railway Is Holding the City Back
An 1891 editorial demands that the city cancel the Olympia Street Railway’s charter and clear Main and Fourth streets for electric cars, arguing the two rickety horse cars are a disgrace and a drag on growth.
- The School Law That Existed Only in the Enrolled Bill
A $3,700 school-fund dispute in Spokane exposed a legislative clerk's error—and left Washington's superintendent asking whether the enrolled bill or the journals were law.
- A State Medical Examiner Accused of Faking a Fracture to Bilk the County
M. D. Minkler of Centralia faces charges of obtaining money under false pretenses after county commissioners say his claimed treatment for a pauper patient was a fabrication.