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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1891 | 242 |
| 1892 | 226 |
468 stories
- The Trolley That Had to Buy a Gulch
A streetcar line blocked by a ravine gets its way to Harrison Avenue — for the price of a $1,630 strip of C. M. Moore's block 48.
- Twenty-Four Officers Wanted the Adjutant General Gone
A petition against Adjutant General O’Brien reached the governor, who refused to demand a resignation—prompting a theatrical outburst from Tacoma’s “Little Corporal.”
- She Owned Her Own Bedding: A Hoquiam Wife's Public Reckoning
When W. E. Ulmer filed notice that he would no longer pay his wife's bills, Ida V. Ulmer went straight to the paper — to point out that he had never paid them in the first place.
- A Taxpayer Tries to Stop the City From Writing Checks It Can’t Cover
Francis Hoffman and the Olympia Hardware Company ask a judge to block further city warrants, arguing Olympia has blown past its debt limit.
- The Sunday Search of Olympia's Chinese Gardens
A newly sworn customs inspector found opium hidden among vegetables and buried in boxes, arrested one man, and left the city's Chinese market gardens under guard.
- The Respectable Olympia Doctor Who May Have Been a Missing Iowa Treasurer
After Dr. S. C. Smith died in Olympia, an old army comrade wrote to ask whether the beloved physician was really Dr. S. C. Thompson, who vanished from Leon, Iowa, in 1872.
- Olympia's 1891 City Election: Ward Caucuses, Backroom Maneuvers, and a Fight Over Fair Play
As the Third Ward nominates a councilman and candidates jockey for mayor and treasurer, a taxpayer protests a plan for a mass convention that would sideline ward delegates.
- Olympia Puts Its Bond Mess on Ice—and the Mayor Objects
A council committee recommends leaving the 1891 bond tangle to the next administration; the mayor warns the city is “in a mud hole” and wants the courts to force a decision.
- The Seattle Lawyer Who Argued Both Sides of the Tide-Land Question
Colonel J. C. Haines told one court that Washington could grant title to the Dr. Maynard tract and another that the United States cannot grant title to tide lands — leaving 360 acres of Seattle's waterfront frozen until the supreme court settles it.
- A Sunday-Night Letter Asks Why Olympia Lets Main Street Saloons Run Loud
A reader complains of drinking, dancing and noise in the saloons below Third and demands that police keep young boys out of the crowds.
- A Road Along the Water — and a Pitch to Merge Olympia and Tumwater
A Tumwater booster argues a beach road is the only sensible link between the two towns, and floats consolidating them into one city to build it.
- The Eighteenth Promise of Mr. Savage
Olympia's street railway president vows a coal-oil motor, fifteen-minute service, and an Eastside extension—mostly, the paper suspects, for real estate.
- Edison's Noiseless Motor and the Race to Put Olympia on Rails
Two Edison men pitch a single-reduction streetcar motor to Olympia's electric company, promising rails by the Fourth of July—if property holders cooperate on subsidies.
- Childhood Accident Leaves Three Injured
A young boy playing with gunpowder in a home near Olympia caused an explosion that injured three children.
- Street Railway Lawyer Loses Case After Missing Court
A legal representative for the local street railway company loses a judgment by default after failing to appear in court.
- The Transformation of Jim
After serving time in jail, a local man known as Jim commits to learning English and adopting American customs.
- Gold, Silver, Tin—and a Secret Location in the Black Hills
A prospector arrives in Olympia with ore said to carry gold, silver, tin and cinnabar, but he won’t say where it came from.
- The $25,000 Schoolhouse and the Competition That Smelled
A letter writer asks the school board a sharp question: if the winning architect was allowed to redraw his plans after the price came in too high, what exactly was the competition for?
- Olympia's Building-Loan Society Built Three Homes and Paid 4½ Percent
A half-year statement from the Olympia Building Loan Association showed 450 shares in force, a net profit of $634.50, and three new houses—then opened a new subscription series.
- A Horsewhipping on Fourth Street
Herman Ramm publicly thrashed Dan House with a blacksnake whip, drawing a crowd—and leaving the 'outrageous offense' unnamed.
- Pressing to Carve Up the Yakima Reservation
A colonel fresh from Washington, D.C. reports that the Indian commissioner is ready to send an agent within a month to allot Yakima lands — framed as kindness, it was the machinery of dispossession.
- A Logger Who Lost His Sight, His Health and Everything in His Wife's Name
A former New York volunteer, once a man of some means, leaves Olympia for the Soldiers' Home at Orting with his property gone and his eyesight failing.
- Orchardists Want Thurston County to Stop Betting on Town Lots
A new horticultural society forms in Olympia, promising experiments in fruit, flowers and prunes—and a future beyond real-estate speculation.
- Three Tenino Men Killed Nearly Eighty Deer Out of Season
An Olympia editorial calls for prosecution after three well-known Tenino men slaughter nearly eighty deer after the season closed.
- Spokane Taxpayers Revolt Before the Bonds Come Due
After selling $1.2 million in bonds, Spokane's council kept planning improvements. Property owners talked injunctions and credit, and the Ledger saw a lesson for every taxpayer.