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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 143 |
| 1877 | 220 |
| 1878 | 187 |
| 1879 | 49 |
599 stories
- The Hustle of the Frontier Mercantile
A deep dive into the aggressive marketing and 'work-from-home' schemes that fueled Snohomish's early economy.
- A Tale of Two Trials: Inequality in the Courtroom
A commentary on how disparate legal outcomes for two accused men—John Thompson and a man named Sutton—reveal the systemic influence of wealth, counsel, and community perception on justice in the Washington Territory.
- The 'Rich Deed' That Wasn't: Snohomish’s Wild Gold Rush Hoax and the Community’s Reality Check
A sensational tale of a legendary gold mine in Snohomish captivated locals, but the paper quickly pivots to a sobering assessment of the lumber industry's financial struggles and the region's agricultural potential.
- The Moral Gatekeeper: Snohomish’s New Battle Over Who Gets to Sell Liquor
A new state law requires liquor license applicants to prove 'good moral character,' turning county commissioners into judges of private virtue and sparking a fierce debate over who gets to define morality in the Territory.
- The Man Who 'Bled' His Town Dry: The Rise and Ruin of Eldridge Morse
A 1876 traveler’s letter to the Oregon City Enterprise paints a damning portrait of Snohomish’s most energetic citizen, accusing editor Eldridge Morse of draining public funds for private ambition.
- The Schoolmaster’s Plea: Why Snohomish Needs Better Classrooms
In January 1877, Superintendent A.L. Fuller warns that poverty is no excuse for neglecting education, urging citizens to tax themselves for healthy schoolhouses before ignorance breeds crime.
- The Skeleton Bridge: A Warning to Newcomers
A local correspondent details the perilous state of the Pill Chuck bridge in Snohomish County, describing it as a 'monument of goshend ativeness' that forces travelers to crawl on all fours across a single stringer.
- The Mill That Built a Town: Inside Port Discovery’s Industrial Heart
A rare look inside the massive lumber operation on Port Discovery Bay, where 60 men worked around the clock to feed the timber boom of the Pacific Northwest.
- The Intellectual Promise of Women in the Frontier
A bold 1877 editorial argues that forcing women into 'drudgery' and loveless marriages serves only to limit society, calling for full access to higher education and the professions.
- The Struggle for Dignity in the Logging Camps
A historic appeal from 1880s Snohomish invites laborers to seek fair wages and better conditions amidst the grueling demands of the frontier timber industry.
- The Price of a Company Town
Economic instability ripples through Seattle and the Washington Territory as unpaid miners force merchants to tighten their belts.
- The Wild West of Washington Land Speculation
A 19th-century land agent pitches the 'script' system for acquiring Snohomish homesteads, revealing the complex, sometimes predatory, machinery behind early settlement.
- The Dairy Boom on the Horizon
An 1878 vision for the Snohomish and Skagit river valleys predicted a massive transformation of the region’s landscape into a world-class center for cheese production.
- The Hustle for White-Collar Success in Old Snohomish
Before the region became a tech hub, nineteenth-century Snohomish was selling the dream of 'commercial education' to a generation of young men and women eager to trade manual labor for the ledger.
- The 'No Chinese Employed' Sign at the River Side Hotel
A hotel proprietor in the Skagit Valley advertises his business with a exclusionary labor policy reflecting the era's intense nativist sentiment.
- The High Price of Corporate Greed in 1884
A historic editorial from Snohomish highlights the divide between executive pay and the struggles of the working man.
- The Forgotten Stakeholders of the Rails
In an 1877 labor manifesto, Wendell Phillips argues that capital has failed the American worker and that mutual committees are the only path to economic peace.
- The Unending Mountain: The Promise of the Newcastle Coal Mines
A detailed 1878 report on the labor, engineering, and seemingly limitless coal wealth of the Newcastle mines, then the engine of Seattle’s industrial future.
- The Boom Town on the Skagit
As La Conner transformed into a bustling grain-shipping hub, new docks and storefronts sprouted along the Swinomish Slough to accommodate the region's agricultural explosion.
- The Inn-Wide Hotel: A Foreclosure in Disguise
W. Tirtlot offers the town's oldest hotel for sale on terms that guarantee his income for four years—revealing the precarious financial state of local commerce in 1876.
- The Doctor Who Walked Among Us: A Case of Acute Alcoholism
In a rare moment of public health transparency, the Snohomish Star details the physiological dangers of heavy drinking, warning that moderate consumption can turn a man into a 'walking dynamite' ready to explode at the sight of a candle.
- The Temperance Experiment: A Dry Billiard Parlor in La Conner
An 1878 advertisement for a local business offers a look at the unconventional rise of 'temperance billiard halls' that combined community recreation with strict abstinence.
- The Foreclosure Auction: Snohomish’s Housing Crisis in 1876
As the Territory of Washington grapples with economic instability, three separate Sheriff's sales are scheduled for January 1877, putting local homes and land on the block for unpaid debts.
- The Sheriff’s Gavel: Two Families Lose Their Homes in Snohomish
In March 1877, the Snohomish County Sheriff seized and scheduled the sale of real estate for two different local families to satisfy court judgments, marking a stark moment in the territory's early legal history.
- The Changing Tides of the Snohomish
High water, booming mills, and the social transformation of a riverside community in 1877.