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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1891 | 35 |
| 1892 | 30 |
65 stories matching thing
- The Bucket Brigade That Saved a Block
Two brothers woke to smoke and falling embers in a Third Street lodging house, then doused the roof fire before the department could even join the fight.
- The Streetcar 'Jack Pot Bank' That Kept Olympia's Railway Running
George Marvin Savage had a franchise to protect and no money to pay his workers—so he divided each day's fares into four pasteboard boxes and called it co-operation.
- A Brick Barn or a University? Olympia Presses Seattle on Its Grand Campus
A newspaper duel over the University of Washington's costly new buildings asks who pays for civic grandeur—and whether Seattle's generosity comes with unpaid debts.
- The Electric Gate: An Olympia Father Declares War on Front-Gate Courting
A gadget-minded Eastside householder wires his front gate to deliver a jolt to lally-gagging sweethearts — and proves it first on an unwitting dog and a cabbage-loving cow.
- 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.
- The Apple Trees That Sailed From England in a Sea Captain's Cabin
Seeds saved from a farewell dinner in 1833 were planted at Fort Nisqually and grew into the finest apple trees north of the Columbia. Now an editor wants Tacoma to move them to a park before the squirrels of Rosston are their only company.
- Thirty Men Want One City Job as Olympia’s New Council Takes Over
A patronage scramble greets Olympia’s incoming administration, with a crowd of applicants for street commissioner and a proposal to cut the police force while adding more streetlights.
- Surveyors Find a Rich Country Behind a Brutal Trail
A government surveying party returns from Chehalis County with tales of an impassable road, a hotel meal that required a salmon spear, and soil and timber worth the misery.
- 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.
- The Hay Thief, the Bathtub, and the Shotgun Out of Repair
A Westside barn alarm turns into a comic opera of nightshirts, a borrowed shotgun and one stolen bale of hay.
- Mossbackism in Olympia: The Club, the Hotel and the Saloon Men
Board of Trade members proposed folding the Washington Club into the Olympia Hotel to settle liquor complaints and give the board a cash stake—then the club's defenders blamed saloon keepers and 'picayune politicians.'
- Who Should Keep Olympia's Money?
On the eve of the 1891 municipal election, a dozen anonymous Olympians argued over the city treasurer's race, a regular nominee, a new brick block, and a saloonkeeper's ten-dollar joke.
- A Streetcar Cathedral Rises at Chestnut and Fifth
Olympia Light and Power plans a three-story headquarters with repair pits, a supply store and dormitory rooms for single employees — if City Council approves the route it wants.
- The Preacher Who Saw Revolution Coming
In an 1892 lecture at the Unitarian church, Rev. W. E. Copeland warned that labor unrest and inequality were about to remake society—and maybe religion itself.
- 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.
- The Minister, the Miracle Cure, and Olympia's War on Drink
Rev. Napoleon Hoagland preached "salvation by science" at Tacoma Hall, touting Dr. Keeley's famous remedy for alcoholism and urging Olympia to raise money so the poor could be treated too.
- Olympia's Republican Bargain: Bring the State Convention Home—and Send a Delegate to Minneapolis
A local editorial pushes Thurston County Republicans to raise $1,500, host the state convention in the capital, and still claim a seat at the national convention—instead of trading one prize for the other.
- Buy the Mudflats, Give Them Away, and Pray for a Payroll
Olympia's newly organized Improvement Company wants every business man in town to buy one $100 share so it can purchase the tide flats and hand them, free, to any manufacturer willing to set up shop — because railroads and construction crews come and go, but a payroll stays.
- A Sick Child, an Empty Cupboard, and $22 in the Collection Plate
A Unitarian minister in Tacoma argues that charity is only a bandage, and that a man who works hard and still cannot feed his family is the church's real problem to solve.
- Olympia’s Fight for a Deep-Water Harbor
Citizens tell the harbor-line commissioners to claim Budd Inlet’s tide flats for public wharves—not a narrow waterway that would hand the waterfront to private owners.
- A Town Buries a Judge
Olympia’s bar and Masons escort John G. Sparks to the Masonic cemetery, with resolutions praising a lawyer, magistrate, and civic fixture.
- The Railroad Beats the Steamboat on Puget Sound
Olympia’s favorite steamer Bailey Gatzert makes its last run as Northern Pacific trains drain the passenger trade.
- 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.
- Tacoma’s 1892 Election Was a Republican Rout—and a Democratic Feud
Herbert S. Huston won the mayor’s office as Republicans swept Tacoma’s city ticket. The paper saw the real drama in a 27-year-old Democratic operative, a losing bet, and a party eating its own.
- 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.