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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 1 |
| 1876 | 12 |
| 1877 | 1 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1880 | 2 |
| 1882 | 1 |
| 1883 | 2 |
| 1884 | 2 |
| 1891 | 5 |
| 1892 | 2 |
| 1894 | 1 |
| 1895 | 3 |
| 1903 | 1 |
34 stories matching indispens
- Seattle’s First Fire Company: A Half-Hearted Start in a City That Needs It
In October 1876, Seattle’s citizens are debating the formation of a volunteer fire engine company. While some jeer at their 'small beginnings,' the paper argues that even a half-hearted effort is better than no defense against the city's greatest fear: fire.
- The 'Social Curse' Argument: A Seattle Paper Builds the Case Against the Chinese
An 1883 editorial sounds the alarm over opium dens and 'heathen hordes,' casting Chinese immigrants as a menace to be legislated out of existence — the ideological groundwork for the expulsions to come.
- The Iron City That Never Was: Kirkland’s $3 Million Bet on Steel
In 1891, promoters promised to turn the shores of Lake Washington into the 'Pittsburgh of the Pacific,' selling lots for a fortune and laying tracks for a empire that would vanish within a decade.
- Spokane Falls Finally Gets Water Works
After years of relying on water carriers and wells, the city council grants a franchise to two newcomers to build a water system, promising fire protection and an end to the water famine.
- A Seattle Preacher Tells Society Women They Are Marching Their Children to the Gallows
Preaching to women only on "Dying Mothers and Starving Children," Rev. M. A. Matthews calls society "the emptiness of emptiness" — and blames card parties, prizes and maternal neglect for juvenile crime.
- A South Seattle Murder Case Becomes a Constitutional Test
Henry Craemer’s court-appointed lawyer argued that Washington could not try a capital case on a prosecutor’s information. Judge Humes said it could; Craemer pleaded not guilty and began hunting for an alibi witness lost in the Cascades.
- The Store That Measured a Town's Ambition
A visit inside Chas. Sweeny & Co.'s new Union Block emporium — 6,000 square feet, a dozen chandeliers, a basement packed to the rafters — as proof that Spokane Falls had arrived.
- Seattle's 1895 Warning: Secure Cedar River Water Before Private Speculators Do
City Engineer R. H. Thomson says Seattle's overworked pumps cannot survive another summer and urges the city to buy the Cedar River watershed, dams and reservoir sites while it still can.
- The Railroad Land Agent Who Chose Death Over Ruin
Paul Schulze, the Northern Pacific’s former land agent and a promoter of Tacoma streetcars and Yakima irrigation, shot himself as receivers took over his enterprises.