Research the archive
Narrow 25,688 newspaper stories by words, years, place, newspaper and subject. See when and where they ran, then download what you find.
Put a phrase in quotes ("rent strike") or leave a word out with a minus (strike -baseball). Old scans misspell names, so when little is found, near-spellings are offered.
Refine
Show the numbers
| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 1 |
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 2 |
| 1879 | 2 |
| 1883 | 1 |
| 1884 | 3 |
| 1885 | 4 |
| 1887 | 2 |
| 1888 | 1 |
| 1889 | 1 |
| 1891 | 5 |
| 1892 | 6 |
| 1893 | 19 |
| 1894 | 17 |
| 1895 | 14 |
| 1904 | 2 |
| 1908 | 1 |
| 1909 | 5 |
| 1912 | 1 |
| 1914 | 1 |
| 1916 | 3 |
| 1917 | 1 |
| 1918 | 1 |
94 stories matching lien
- The Price of a Lien: Laborers Shortchanged in Log Sale
After months of legal delays, loggers find their hard-earned wages swallowed by legal fees and court costs.
- The Ship That Smuggled Opium: How a Legal Loophole Freed a Vessel and $13,000 in Penalties
Judge Hanford rules that the steamer *Walla Walla* is not liable for contraband found in its cargo because the master lacked knowledge of the smuggling, setting a precedent for common carriers.
- City Hall's Construction Contractor Fails to Pay Up
Creditors are circling the new city building on Third Street as liens are filed against the project.
- San Francisco Capitalists Plan a New Waterway at Smith's Cove
A newly incorporated dredging company asks the state for the right to dig out and fill Seattle's northern tide flats, promising wharves, railroad yards and mills.
- The Great Tax Delinquency Scramble
A new revenue law threatens to wipe out old tax liens, forcing officials to chase down thousands of property owners to clear the county books before the November deadline.
- A Cabinet Pick Sparks a Land War in Whitman County
Fifty-six farmers south of Colfax protested Hoke Smith’s appointment as interior secretary, saying the Northern Pacific was taking title to land they had settled and cultivated.
- Metaline's Mines Are Ready to Roar—If the Railroad Arrives
With the Idaho Washington Northern extending toward Sullivan Creek, Metaline district companies are staffing up, building mills, and betting on a shipping boom.
- The Mill That Vanished Before Its Workers Got Paid
Kent mill hands won wage liens, then found the company's assets allegedly shifted to a new corporation—and the sheriff returning 'No property found.'
- The High Price of Homesteading
A local lumber company leverages a housing-shortage pitch to sell building plans, even as court notices reveal the brutal reality of tax-foreclosure cycles for local settlers.
- The Price of Water: A Test Case for Irrigation Liens
When a local landholder challenged a water maintenance fee as vague and unenforceable, the court case signaled a broader struggle for the irrigation districts of the Columbia Basin.
- The Ghost of the Tug Mystic
After being run down by a larger ship and sitting on the bottom of Puget Sound for months, the tug Mystic becomes the subject of a legal tug-of-war.
- Barber Shop on the Move
A F Street barber shop is rolled away after a foreclosure lien.
- The Fight to Protect Seattle’s Builders from Disappearing Contractors
In 1891, local lawmakers drafted a landmark lien law to ensure workers and suppliers were paid even when contractors fled with the money.
- City Launches Crackdown on Unpaid Utilities
Tacoma utility officials are enforcing new liens on real estate and securing legal judgments to collect delinquent light and water bills.
- New Law Reshapes Local Construction Business
A legislative change forces material men to provide duplicate invoices, altering building financial practices in Tacoma.
- Miners’ Liens and a $20,000 Mortgage Land on the Spokane Lead Mines
A Michigan creditor and a Spokane lienholder pursue the Metaline district mining company over unpaid notes and laborers’ claims.
- The Steamer That Slipped Through the Owners’ Hands
The Pacific Navigation Company sues the men who bought the Henry Bailey, claiming unpaid debts and liens sent the vessel to a marshal’s auction.
- The Struggle for Smith's Bay: A Foreclosure on Progress
A landmark Seattle building faces the auction block as labor claims and land disputes entangle a growing city.
- The Ghost of Fort Steilacoom: Workers Cheated Out of Their Wages
A group of laborers at the new asylum construction site speak out against contractors and commissioners who left them unpaid and used rot-prone materials.
- The End of the Railroad Land Grab
A trio of government decisions finally ends the Northern Pacific's long-standing practice of seizing settler homes in Washington Territory.
- An Indigenous Man Challenges a Broken Contract
A legal dispute over a fishing net reveals the tension between Indigenous property rights and the courts.
- The Great Canal Scheme Blocked
A judge strikes down a law that would have allowed private contractors to dig the Lake Washington canal and seize tide lands for profit.
- Legal Battle Brews Over Irrigation Land Contracts
Ranchers served with legal papers in a foreclosure suit seek counsel to defend their land rights against the struggling White Bluffs Irrigation Company.
- Guilty in Two Minutes: The Bunko Man With a Revolver in His Past
Knowlton, alias 'Robert George,' was convicted of swindling an Aberdeen banker with two copper bars sold as gold—then prosecutors unpacked a record that included a murdered minister and a courtroom shooting.
- A Landlord, a Seized Trunk, and a Lady Left in Her Shift
After months on the run, a Populist orator is arrested at a poultry show for holding a tenant's only clothes hostage over unpaid rent.