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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1862 | 8 |
| 1865 | 2 |
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1877 | 3 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1880 | 3 |
| 1883 | 3 |
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1885 | 6 |
| 1889 | 4 |
| 1890 | 1 |
| 1891 | 2 |
| 1892 | 2 |
| 1893 | 3 |
| 1894 | 2 |
| 1895 | 3 |
| 1898 | 1 |
| 1899 | 1 |
| 1903 | 4 |
| 1904 | 1 |
| 1909 | 3 |
| 1914 | 1 |
| 1916 | 1 |
| 1923 | 1 |
58 stories matching trader
- Will Wallula Become the Next Boomtown?
Walla Walla merchants eye branch stores in Wallula, sparking a regional rivalry over trade and access to the mines.
- The Hardened Life of Alaska Scout Jack Dalton
The storied frontiersman, known for guiding famous explorers and surviving bloody business feuds, reflects on his violent history in the North.
- The Perils of Poor Bookkeeping
A stern warning from the 1876 Seattle business community on the dangers of sloppy accounting and the virtues of labor.
- The Would-Be Holdup Man Who Left a Debt Behind in Sandpoint
A Newport saloon shooting killed the gang's ringleader. In Sandpoint, neighbors remembered Robert Hackworth as a family man who stuck a friend with a $300 note.
- The Hypocrisy of a 'People's' Candidate
Promissory notes reveal the high-interest lending practices of a gubernatorial candidate campaigning on cheap money.
- The Boomtown Race: Puyallup Stakes its Future on Banking
As the population surges, local business leaders in Puyallup rush to establish a formal financial institution, mirroring the rapid civic growth of late 19th-century Washington.
- The Salmon War: A 19th-Century Plea for Equitable Fishing
A sea captain argues that restrictive fishing regulations are designed to benefit luxury fur traders at the expense of the working class’s food supply.
- Colfax Burglar Foiled by Quick-Thinking Resident
When a stranger confronted Mrs. A. Coolidge in the night, she bypassed the directory to summon help via telephone.
- The Ghost of the Cascades
A surveying party deep in the mountains unearths an 'enchanted' sentinel—a booby-trapped cache of Russian gold and goods left behind by a doomed expedition from 1816.
- The Political Battle for the Capital City
A fiery editorial argues that Centralia—not Olympia—should be the rightful capital of the new state of Washington, based on the convenience of the commercial class.
- Honoring the Forgotten Pathfinder of the Columbia
After decades in an unmarked pauper's grave, the explorer who first traced the Columbia River to the sea finally receives his due.
- The Garrison Creek Brawl
A horse trade gone wrong ended in a violent, multi-generational melee that left an entire family bloodied in court.
- The Tragedy at No. 21 Nixons Street
A Puget Sound trader’s sudden descent into madness leaves a wife dead and himself in his blood on the floor of their attic home.
- Federal Warning on Liquor and Unlicensed Trade
The Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Washington Territory issues a stern directive against the illicit sale of alcohol and unauthorized trading on reservations.
- The Forgotten Battle at the Mouth of the Okanogan
A newly unearthed cannonball recalls a bloody 19th-century massacre between Hudson’s Bay Company traders and local Indigenous tribes.
- The Neah Bay Standoff: A Clash of Court and Cabinet
A territorial judge, a stubborn Indian Agent, and an injunction gone wrong sparked a tense, potentially violent jurisdictional battle at Neah Bay.
- Federal Crackdown on Illegal Trade on Reservations
Superintendent of Indian Affairs issues a stern warning that trading, selling, or gifting liquor to Indigenous populations in Washington Territory is a federal crime punishable by imprisonment.
- The Gray-Haired Con Man Who Left Newport's Saloons Holding Bad Paper
Posing as a copper-company man with money in local banks, William Andrew cashed worthless checks across Newport and Sandpoint—then vanished before anyone could collect.
- The Counterfeit Gold Dust Panic That Brought Vigilantes to the Valley
A vigilance committee in the Payette Valley smashed a counterfeiters' mill and sent suspects fleeing toward Walla Walla, where fake gold dust began showing up in trade.
- The Neah Bay Standoff: A Battle over Tribal Land Sovereignty
When the government sent an Indian agent to clear traders off the Makah Reservation, a local legal battle exposed the deep friction between federal authority and corporate interests.
- The Rush That Wouldn't Quit
Pack trains, wholesale houses and a flood of strangers: Spokane Falls cashes in on the Coeur d'Alene mining boom.
- The Wild West Gold Rush at the Border
When the federal government refused to station customs inspectors at the Skagit gold fields, Seattle merchants feared a massive influx of untaxed British Canadian competition.
- Two Farmers Who Started With Nothing and Built Dairy Fortunes
A Scandinavian immigrant with no money and an Ilwaco homesteader who once lacked even winter underclothing became models of dairy success through testing, breeding, and relentless work.
- The Vampire of Hard Times: Why Seattle's Banks Are Starving Its Growth
An editorial in the March 1877 *Seattle Intelligencer* blames the region’s economic stagnation not on a lack of enterprise, but on predatory lending rates that are strangling local industry.
- Three Banks, One Creamery, and a Race Against the Clock
Seattle and Tacoma banks claw over the last assets of an insolvent creamery, ending with a sheriff's sprint to the wharf before an injunction could land.