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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 1 |
| 1877 | 5 |
| 1878 | 6 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1883 | 4 |
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1885 | 1 |
| 1886 | 1 |
| 1887 | 2 |
| 1888 | 2 |
| 1889 | 3 |
| 1890 | 3 |
| 1891 | 2 |
| 1893 | 3 |
| 1894 | 5 |
| 1895 | 2 |
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| 1903 | 2 |
| 1904 | 2 |
| 1908 | 1 |
| 1909 | 2 |
| 1914 | 3 |
| 1915 | 2 |
| 1916 | 1 |
| 1929 | 1 |
60 stories matching transient
- The Desperate Plea of a Drug-Addicted Transient
A man seeking a meal at the city health office reveals he has been consuming dangerous, sleep-inducing doses of chloral.
- A Mother's Fight Through Three Marriages
After years of manipulation and threats, a Tacoma woman turns to the courts to reclaim her child from a former partner.
- The Struggle to Count Seattle
Boosterism and bureaucracy collide as city leaders argue that the recent census failed to capture Seattle’s true, booming population.
- The Land Grabbers of Snohomish: How Loggers Hoarded Tide Marshes
A local editorial exposes the speculative tactics of transient loggers who are buying up fertile river bottomlands for quick profit, leaving the valley's agricultural potential in limbo.
- The Myth of the Transient Worker
A Snohomish editor argues that young men wandering the river camps for work are missing their chance to claim homesteads before the land is claimed by others.
- Fairhaven Pushes for City Status
Citizens rally to establish a formal municipal government to manage growth, improve infrastructure, and address the presence of transients.
- The Forgotten Mariners of Puget Sound
Two sailors sue for unpaid wages in 1880, revealing the rough, transient life of the maritime labor force that powered Seattle's early economy.
- Kennewick Moves to Outlaw Itinerant Horse Traders
City council drafts a 'prohibitive' license ordinance to address a wave of petty thefts linked to transient trading camps.
- A Deputy Sheriff's Home Ransacked
Amid a crime wave and an influx of transient workers, a local deputy falls victim to a daylight home robbery, sparking frustration over the town's inability to police itself.
- The Unwelcome Tax Man
A Seattle poll tax assessor describes the frustration and absurdity of tracking down residents in a city where the transient population and the immigrant community resisted his rounds.
- The Great Northern Labor Dispute
A railroad executive reflects on the escalating conflict with the American Railway Union and the nuisance of transient workers.
- The Price of Order: Seattle’s 1878 County Budget
A deep dive into the 1878 King County audit reveals a frontier government struggling to balance the books through liquor licenses, jail construction, and the high cost of local justice.
- The Hustle of 1876 Seattle: A Frontier Mercantile Mosaic
Before the skyscrapers and tech giants, Seattle was a bustling town of blacksmiths, brickmakers, and steamboat agents—here is how the city’s early commerce actually worked.
- Ellensburg Convention Pushes Washington Statehood in 1889
Delegates gathered in Ellensburg in 1889 to demand admission into the Union, arguing that the territory had matured into a self-sustaining, prosperous commonwealth.
- The Myth of the 'Lawless' Frontier
While regional papers fueled rumors of anarchy in Seattle during the anti-Chinese riots of 1885, the local press insisted the city was safer than ever.
- New Hotel Regulations Threaten Tacoma's Small Boarding Houses
A proposed legislative act would force small rooming houses to meet strict hotel standards, placing a financial burden on widows and small-scale landlords.
- The Cost of Survival in Early Snohomish
A legal summons from 1878 reveals the precarious nature of life for transient workers, as one man is sued for his unpaid tab for basic food and shelter.
- The Traveling Snake Oil Peddler of Snohomish
Before modern medicine, transient doctors like Dr. Spinney swept through Snohomish promising miracle cures for everything from 'seminal weakness' to 'Salt Rheum' to avoid the trip to San Francisco.
- The Municipal Rock Pile: Kennewick's Hard-Nosed Welfare Policy
Facing a winter spike in transient homelessness, the Police Chief mandates manual labor as the price of a meal.
- The Price of a Day's Pay: Seattle’s 1887 Labor Brokers
A deep dive into the predatory practices of late 19th-century employment agencies that thrived on the desperation of transient laborers.
- The City That Beat the Fraud: Seattle’s Census Integrity
While Portland faces a third recount for dishonesty and Salem inflates its numbers with transient workers, Seattle and Tacoma emerge from the federal census audit with clean records.
- The Forgotten Radicalism of 1880s Seattle
When an influential Washington territorial politician argued that land monopolies were a threat to labor and that women's suffrage was the only path to a fair society.
- The Town's Growing Pains
A wave of petty crime in Aberdeen leads to the arrest of five men, highlighting the social tensions of a city suddenly flooded with transient workers.
- Teaching the Art of the Apple
Local fruit growers race to train home-grown labor to replace transient workers as the regional apple boom accelerates.
- 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.