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Narrow 27,002 newspaper stories by words, years, place, newspaper and subject. See when and where they ran, then download what you find.
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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 7 |
| 1877 | 7 |
| 1878 | 5 |
| 1879 | 4 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1882 | 3 |
| 1883 | 37 |
| 1884 | 22 |
| 1885 | 30 |
| 1886 | 16 |
| 1887 | 59 |
| 1888 | 27 |
| 1889 | 60 |
| 1890 | 4 |
| 1891 | 46 |
| 1892 | 223 |
| 1893 | 227 |
| 1894 | 203 |
| 1895 | 161 |
| 1897 | 1 |
| 1898 | 4 |
| 1899 | 26 |
| 1903 | 56 |
| 1904 | 789 |
| 1905 | 2 |
| 1907 | 7 |
| 1908 | 1 |
| 1909 | 726 |
| 1910 | 3 |
| 1912 | 1 |
| 1914 | 1 |
| 1916 | 7 |
| 1917 | 1 |
| 1918 | 1 |
| 1924 | 3 |
2,771 stories
- A Tragic End at K and 11th
A Tacoma carpenter, struggling with alcoholism and personal despair, takes his own life.
- The Disappearing Lay Reader of Tacoma
A Minnesota man and church treasurer leaves his bride and his creditors behind in a cloud of financial scandal.
- The Barber Who Stole His Own Shop
Facing a rent hike, a Tacoma barber dismantled his entire business and vanished into the night.
- The Minstrel Show of High Society
Tacoma’s social elite perform in blackface for charity, reflecting the normalized racial appropriation of the 1890s.
- The Newspaper War of Tacoma
A confrontation between the Ledger and the News turns physical as a publisher faces off against a union printer over the use of machinery.
- The Letter That Turned a Railroad Strike Into a Frontier War
A Tacoma cavalryman's lurid account of fighting Indigenous people in the Olympics and riding through a strike reads like pulp fiction — and the paper knew it.
- Henry Villard's High-Stakes Visit to Tacoma
The Northern Pacific Railroad president defends his company's delays and promises a new luxury hotel to soothe local frustration.
- A Captain’s High-Stakes Mutiny on the Sound
When the ship Richard III was libeled by creditors, the captain held a deputy marshal at gunpoint to make a daring escape.
- The Cheadle Point Shootings
A domestic dispute on a remote homestead near Tacoma turns into a violent, chaotic bloodbath involving a revolver and a desperate act of intervention.
- The Judge and the Brothel
A Tacoma magistrate’s attempt to move his court away from a neighboring brothel backfired when the City Council ordered him to clean up the street instead.
- Bags of Gold and a Streetcar Auction in Tacoma
A sheriff's auction outside the Pierce County courthouse transfers the Point Defiance end of the street railway to General Electric for $82,000—with $100,000 in gold sitting in a hack.
- The Street Corner Prophet's Scandalous Revelation
A Seattle street preacher who claimed a divine mandate to take a second wife is apprehended by authorities in Tacoma after fleeing his flock.
- The Sawmill Trap
A local mill worker shares a harrowing account of surviving a near-fatal workplace injury.
- The Deadly Pressure on Puget Sound Steamboat Captains
Shipbuilder John K. Barr argues that owners and agents, not sea conditions, are the real culprits behind marine disasters.
- A Fatal Mistake in the Bernice Building
A man looking for an office on the sixth floor instead steps into a fatal accident on the fifth.
- A Violent Custody Struggle
A mother fighting to keep her child is pinned to the floor by an officer enforcing a divorce decree.
- Tacoma’s Mayor Denounces City’s Partnership with Vice
Mayor Campbell vows to end the 'social evil' and clean up city hall, rejecting political backroom deals that traded tolerance for revenue.
- The Pulpit vs. The Machine: A Mayor’s Brewing Scandal
A fiery sermon accusing the Mayor of being an attorney for a powerful brewery ignites a political furor, revealing the uneasy intersections of church, commerce, and city hall.
- The Great Sound Earthquake
A violent, multi-shock tremor sends Tacoma, Seattle, and Everett residents into the streets, rattling buildings and nerves across the Puget Sound region.
- The Phantom Fire-Starter of Tacoma
A mischievous prankster is repeatedly triggering false fire alarms, exhausting the local department and draining public funds.
- The Lawyer Who Pocketed the Property
A Supreme Court ruling exposes a shady real estate scheme involving a local attorney and a disputed Tacoma property.
- The Unidentified Logger of Thirty-Ninth
A man found gravely injured on an embankment dies before he can reveal his name.
- Fire Trap Expansions at the Globe Hotel
Tacoma building inspectors are ignoring unauthorized, illegal additions to a notorious downtown lodging house.
- The Church Brawl Over a Knife
A congregation splits into factions after a church member refuses to lie about his inner peace.
- A High-Wire Heist at Ninth and Commerce
Budding criminals scaled a twelve-foot transom to loot a hardware store, only to ignore a massive, unlocked safe in favor of a handful of change.
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