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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1862 | 1 |
| 1876 | 4 |
| 1877 | 4 |
| 1878 | 10 |
| 1879 | 3 |
| 1883 | 1 |
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1886 | 1 |
| 1887 | 1 |
| 1889 | 4 |
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| 1891 | 6 |
| 1892 | 5 |
| 1893 | 3 |
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| 1895 | 17 |
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75 stories matching payabl
- The Burden of Local Taxes
An 1877 editorial from the Seattle Daily Intelligencer debates the crushing weight of multiple tax levies and argues for consolidating civic payments into a single annual transaction.
- The New Baptist University Opens Its Doors
After securing land and a $18,000 endowment, the newly constructed Seattle University prepares to receive its first students in the city's southern suburbs.
- Hardship and Deception at the Cascade Tunnel
Laborers arriving at the Northern Pacific site find empty promises, cold conditions, and a 'regular gouging' by company management.
- The Shackles of King County
An editorial plea for a new courthouse and jail to address the 'barbarous' conditions for prisoners, the insane, and the public.
- A Failed Seattle Bank’s Frozen Fortune
Receiver C. M. Sheafe told the court that the Washington Savings Bank’s notes and bonds might eventually pay, but its real estate was unsellable in the hard times of 1894.
- The Industrial Gamble That Defined a City
How local visionary James M. Colman pushed Seattle into the future by betting his fortune—and demanding the town follow suit—on a critical rail link to the coal mines.
- The Price of a Bed and Board: A Snohomish Debt Lawsuit
In 1878, a Snohomish resident was taken to court over a $236 unpaid bill for room, board, and dry goods—a reminder of the precarious credit-based economy of the frontier.
- A Forged Check Leads to a Hotel-Room Arrest
A bogus $7.50 check at a Columbia Street drugstore unravels into cocaine, morphine and a man who may have been the "Henry" on the signature.
- The Great Hose Heist: How a Seattle Fire Department Was Almost Scammed by a New York Manufacturer
A peculiar dispute over fire equipment reveals the cutthroat world of late-19th-century municipal procurement, where agents played cities against manufacturers and warrants were used as currency.
- The Railroad That Bought Its Way to Glory
While the rest of Seattle debates politics and morality, a coalition of bankers and developers is quietly laying the groundwork for the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad, betting millions on land and gold bonds.
- The $40 Forgery That Fooled Seattle’s Hardware Elite
A dashing stranger with a dark mustache and bare chest walks into W.P. Boyd & Co., flashes a forged check from the Seattle Hardware Company, and vanishes with $40 in cash—leaving behind only a single typo that saves the victim from total ruin.
- Seattle's Schools Were Running on Borrowed Money—and the Bill Was Due
In 1895, the school board urged voters to ratify a stack of bonds and warrants incurred to build schools, warning that the alternative was a six-month school year—or repudiation.
- Henry Yesler's Secret Note Comes Due
A Seattle jury spends fifteen minutes awarding a pioneer's long-hidden IOU—about $125,000 with interest—after the Yesler estate offers no defense.
- A Bank President Accused of Looting His Own Vault
Deputy Internal Revenue Collector James P. Gleason says he bought $10,000 in Commercial National Bank stock on promises that turned out to be worthless—and that H. W. Wheeler used a mortgage company to hide the assets.
- A $650,000 Mortgage Put Walla Walla’s Gas, Electric, and Water Future in Philadelphia Hands
The Northwestern Gas and Electric Company mortgaged its Walla Walla County plants, franchises, and water rights to secure a major bond issue—and announced new power development on the Walla Walla River.
- The Canal That Would Invent South Seattle
At meetings in Georgetown and River Park, property owners pledged land, cash, and labor to a waterway scheme they promised would drain the Duwamish and turn tide flats into gold.
- A Tacoma Marriage Ends in Murder and Suicide
Isaac H. Bratton shot his wife and then himself after weeks of suspicion, religious friction, and threats—a domestic tragedy that consumed a Tacoma household.
- The Great Annexation Fight: Seattle's Borders Expand as Ballard Demands Independence
As the City Council votes to absorb surrounding territories into Seattle's corporate limits, a fierce debate erupts over taxation, representation, and the future of the growing town of Ballard.
- A County Treasurer Refuses to Pay a Single Warrant
Whatcom County's Populist commissioners ordered old bills paid out of the new year's taxes. The treasurer said no—and the whole county's finances ground to a halt.
- St. Louis Money Was Ready—If Seattle Guaranteed the Canal
In 1895, a citizens' committee moved to raise a public subsidy for locks, bridges and right-of-way so a $7 million tide-flat and canal scheme could begin.
- Seattle's Money for the Roslyn Widows and Orphans
A citizens' committee reports nearly $3,000 raised for families of the Roslyn mine explosion, places five Catholic children in the House of the Good Shepherd, and sends the final check to Roslyn.
- Seattle's School Board Votes $400,000 in Bonds—and Pockets the Audit Demand
The board funds a debt, hears charges that thousands were mismanaged, then lets an audit resolution die for lack of a second.
- Seattle's $100,000 Night: The Armory Meeting That Sold the Ship Canal
Boosters packed the Armory in 1895 and pledged a fortune for locks and bridges on a Lake Washington canal—payable only after a ship made the passage from Elliott Bay.
- The Citizen Soldiers Rewrite the Rules of the Guard
Officers of the First Regiment, National Guard of Washington, pick apart a proposed military code — deciding who can drum a man out of a company, setting the adjutant general's salary, and asking why the troops who put down last summer's riots are still waiting to be paid.
- The $3 Million Scheme to Turn Seattle's Tide Flats into Dry Land
A private company plans to dredge the Duwamish and fill Elliott Bay's mudflats — paid not in cash but in land and liens — while St. Louis money waits to see the ground before it bets.