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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1858 | 29 |
| 1859 | 52 |
| 1860 | 15 |
| 1861 | 9 |
105 stories
- The Widow’s Pig-Feeding Innovation
A resourceful widow in Steilacoom finds a way to feed her livestock using garden weeds and a boiler, turning a chore into a sustainable practice.
- The Case of the Missing Boarder
A Steilacoom landlady finds herself in a tangle of confusion when a new arrival is mistaken for a long-lost acquaintance.
- The Mail That Stopped Coming to Puget Sound
For more than ten days no mail arrived from California or the Atlantic states. Steilacoom’s editor blamed a federal order in San Francisco and wondered how long the town could keep publishing.
- The Governor’s Printing Office Grab
A territorial appointment turns into a public feud over who gets to choose Washington’s public printer—and whether the governor overstepped the legislature’s authority.
- The Day the Steamers Left Puget Sound
An 1861 Steilacoom editor warns that losing ocean steamship service will isolate Washington Territory and strangle its growth.
- A Runaway Horse, a Broken Skull, and a Mother's New Misfortune
Near Judge Chambers's house, Mrs. Riccomba's young son was thrown and dragged; he lay in a very critical state.
- The Trail That Wasn't: How Bellingham Bay Boosters Sold a Gold-Rush Route
A Steilacoom editor accuses Whatcom land speculators of luring miners and immigrants with false reports that the Bellingham Bay trail to the gold fields was nearly finished.
- Fighting Whisky and a Free Fight in Steilacoom's Streets
A dozen strangers brawl outside Jerry Dennis's house, prompting the editor to demand the disorderly den be closed.
- Gold Dust at the Foot of Mount Baker
A steamer passenger's letter reports that Whatcom merchants have bought gold from Indigenous prospectors—and that plenty more may lie near Bellingham Bay.
- A Runaway from the Olympia Jail
A man named Simmons, recently confined in the Olympia jail, has been spotted in Steilacoom.
- Steilacoom Builds Before the Crowd Arrives
Warehouses on pilings, a new store and a brick jail: the town's 1853 building boom was a bet on growth.
- The Hudson's Bay Company Puts a Price on Washington Territory
A proposed £500,000 sale of the company's Puget Sound land claims alarmed settlers and left Congress uncertain about who really owned the ground.
- A Miraculous Escape on Puget Sound: Two Steamers Collide Near Steilacoom
The steamer Northerner and a second vessel met suddenly on the water in October 1858, crushing the little steamer’s bow and nearly sending its captain into the Sound.
- The Vultures on Steilacoom's Streets
A furious 1858 editorial accuses local authorities of letting California gamblers plunder the town in plain sight.
- Steilacoom’s Editor Asks Who Will Start the Fire Brigade
With wooden buildings packed into the business district and no reservoir, engine or ladder company, the Puget Sound Herald warns that a single blaze could erase the town’s prospects.
- A Boomtown Year: Steilacoom Runs Out of Empty Houses
In its first-anniversary survey of Puget Sound, the Herald finds every vacant building in Steilacoom filled — and thirty new ones thrown up in eight months.
- The Steamer That Never Came: Steilacoom's Broken Promise of a Pleasure Trip
A hundred neighbors set aside their work for a promised steamboat excursion to Olympia — but the boat failed to show, the crowd simmered, and the day ended in a dance hall instead of on deck.
- The Coat That Became a Campaign Scandal
A Steilacoom merchant says Col. Wm. H. Wallace paid for the coat Warren Gore called stolen—and that the real target is the county's voters.
- A Frontier Fourth: Cannon, Troops, and a Ball in Steilacoom
On July 4, 1859, Steilacoom turned out for a warship salute, a military review at Fort Steilacoom, a reading of the Declaration of Independence, and an evening ball.
- The Mystery of the 'Sea-Monster' in Pierce County
A strange creature from the 'animal kingdom' is brought to Steilacoom, sparking local debate over its true nature.
- The Farmer and the Unruly Ox
A cautionary tale of how cruelty toward livestock backfires on the master.
- The Mystery of the Degenerate Wheat
A local doctor presents a strange botanical specimen that challenges the agricultural wisdom of 1859.
- The Democrats’ Loyalty Test in Olympia
A December 1859 caucus of Democratic territorial legislators spent the evening arguing over who was pure enough to hold House offices — and who had backed the party’s last congressional nominee.
- Six Hours, Sixteen Thousand Feet: Puget Sound's Lumber Boom
A correspondent touring the Sound in 1860 marvels at new sawmills at Utsalady and Port Gamble, where wild country is being turned into lumber camps and the Territory is already boasting of a manufacturing future to rival the older states.
- Judge Chambers’s New Mill Turns New Dungeness Wheat Into ‘Superb’ Flour
A newspaper tour of the just-finished grist mill found machinery ‘complete in every particular’ and a cleaning apparatus that astonished the visitors.