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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1899 | 436 |
436 stories
- The Tax Case That Could Save Seattle’s Wallet
Attorney M. H. Sachs challenges the county treasurer in a high-stakes legal battle over property assessments that could force a massive refund to taxpayers.
- The Great Washington Enrolment Error: How a Senate Amendment Slipped Into a Harbor Bill
A clerical mistake in the final printing of a river and harbor bill has inserted a controversial $10 million amendment intended for Galveston into legislation for Seattle's Elliott Bay, sparking threats of filibuster and legal chaos.
- The City Buried Its Own Mistake: Coroner’s Verdict Blames Seattle for Deadly Boiler Explosion
A coroner’s jury has issued a scathing indictment against the city of Seattle, its building inspectors, and a plumber for the negligence that led to a Tuesday night explosion. The verdict fixes blame on the municipality for allowing a dangerous steam heater beneath a public sidewalk without proper oversight.
- The Mayor’s Gambit: Humes Defers to Council as Seattle Sweeps Away Its Gambling dens
In a rare moment of unified reform, the City Council has ordered the closure of all gambling houses and restricted saloons in the business district. Mayor Humes, citing legal ambiguity over the saloon ordinance but promising strict enforcement against lotteries, leaves the fate of Seattle’s vice industry to the police chief.
- The Mayor’s Raid: Seattle’s Gambling Houses Shut Down in One Night
Mayor Hume and Police Chief Sullivan execute a council resolution, closing every known gaming parlor in the city. Was it moral reform or a power play against saloon owners?
- The Doctor Who Vanished: A Seattle Physician’s Fearful Disappearance Sparks Murder Theories
Dr. H.P. Harrington of Oakdale left his patients and his town in mid-April, leaving behind a trail of illness, a warning from a lynching victim, and friends who fear he was silenced.
- The Battle for Ravenna Park: When Seattle’s Elite Tried to Buy Out the Public
In May 1899, a private park association posted trespassing warnings and threatened legal action against streetcar passengers, sparking a fierce public debate over whether Seattle’s green spaces belonged to the people or their wealthy owners.
- The Fight for a Living Wage on Seattle's Streetcars
Facing a massive consolidation of rail companies, Seattle transit workers organize to demand a guaranteed minimum wage.
- Labor Riot on the Snake River Valley Line
Contractor Huppes faces a violent revolt from his Japanese work crew over summary dismissals and harsh conditions.
- The Fire Fiend Stalks Seattle's Waterfront
A witness spots a mysterious arsonist fleeing the Western Mill in a rowboat, stoking fears of a serial firebug terrorizing the city's timber industry.
- The Grant Street Crash: Who Killed the Passenger?
A deadly collision between a streetcar and a Northern Pacific train at Grant Street has sparked outrage. The Seattle Star argues that 'homebody' passengers are to blame for ignoring safety, while demanding accountability from the railway companies.
- The Yokohama House Murders: A Seattle Tragedy
A Japanese woman is found strangled and poisoned in her Fourth Avenue home; police arrest a lodger and hunt for a white suspect.
- The Color Line at the Temple: Seattle’s Masonic Order Faces National Backlash
As the Grand Lodge of Washington convenes at the Masonic Temple to debate racial segregation in its ranks, telegrams from across the country reveal a deep national fracture over 'Negro Masonry.'
- The Gold Rush Comes to Town: Klondikers Unload Millions in Seattle
As the first steamers of the season dock at Pier 52, miners from Dawson City bring fortunes in gold dust and nuggets, turning Seattle’s waterfront into a temporary vault for the Yukon's wealth.
- The $200,000 Gold Rush: Klondikers Pour Into Seattle
As the steamer *Dingo* docks with a fortune in gold dust, local officials and merchants brace for an influx of wealth that could reshape the city's economy.
- The Floating Poker Game Fleecing Klondike Gold Miners
Returning prospectors, heavy with gold and exhaustion, were systematically targeted by a professional gambling syndicate on the passenger steamers coming into Seattle.
- The Price of Healing: Seattle’s 1899 'Medical Trust' Controversy
When the Seattle Star exposed a secret fee schedule used by local doctors to set prices, the city’s medical establishment pushed back, sparking a fierce debate over whether health care was a public right or a protected monopoly.
- The Great Cedar Shingle Cartel: How Washington’s Mill Owners Colluded to Halt Production
In a bold move to stabilize collapsing prices, nearly all of the state's 141 cedar shingle mills agreed to shut down for two weeks, forming an association to enforce quality standards and living wages.
- Seattle’s 'Committee of One Hundred' Fights Transit Franchise
Civic leaders mobilize a legal challenge to halt the city council from granting street railway extensions, demanding municipal control of transit instead.
- The Tragedy of Jerry K.
A young man, struggling with addiction and heartbreak, left a final note and a path to his loved ones after taking his own life in a quiet Seattle cemetery.
- The Farewell Voyage of the Third Cavalry
As the steamship St. Paul prepares to ferry soldiers to the Philippine Islands, Seattle watches its 'brave boys in blue' depart for a war from which many may never return.
- Seattle’s First Battle for Clean Air
The city council passes a landmark ordinance to curb factory smoke, signaling a crackdown on the industrial polluters that have long choked the downtown air.
- The Seattle Star’s Bold Prediction: Cable Cars, Real Estate Booms, and the 'Famine' of Housing
In March 1899, the city's leading paper championed new transit infrastructure as the key to unlocking a real estate boom, while simultaneously warning of a severe shortage of homes for newcomers.
- The Last Bugle Call: A Seattle Boy’s Final Resting Place in Manila
Private Allan Carlyle of the Washington Volunteers dies of disease in the Philippines; his comrades in Seattle mourn a life cut short by the very war they helped send.
- The Lawyer Who Spoke 'Jargon' to Save a Man from Prison
In a Tacoma courtroom in the early days of Washington state, Attorney Frank Clark stunned federal prosecutors by abandoning legalese for Chinook Jargon, winning the acquittal of a poor logger accused of stealing timber.