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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1859 | 1 |
| 1862 | 2 |
| 1871 | 1 |
| 1872 | 3 |
| 1876 | 11 |
| 1877 | 7 |
| 1878 | 3 |
| 1880 | 3 |
| 1882 | 1 |
| 1883 | 3 |
| 1885 | 4 |
| 1887 | 3 |
| 1888 | 2 |
| 1889 | 7 |
| 1890 | 2 |
| 1891 | 9 |
| 1892 | 7 |
| 1893 | 14 |
| 1894 | 10 |
| 1895 | 15 |
| 1898 | 7 |
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| 1904 | 6 |
| 1908 | 1 |
| 1909 | 4 |
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151 stories matching attribut
- Tacoma's Waterworks: A Buyback Offer Raises Eyebrows
Former owner C.B. Wright offers to repurchase the city's water plant—and a $50,000 commission to the man who brokers the deal—as contempt proceedings against city officials continue.
- The Old Settlers' Legislative Fantasy
In an 1871 satirical 'Act,' a Seattle newspaper mocked the arrival of ambitious newcomers by proposing that long-time residents receive supreme, legally mandated authority.
- A Kenton Picnic Speech and the Justification of Native Displacement
At a Kenton picnic, Judge Orange Jacobs cast pioneer survival as historical necessity and used dehumanizing rhetoric to defend the displacement of Native Americans.
- A Mother Taken From a Spree: Seattle's Temperance Crusade Fixes on One Family
A well-dressed mother of three is found drunk and taken to the city station to recover — and the Post-Intelligencer turns her private ruin into a sermon on marriage, appetite and the duty of the state.
- The Great Ditch: How Snohomish Settlers Tamed the Marsh
Before the land was dry, a few determined pioneers took shovels and grit to the wetlands behind Snohomish to carve a new path for trade and transit.
- The Ghost Ship of Port Townsend
A British bark vanishes in the fog off Washington’s coast; a court of inquiry clears the crew, but not before two men drown and the master walks away with nothing.
- Convicted in Five Days: The 1877 Murder Case That Shocked a Seattle Editor
After Solomon Baxter was killed, John Thompson went from arrest to a first-degree murder conviction in less than a week. The local paper called it a 'summary proceeding' with no parallel in American law.
- Seattle's Sewers Were Cracking All Over Town — and the City Engineer Blamed the Dirt
A furious letter writer insists the pipes broke not from 'percussion' but from the very worst kind of trench work — and points the finger straight at the man in charge.
- The Hungry Democrats of Adams County
A local lawyer files a mock legal complaint humorously detailing the political squabbling over patronage and power in late 19th-century Washington.
- Steilacoom Empties Its Garrison for a Near-War on San Juan Island
On Aug. 9, 1859, soldiers and two brass cannon left Steilacoom aboard the steamer Julia to reinforce Capt. Pickett’s tiny command, as the U.S. and Britain edged toward war over a boundary and a pig.
- The Fight for the Soil: Washington's Early Constitutional Crisis
An 1870s editorial argues that without strict land ownership caps, Washington Territory faces a future of feudalism and labor exploitation.
- Tacoma Takes the Railroad Strike Into Federal Court
A grand jury indicts a former Northern Pacific wiper for beating strike-breakers, while a judge weighs whether union leader Charles A. Barnes's words were contempt or free speech.
- A Receivership Tells Issaquah's Miners There Is No Money for the Old Wages
Seattle Coal and Iron's receiver answers his own employees in superior court: the mine is insolvent, the market is gone, and the pay cut stays.
- A Woman Campaigner Sells Hartley's Logging-Camp Story
Mrs. W. A. Burleigh, a Seattle Republican operative, brought the governor's race to Kennewick's Commercial Club—and a candidate who refused the union label.
- Whatcom and Fairhaven Almost Become One City — but Fairhaven Balked
A proposed merger of the two bay towns raised questions of debt, water and electric power, and who would control the new city.
- The Banker Who Steered Newport Through the Panic of 1907
G. S. Thomas founded Newport's first bank, helped bring the city its water system, and died after guiding the institution through the financial stringency of November 1907.
- The $3 Million Strike: How the Great Northern Railway Bet on Breaking Workers
In the winter of 1893, the railroad’s board calculated that paying workers less was cheaper than losing millions to a strike. They were right—and Seattle paid the price.
- A Girl Died in a Magnetic Healer’s Home. Her Father Was Kept Outside.
Vina Kelly, 14, died at her brother-in-law’s West Street practice. The coroner ordered an inquest after conflicting death reports and a father’s late-night grief.
- The Seal-Skin Obsession: Why Seattle Ladies Wear More Fur Than Any Other City
A local furrier reveals that the city's obsession with expensive sealskin sacks is driven by climate, fashion, and a secret supply chain from London.
- Two Thousand Seattleites Filed Past the Outlaw's Corpse — and Some Said It Wasn't Him
Burial is postponed while a Fremont woman insists the dead man is her friend's missing husband. The jail keys and handcuffs in his pocket say otherwise.
- A Widow's Accusation and a Rancher's Denial
August Polinski, 68, is charged with assaulting his housekeeper near Camden; he calls the case a shakedown, and the hearing is postponed to Feb. 15.
- Spokane's Revolt Against a Railroad-Backed Senator
In 1895, thousands of Eastern Washington voters signed a protest against John L. Wilson, charging that four transcontinental railroads had bought his Senate candidacy while freight rates drained the region dry.
- The Coal That Changed Seattle: How an Australian Strike Starved the Lumber Trade
A labor dispute halfway across the world brought Pacific Northwest shipping to a halt, sending freight rates soaring and leaving local merchants scrambling for tonnage.
- The White City on Jefferson: How the Circus Became Seattle’s Newest Landlord
As Ringling Bros. prepares to erect a massive tent city in Pioneer Square, the show's manager reveals the logistical marvel—and the surprising economic impact—of bringing 100 performers and their menagerie to the Pacific Northwest.
- Tacoma's 1894: Falling Lumber, Rising Flour, and a New Rolling Mill
The Ledger's year-end review found reasons for optimism in shipping, smelting, meat packing, and new rail connections—even as low prices cut into the lumber trade.