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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1871 | 11 |
| 1872 | 140 |
| 1876 | 153 |
| 1877 | 124 |
| 1878 | 248 |
| 1879 | 15 |
| 1880 | 83 |
774 stories
- Sheriff Blocks 28 Miners From Landing — a Newspaper Calls Out the 'Chronic Pauper Hunter'
In 1877, a steamboat captain brought 28 out-of-work miners from Victoria to Port Townsend. The sheriff said they were paupers and refused to let them off the boat. This Seattle editor wasn't having it.
- He Tore Up the Railroad Track, Then Flagged Down the Train
In 1877, a King County farmer named John Ross ripped up Seattle Coal & Transportation Co. rails to force a right-of-way dispute into court — then warned the locomotive before it reached the break.
- A Dispute Over Money Ends With a Shot Through the Kidneys Near the White River
John Morse of Seattle shoots a man near Steele's Landing over money matters and escapes; the wounded man is not expected to live.
- The 'Seattle Way' of Building a Railroad
By shunning outside capital and high-salaried officers, local boosters claim they are carving a path through the Cascades using nothing but 'Seattle money and pluck.'
- The Tragedy of a Forgotten Soul
After a man drowned at a Tacoma wharf, his body was left exposed among 'ravenous fishes' for a full day before a private citizen finally intervened to provide a burial.
- A Near-Fatal Trestle Accident Sparks Anti-Chinese Sentiment
A worker fell from the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad trestle into the bay, drawing attention to the precarious labor conditions and rising xenophobia of 1877 Seattle.
- The Skunk of the Press
A bitter 1877 public feud erupts in the Seattle Weekly Dispatch between an editor and a physician accused of editing a scandalous rival paper.
- The Jailhouse Blunder in Seattle
A man was locked away for a week without due process, exposing deep incompetence in the administration of territorial justice.
- The Disgraceful Scrawl of Territorial Law
A scathing editorial from the Weekly Dispatch reveals that the Territorial Legislature's laws were so poorly drafted, blotted, and grammatically mangled that the editor suggests burning them to avoid litigation.
- The Myth of the Lazy Laborer
A Seattle newspaper editorial in 1878 berates unemployed men for refusing to repair flood-damaged dykes, framing poverty as a moral failing despite local economic instability.
- The Hilltop Slip: Seattle’s Shifting Waterfront
Decades before the regrades reshaped the city, residents of the Belltown waterfront watched their homes slide into the bay as the ground beneath them turned to quicksand.
- The Land is Moving Beneath the Mills
As Seattle's waterfront expansion struggles against unstable geology, a sash and door factory is forced to shutter as the hillside slips toward the bay.
- The Trunk in the Belltown Earth
Two prospectors looking for a brickyard site uncovered more than clay when they stumbled upon a hidden trunk containing a man’s remains.
- The Great Seattle Jailbreak of 1878
Sheriff Lewis V. Wyckoff offers a reward for the capture of five men who vanished from the King County jail in the dead of night.
- The Bridge Over Broken Trust
In 1878, a sharp dissent by a King County Commissioner reveals the classic political struggle over infrastructure spending and the limits of the public purse.
- The Troubled Piano Man of Seattle
After shooting himself in a drinking saloon, a local piano player insists on his right to die, highlighting the brutal intersections of addiction, mental health, and the public gaze in 1878 Seattle.
- The Confidence Men of the Steamer Route
A trio of swindlers fleeing Seattle justice find their match in a wary traveler on the Puget Sound steamship line.
- The Unfortunate Travels of an 'Imperial' Grifter
A self-proclaimed Russian noble finds that Seattle hospitality—and the local church choir—has its limits when his 'aristocratic' habits turn out to be nothing more than petty fraud.
- The Ghostly Exhumation on the Hill
A grieving widow and a procession of mourners perform a mysterious, haunting ritual to rebury a man murdered in the streets of Seattle.
- The Price of Reputation in Early Seattle
A local editor defends the city's power brokers against 'malicious' newspaper attacks, arguing that persistent personal vituperation drives away the capital needed for infrastructure.
- A Desperate Hour at Front and Main
A young man, weary of the 'burden of life,' is rescued from a suicide attempt in the heart of downtown Seattle.
- The Midnight Escape from the King County Jail
When four inmates mysteriously vanished from their cells, the local authorities were left baffled and scrambling to track them down along the muddy roads of old Seattle.
- The Pen and the Pistol: A Seattle Saloon Brawl
When an editor’s satirical writing sparked a public confrontation on Mill Street, a local developer settled the score with a revolver—until his target managed to disarm him.
- The Great Seattle Printing Conspiracy
When the Dispatch editor exposed a 'plunder' scheme by rival newspapers to inflate public printing costs, he revealed the messy, graft-filled reality of 1878 municipal administration.
- The Hunt for the Runaway Wife
After his wife eloped to Seattle with a family friend, a jilted husband tracked her across the coast to initiate a legal reckoning.