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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 111 |
| 1877 | 183 |
| 1878 | 132 |
| 1879 | 31 |
457 stories
- The License Law: Who Gets to Drink in Snohomish?
A new interpretation of the Territory's temperance laws gives local boards sweeping power to deny liquor licenses based on 'moral character,' effectively letting neighbors veto their neighbors' businesses.
- The First Poet of Snohomish: A Captain’s Verse and a Hotelier’s Blunder
A retrospective on the town's earliest settlers reveals that E. I. Tucker wasn't just a steamboat engineer—he was also its first literary figure, while his father’s linguistic mishaps provide a glimpse into the colorful social life of the era.
- The Great Snohomish Jailbreak: A Bank Robber’s Midnight Escape
While the town slept, a prisoner charged with robbing an Olympia bank picked his way out of the Snohomish jail. He is still at large.
- The Zephyr’s Preacher: A New Church Rises in Snohomish
Rev. J.H. Thompson arrives by steamboat to organize the Union Presbyterian Church, marking a spiritual milestone for the growing city.
- The Murder on the Train: A Snohomish Mystery
An Indian man is found dead with his throat cut aboard a local train; suspicion falls on two men from Pratt Point.
- The Spoils System Must Go
In an 1880 letter of acceptance, a presidential candidate lays out a radical vision to dismantle political patronage and return to a government based on merit rather than party service.
- The Sermon on Snohomish: A Frontier Pulpit Feud
A local clergyman takes to the press to defend his ministry against an anonymous critic, sparking a heated public debate on science, theology, and the moral state of Snohomish.
- The Man Who Left for Seattle and Never Arrived
A Snohomish man set out to arrange his family’s move. Days later, searchers had only a sighting near a shingle house and two troubling theories: sudden illness or foul play.
- Tragedy at a Family Gathering
A young boy, visiting family in Snohomish, is killed by a horse kick in a sudden and heartbreaking accident.
- Surveyors Blocked by Federal Red Tape
A new federal funding measure renders land surveying in Western Washington practically impossible, stalling pioneer settlement expansion.
- The $1,300 Christmas Miracle: How Snohomish Ladies Saved the Town's Soul
In an era of economic panic, a group of 'enterprising young ladies' raised over $1,300 in gifts for the poor, proving that community spirit was the town's strongest currency.
- The Man Who Vanished Into the Slough
A Snohomish resident borrows a skiff for a trip to Thornton Mellan’s and never returns; neighbors find only his clothes on the riverbank.
- The Marsh That Swallowed the Land: A Call to Drain Snohomish
Local farmers face ruin as winter rains turn fertile bottomlands into impassable swamps; experts propose a collective drainage project to save the region's agricultural future.
- Taming the Snohomish Valley Marshlands
A look at the settlers turning the muddy, fertile banks of the Snohomish River into a bustling agricultural hub through sweat and engineering.
- The 'Atheneum' Dream: A Vision for Snohomish Intellectual Life
A group of forward-thinking Snohomish residents formalizes a new society dedicated to science, literature, and civic improvement, challenging the town to invest in its own cultural growth.
- 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.
- Falling Log Crushes Andrew Gullen's Leg on the River
A tragic accident on the Snohomish River leaves a young logger struggling for survival, highlighting the brutal toll of frontier labor.
- The Great Snohomish Meat Drain: A Local Market Opens to Stop the Flow of Imported Beef
While most towns relied on outside suppliers, Mr. Hilton’s new meat market aims to keep capital in Snohomish by supplying loggers locally.
- The Grand Hotel That Will Define a Territory
A new five-story hotel rising on Main Street promises to transform Snohomish from a frontier town into the 'best city' of Washington Territory.
- The River’s New Pulse: Captain Hill Promises to Link Snohomish and Seattle
A bold new steam route aims to bridge the gap between the Skagit Valley and the capital of the Sound, promising weekly travel and a boost for local farmers.
- The Human Machine: An 1876 Warning on Burnout
A century-and-a-half-old editorial from Snohomish reminds us that the pressure to keep working is not a modern invention.
- The Brutal Toll of 19th-Century Politics
Reflecting on the physical and mental collapse of high-stakes politicians, one editor warns that running for office in the American system is now a hazardous occupation.
- The Case for Statehood and Scientific Farming
In an 1876 address to local farmers, W.M.T. McNeill argues that Washington Territory's path to prosperity lies in statehood, agricultural colleges, and the modernization of rural industry.
- The Tall Tale of Germantown’s New Arrival
A young newcomer spins wildly imaginative yarns of buried gold and subterranean earthquakes, charming the neighborhood kids and confounding their parents.
- He Sailed Around the Horn in '49. Thirty-One Years Later, He Went Home.
S. S. Bassett, who farms at the mouth of the Snohomish, has come back from six months east — a boyhood village he could no longer read, a Centennial he will not stop describing, and a hard-times East that sent him home more convinced than ever about Washington Territory.