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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1899 | 436 |
436 stories
- The Milk Riots: How Seattle’s Dairymen Threatened to Spike Prices Over a Dog Ban
When the city council proposed banning pigs and limiting livestock to three cows per family, local dairy farmers didn't just complain—they warned that milk prices would skyrocket to 15 cents a quart.
- The Gold Rush That Wasn't: Copper River’s ‘Sickness’ and the Lie of the Trail
A prospector returns from the Copper River country with a chilling warning: the gold is gone, the camps are sick, and the 'passage' to new fields is a myth.
- The Canal That Could Save the West: How a New Waterway Would End Seattle’s Shipping Nightmare
As the Panama Canal project gains momentum, local experts calculate that Pacific Northwest farmers are losing millions annually due to the prohibitive costs of shipping grain around Cape Horn.
- The Day Seattle Died (And Didn’t): A Telegraphic Blunder
A faulty cable connection and a panicked operator convinced the world that local industrialist John Sherman had passed away. The resulting obituary was so lavish it nearly became his own biography.
- The Gold Brick Gang: How Seattle’s Smugglers Were Caught Red-Handed
A trio of young men ran a sophisticated counterfeiting ring out of their rooming house, selling fake gold bricks to unsuspecting merchants and bankers before being busted by detectives.
- The Widow’s Gamble: A Seattle Man’s Death in Alaska Triggers a Federal Insurance Battle
Mrs. By H. Rietson sues the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company for the payout on her husband Archie C. Rietson, who perished with 13 others when the steamer Jessie sank in the Kuskokwim River last June. The company refuses to pay until his death is positively proven.
- The Man Who Vanished: A Father’s Grief and the Search for a Missing Son
Edward K. Alar has been gone from his home in Olympia for two years. Now, a legal battle over a $5,000 insurance policy reveals the tangled web of rumors surrounding his disappearance.
- The Man Who Asked to Be Arrested: A Tacoma Town’s Battle for Its Soul
In a bizarre legal maneuver to force a court ruling on city limits, a resident of the newly excluded district deliberately broke water pipes and allowed himself to be taken into custody.
- The Last Stand of Denny’s Old Home: A Seattle Landmark Consumed by Fire
One of the city's oldest structures, a cedar-built house on Second Avenue, was reduced to ashes early this morning. The blaze, sparked by a fallen lamp in the room of a shoe company employee, claimed the home of Mrs. Kali Palmer and her children, who barely escaped through the roof.
- The Great Alaska Rate War: Seattle’s Shipping Barons Draw the Line
Local steamship companies unite to defy British Columbia carriers, threatening a destructive fare war from Seattle to the Klondike goldfields.
- The Great Tacoma Brake-Man Mystery: Was It a Brutal Assault or a Tragic Accident?
Railroad officials and witnesses in Tacoma are debunking the claim that brakeman Cook was beaten by a robber, pointing to a bridge strike as the likely cause of his skull fracture.
- The Gambling Den Dilemma: Why Seattle’s Top Detective Fought the Ban on Vice
When City Council shut down gambling houses to clean up the streets, Detective Corbett warned that vice wouldn't disappear—it would just scatter and hide.
- The Widow Who Lost Her Groom (and Her Money) to a Man in Seattle
A San Francisco widow sues a local man for $2,000 after he vanished with her funds meant for his surgical instrument business, leaving her heartbroken and broke.
- The Deaf-Mute’s Heartbreak: A Love Letter Written in Silence
When his fiancée left him for another man, a silent young man from Memphis found his voice through ink, delivering a scathing indictment of his rival to a Seattle city editor.
- The Dock That Swallowed Five: A Narrow Escape on Madison Street
In a sudden collapse that sent debris crashing into the Sound, five people survived by inches when a poorly constructed lunchroom and menagerie annex gave way beneath them.
- The Constable Who Preached Instead of Punched
In a small Washington town, one officer’s radical experiment in restorative justice is turning criminals into church members—and neighbors are taking notice.
- The Day the Boardwalk Burned: Seattle’s Most Audacious Arson Attempt
On a quiet April afternoon in 1900, an arsonist tried to torch the home of Judge E. H. Scott on Yesler Way. A brave housekeeper fought back with a poker, saving her employer and thwarting the fire.
- The Great Cigar Conspiracy: Seattle Swept Up in Federal Raid
Federal agents seize 12,000 counterfeit cigars in the city's tenderloin, exposing a massive fraud ring stretching from Pennsylvania to the Pacific Northwest.
- The Million-Dollar Divorce: How a Seattle Man’s Secret Fortune Changed a Woman’s Fate
In 1899, the divorce of Cordell McKee and his first wife didn't just end a marriage—it triggered a legal battle over $100,000 that exposed the hidden wealth of one of Seattle's most prominent businessmen.
- The Quarantine of Tacoma: When a Hotel Became a Prison for Railroad Workers
In April 1898, a single case of smallpox in a Tacoma hotel triggered a massive quarantine that stranded dozens of railroad employees and paralyzed the city's transit network.
- The Man Who Vanished: A Railroad Agent’s Embezzlement and Flight
Charles Dickson, former freight agent for the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company in Tacoma, absconded with company funds after gambling them away in local saloons, leaving a massive debt and a warrant for his arrest.
- The City’s Welcome Wagon: Seattle Prepares a Grand Ovation for the 'Washington Boys' Returning from Manila
As the Philippine-American War drags on, local officials, school superintendents, and citizens rally to raise funds for a massive parade and fireworks display to honor the First Washington Volunteer Regiment.
- Seattle’s Ladies Plan a Royal Welcome for the Boys of Manila
As the First Washington Volunteers prepare to return from the Philippines, prominent women and Mayor Humes unite to organize a massive civic celebration, turning grief into gratitude.
- The Great Silver Heist: Burglars Strike Judge’s Home on Capitol Hill
Thieves bypassed a vigilant household to steal $500 worth of silverware from the residence of Judge J.A. Stratman, marking one of the most daring crimes in Seattle this month.
- The Man Who Vanished: A Fisherman’s Tragic End on the Seattle Waterfront
Al L. Mason, a steady South Seattle fisherman, was found dead in the bay near the Washington Iron Works after slipping from the docks late at night.