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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 405 |
| 1877 | 280 |
| 1878 | 64 |
| 1880 | 75 |
824 stories
- Vandals Wreck Indian Canoe
Youths on the Seattle waterfront destroy an Indigenous person's boat for sport.
- The Man Who Vanished Into the Mist
A local resident disappears after a three-day canoe trip from the Duwamish River mouth, leaving behind only his revolver and provisions.
- The Lottery King’s Plea: Yesler Admits Guilt in Seattle’s First Real Estate Scandal
In a rare moment of candor, H.L. Yesler—the patriarch of Seattle—pleads guilty to violating laws regarding his real estate lottery, marking the end of a controversial scheme that sought to distribute land through chance rather than commerce.
- The Day Seattle’s Wealthiest Bankers Challenged the Taxman
In a landmark 1876 legal maneuver, Arthur Denny and Dexter Horton petitioned King County Commissioners to stop paying taxes on their mortgage loans, arguing that taxing the debt while the property was already taxed amounted to double taxation.
- The Coal King’s Dilemma: Seattle vs. the World
As global markets crash and foreign rivals flood San Francisco with cheap fuel, local miners and merchants scramble to save their industry from extinction.
- The Tax Trap: How a Federal Order Threatened Seattle’s Revenue
In 1876, a bureaucratic directive from Washington D.C. threatened to drain King County of its maritime tax base by forcing all vessels to 'hail' from Port Townsend, sparking fears of financial ruin for local developers.
- The Great Bill-Posting Scandal: Seattle’s First War on Urban Clutter
As the city grows, merchants are plastering every available surface with advertisements. Now, frustrated business owners are demanding the City Council step in to stop the visual chaos.
- The Tragedy at Fourth Street: A Suicide in the Empire Mill Owner's Room
In a grim scene on October 2, 1876, Henry Bendel was found dead in his Seattle boarding house room, having taken his own life with a revolver. The incident highlights the precarious nature of business ownership in the young frontier town.
- The Unawakened Giant: Why Washington Territory Is the Next California
A sweeping editorial in the *Diligent Intelligencer* argues that railroads are about to unlock the 'inland basin' of Eastern Washington, transforming it from a feared desert into an agricultural empire rivaling the Golden State.
- The Charred Remains of a Pioneer: A Tragic Fire on Commercial Street
In the early days of Seattle, fire was the city's greatest enemy. On October 6, 1876, a blaze swept through the heart of the business district, claiming the life of a man named Hilder and destroying property near Jamison & Prescott.
- The Gambler Who Won by Losing His Mind
A Seattle street scene from 1876 reveals a bizarre twist on luck: a man wins $50 not by knowing the score, but by believing he did.
- The $1,000 Payroll: How Seattle’s Hop Boom Put Cash in Local Hands
A local farmer’s record-breaking harvest didn’t just fill warehouses—it injected a thousand dollars into the city’s economy by hiring Indigenous laborers who spent their wages right here.
- The Boy Who Saw His Own Death: A Seattle Tragedy of Premonition and Fate
In October 1876, a young professor driving near Seattle experienced a chilling vision of his own demise just days before he was killed in a runaway carriage accident.
- The Engineer Who Vanished Into the Sound
A respected steamboat captain’s sudden disappearance in October 1878 sparks a desperate search and a grim theory of accidental drowning.
- The Great Flood of 1876: Seattle’s River Runs Wild
A historic deluge swells the Duwamish River ten feet above normal, washing away timber and threatening the fledgling city.
- The Great Fill: Seattle’s First Major Land Reclamation and the Fight for White Labor
In October 1876, workers are frantically raising Front Street to save it from the Duwamish River. The local press frames this massive public works project not just as engineering, but as a moral victory for 'white labor' over cheap Chinese competition.
- The Missing Payday at the First Seattle Railroad
Workers on the nascent Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad staged a walkout after a payroll error left them empty-handed.
- The Disappearance of James Goodwin
A cook vanishes from the steamer Yakima while en route from Snohomish to Seattle, leaving behind a mystery that leaves the local authorities puzzled.
- The Nerve-Wracking Election of 1876
As Seattle waited on the results of a razor-thin presidential race, telegraph wires buzzed with conflicting claims that would eventually decide the future of the nation.
- The Drunken Voter and the Drain: Seattle’s 1876 Election Reform Ideas
While the 1876 presidential election left the nation in suspense, the local Seattle press used the quiet polling day to propose strict new moral and administrative reforms for the growing town.
- The Saloonkeeper’s Open Letter to Seattle’s 'Hounds of Malice'
A local business owner fires back at the city’s political elite, accusing them of using moral grandstanding and the threat of liquor laws to dismantle his livelihood.
- The Perilous Climb of St. Peter's Lantern
A daredevil’s afternoon of ‘roof climbing’ in 1876 Seattle turns into a life-or-death struggle when a simple stunt leaves him dangling a hundred feet above the pavement.
- The River’s Toll on the Timber Trade
A sudden freshet on the White River washes away over 150,000 feet of logs, devastating local lumber operators and scattering timber as far as Smith’s Cove.
- The Unmasking of a Mason
A tense, public confrontation in a local Seattle establishment reveals the social friction surrounding the secret society's reputation in the 1870s.
- The Unsettled Presidency of 1876
As the nation grappled with a deadlocked electoral count in the Hayes-Tilden election, Seattle residents read a deep-dive analysis of the constitutional chaos and the risk of a political breakdown.