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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1882 | 10 |
| 1883 | 67 |
| 1884 | 37 |
| 1885 | 83 |
| 1886 | 45 |
| 1887 | 73 |
315 stories matching ask
- A High-Stakes Divorce and Property Battle
Catherine Philbrick files for divorce and moves to void property conveyances in the heart of Port Townsend.
- A Broken Leg and a Stranger's Kindness
After a brutal accident on the steamer Merwin, a man is left to fend for himself until a stranger intervenes to ensure he gets care.
- The Mayor Who Refused to Expel
When an outsider asked to ban Chinese residents from Tacoma, Mayor Jacob Mann stood his ground against the era's tide of exclusion.
- The Unintended Thief of Front Street
A disgraced attorney faces justice in Seattle for misappropriating client funds, pleading that his professional collapse was a desperate bid to survive.
- A Fugitive's Christmas at the Palmer House
Gerald Kyre, a guest at a prominent Seattle hotel, finds his holiday season interrupted by a dispatch from New York and the arrival of warrants.
- The Jailer's Hospitality
Skagit County prisoners find their incarceration is surprisingly comfortable.
- The Unlikely Bond Between a Convict and His Keeper
A rare glimpse of humanity inside the grim walls of a frontier jail, where a long-term prisoner and the man paid to guard him found a surprising connection.
- The Great Seattle Church Lottery Scandal
Local merchants clash with church committees over a raffle scheme that allegedly inflated prices and exploited their goodwill.
- The Oregon Railway & Navigation Company’s Seattle Bottleneck
Caught between a local captain’s limited authority and a slow-moving corporate bureaucracy in New York, the steamboat company faces a potential collapse of its Puget Sound trade.
- Seattle Printers Accuse the Dailies of Replacing Men With Boys
Typographical Union No. 307 says the Post-Intelligencer and the Star swapped compositors for cheap help and imported ready-set plates—then asks the public to judge.
- The Delegate Who Did Nothing
Washington Territory’s representative in Washington D.C. faced scathing criticism for a term defined by absolute political inertia.
- The Midnight Stand at the Iron Works
A routine patrol turns fatal when a Seattle officer encounters an armed man in the shadows of an industrial plant.
- Locked Away for Being a Stranger
A Seattle man traveling to meet his brother in Tacoma finds himself swept up in a case of mistaken identity, thrown into a filthy, unventilated jail cell, and ignored by officials despite his pleas for evidence.
- The Unearned Empire of the Northern Pacific
Citizens and county commissioners clash with the Northern Pacific Railroad over land grants and tax evasion in Lewis County.
- The Chief of Police, The Saloon, and The Impeachment
In 1885, Seattle’s City Council moved to impeach Chief of Police James H. Woolery for allegedly turning a blind eye to unlicensed saloons and failing to enforce the law.
- The Unpaid Streets of Tacoma
A bitter legal battle reveals the messy, unpaved reality of infrastructure development in late 19th-century Tacoma, pitting laborers against local developers.
- A Marriage Held at Gunpoint
A Seattle woman files for divorce, revealing a harrowing home life where her husband enforced isolation with a revolver and staged nightly terrors.
- The 'Odd Fellow' and the Suspicious Wife
A Seattle man's secret late-night meetings with his fraternal order spark a domestic showdown over 'goat riding,' moral uprightness, and marital suspicion.
- The Overachieving Schoolgirl of 1888
A reporter interviews a fourteen-year-old girl struggling under the crushing weight of an hyper-academic curriculum.
- The Bonfire of the Vanities on Occidental Square
Months after a jubilant, torch-lit victory party in Seattle, the city’s new power-brokers were left holding the bag as lawlessness and economic despair gripped the town.
- The Price of Industrial Expansion in Old Seattle
When two prominent wire and manufacturing firms faced insolvency, a crowded meeting of creditors reveals the fragile state of local commerce and the high cost of debt.
- The $500 Road That Would Save Snoqualmie Farmers a 60-Mile Detour
King County farmers petition for a short road and lake barges, arguing that a tiny appropriation would end a punishing haul to market—and noting that Pierce County is spending far more.
- Knights of Labor Force Displacement of Chinese Workers
The Port Blakely Mill Company agrees to terminate its Chinese workforce following organized pressure from local labor groups.
- The Solitary Tailor’s Winter Plea
A brief, wistful moment in 1884 Seattle captures the isolating struggle of early frontier life through a tailor’s longing for a coat.
- The Political Machine vs. Mr. Humes
A fiery struggle over county boundaries reveals a deep-seated battle between Seattle’s citizenry and the powerful railroad political machine.