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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1882 | 2 |
| 1883 | 1 |
| 1884 | 2 |
| 1885 | 2 |
| 1886 | 3 |
| 1887 | 4 |
14 stories matching bench
- The Political Club That Stood Up to a Partisan Purge
In 1885, a band of concerned citizens formed an 'independent' club to protect the judiciary from political interference, launching a defiant campaign to keep a respected judge on the bench.
- The Judge Who Was Only 'Sober as a Judge'
A legendary anecdote from the Seattle police court where a witness’s inadvertent insult revealed the bench's own notorious reputation for intoxication.
- Women Serve on Grand Jury in Chehalis
A landmark moment in Washington Territory as women take their seats in the courtroom.
- The Seattle Laundry Feud of 1887
A violent, years-long business rivalry between two rival laundry operators erupts in court, revealing the precarity of immigrant life and business in early Seattle.
- The Sudden Death of Judge Peter P. Good
A prominent New York-trained jurist who arrived in Seattle to participate in the ongoing anti-Chinese agitation has died of heart failure.
- The 'Deep, Dark, Damnable Conspiracy' Against Women’s Votes
In 1887, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer mocked the 'absurd' suspicion that the Territorial Supreme Court, the President, and local newspapers were conspiring to disenfranchise women through judicial appointments.
- The Political Shuffle Before Statehood
As Washington Territory neared statehood in 1886, Republican leaders in Seattle scrambled to settle on a single, unified candidate for Delegate to Congress—a move that local power brokers hoped would avoid the bitter factionalism of the past.
- The Great Jury Debate: When Washington Women Fought for the Bench
A landmark 1888 legal dispute threatened to strip women of their newly won right to vote and serve as jurors in Washington Territory.
- The Gallows Awaits a Pullman Murderer
A jury in Colfax has returned a guilty verdict for the cold-blooded murder of William T. Higgins, leading to a stark final judgment from the bench.
- The Passing of a Seattle Kingpin
John Pinnell, the former proprietor of a notorious 'squaw-dancing' saloon in the city's early days, has died in Ellensburg.
- The Day Women Lost the Vote in Washington
A legal technicality regarding the wording of a territorial act effectively stripped Washington women of their hard-won voting rights in 1887.
- The Brutal Work of Boring Stampede Tunnel
Deep in the Cascades, a reporter documents the grueling labor conditions of the men carving the Northern Pacific’s Stampede Tunnel through the mountain’s gut.
- The Preacher Who Turned Court Into a Prayer Meeting
A local street preacher, arrested for his public fervor, turns the tables on the magistrate by forcing a courtroom to its knees.
- The Vigilantes' Ghost: Seattle's Dark Secret in Two Maple Trees
A poem published in the *Seattle Daily Post-Intelligencer* reveals the city’s foundational myth: that its current 'peaceable' order was bought with the blood of six men hanged by a secret committee when the law failed to act.