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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1883 | 2 |
| 1885 | 7 |
| 1886 | 5 |
| 1887 | 8 |
22 stories matching valid
- The Delegate Who Stalled the State’s Legal Progress
How a stubborn stand on woman suffrage paralyzed Washington Territory’s legislative agenda in the halls of D.C.
- The Paperwork Error That Challenged Seattle’s Property Claims
A legal dispute over a real estate deed in 1885 reveals how bureaucratic technicalities—specifically a missing county seal—threatened the validity of early land titles in King County.
- Marriage at the Center of an Exclusion Crisis
A Seattle couple's travel plans are halted by the Chinese Restriction Act, sparking a legal struggle for their right to move freely.
- The Swindled Investor and the 'Silver Mine' Scam
A Seattle real estate dealer is arrested after selling fake claims to a nonexistent silver mine, sparking a heated legal battle and a courtroom confrontation.
- 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 'Cubic Air' Ordinance and a Courtroom Stand-Off
A legal clash in Seattle pits local officials against a law that criminalized living conditions for the Chinese community.
- Railroad Land Grab Defeated
A Supreme Court ruling halts the Northern Pacific Railroad's attempt to claim homesteaded lands in King and Yakima counties.
- The Sunday Saloon War: When Seattle’s Business Elite Fought for the Right to Rest
In January 1885, a heated civic battle erupted over the enforcement of Sunday closing laws, pitting the city’s liquor trade against a coalition of reformers and weary laborers.
- Puyallup People Wait on Delayed Land Patents
A century-old battle for property rights reveals how corporate interests and federal delays threatened to dispossess the Puyallup people of their ancestral home.
- The Case of the Missing Jury
A landmark Washington Territory court ruling challenges the legal status of women as jurors, debating whether 'civil disability' laws were ever intended to grant women the right to serve.
- The Unlikely Redemption of a Prison Inmate
After eighteen months of hard labor, a Seattle convict wins his freedom through an overwhelming petition of support from his community and even the victims he robbed.
- The Great Land Grab Ends: Northern Pacific's Grip on Washington Territory Loosens
A landmark federal decision strips a massive railroad monopoly of its indemnity lands, opening vast swaths of Washington to homesteading settlers.
- Mayor Struve Disputes Plummer's Waterfront Land Claim
Mayor H. G. Struve acts against a squatter who fenced off city-claimed land on the Seattle waterfront.
- The Price of a Badly Written Charter
Tacoma’s new municipal charter proves to be a legal disaster that costs the town thousands in needless fees and litigation.
- The Day Seattle Suffrage Died
A technical legal oversight by the Territorial Legislature has stripped women of their right to vote and serve on juries.
- The Disenfranchised Daughters of Seattle
Stripped of their right to vote by a Supreme Court ruling, the women of Seattle gather in a defiant, fractious meeting to organize against the 'fossils' of the law.
- The Railway Hotel Trap
A scathing critique of a Northern Pacific Railroad ticket that forced passengers to stay at a specific Tacoma hotel to validate their travel.
- The Paper Trail That Went Up in Smoke
A King County tax assessor admitted that sworn property records were routinely burned, sparking a public outcry over local fiscal transparency.
- The Deserted Wife Who Saved Her Homestead
When a man abandoned his land and his spouse in Olympia, the government tried to invalidate her claim—until a steely legal battle proved her right to stay.
- The Laundry War: When Seattle Tried to License Away the Chinese
A historic court battle reveals how the City Council once used 'discretionary' licensing to target Chinese-owned laundries, prompting a landmark defense of property rights and constitutional liberty.
- The Street Hawker's Stand Against Discriminatory Laws
When a Chinese produce seller was arrested for violating city peddling ordinances, he challenged the legality of a law targeting his livelihood all the way to the Chief Justice's chambers.
- The Midnight Church Feud of Tacoma
A power struggle in a local Baptist church turns into a bizarre, locked-door standoff where the pastor eventually resorted to extinguishing the lights to force dissenters out.