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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 19 |
| 1877 | 12 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1880 | 8 |
40 stories matching broken
- The Territorial Standoff on the Clothesline
A suburban Seattle squabble over laundry, reputation, and the prying eyes of the neighborhood in 1878.
- The 'Street Arabs' Terrorizing Pioneer Seattle
A wave of juvenile vandalism strikes Front Street, leaving local merchants and the South School House in ruins.
- The Great Hotel Heist That Wasn't: How Seattle’s Gamblers Were Fooled by a Fake Fortune
A broken-down cardsharp named 'Splitcheck Jimmy' was tricked into stealing an envelope full of newspaper, only to be ambushed by actors in a staged robbery at the St. Denis Hotel.
- The Pox Patrol: When Smallpox Patients Went Out for Whiskey
In 1880, Seattle's quarantine measures were so lax that victims were reportedly slipping out of the pesthouse at night to hit the saloons.
- A Perilous Ascent on Front Street
A construction worker suffers a violent fall while building a new home, sparking a community health scare in 1870s Seattle.
- The Ghost Towns of the Skagit Gold Rush
A winter trek through the North Cascades reveals a landscape of stunning beauty marred by the desperate, thieving misery of the failing gold camps.
- The Iron Wreck: A Train’s Deadly Plunge Near Tacoma
Conductor Stroud and passengers suffer grave injuries when a tender axle fails at 25 mph, sending cars tumbling down an embankment in one of the region's most serious rail accidents to date.
- A Night at the Hall Ruined by Rowdyism
A gratuitous public entertainment in Seattle is brought to an abrupt and disorderly end by an unruly crowd, leaving the organizer out of pocket.
- The Smallpox Scare of 1880
When a woman was quarantined in the local pest house for suspected smallpox, local doctors sparred over whether her condition was actually a common venereal disease.
- The Great Seattle Turkey Heist
A desperate plea from your neighbors to return their fruit jars, as petty theft plagues the city ahead of the Thanksgiving feast.
- The Midnight Concertina Menace
A fed-up Seattle editor threatens to take a shot at an unwanted suitor serenading a neighbor with an off-key concertina.
- The Perilous Slopes of Columbia Street
A teenage student’s sledding accident sparks a local warning about the dangers of winter recreation on Seattle’s steepest hills.
- The Need for a Healing Haven in the Sawmills
Dr. G.A. Weed opens a hospital on Commercial Street to serve the broken bones and industrial injuries common to Seattle’s booming logging and mill camps.
- The Tragedy of a Midnight Gale
A young sailor's life is cut short in a brutal storm, his small boat found shattered and abandoned near Vashon Island.
- The Dangerous Plank Walk of Old Seattle
While the city dragged its feet on street improvements in 1878, residents were forced to navigate treacherous, makeshift wooden planks, causing frustration and daily peril.
- The Slave Ship That Vanished: An Old Man’s Confession in Seattle
A weathered sailor walks into a Seattle saloon and recounts the night his crew mutinied against a slaver, only to watch the ship sink with 200 souls aboard.
- The Frontier Infirmary Built for Broken Bodies
As Seattle's industry boomed in 1876, one local doctor established a hospital specifically to treat the frequent, brutal injuries sustained in the region's rugged lumber mills and logging camps.
- The Mud-Hole of Commercial Street
An 1876 editorial campaign to transform Seattle's 'wretched' mud-caked thoroughfare into a paved road using convict labor and harbor ballast.
- The Unbreakable Glass That Promised a Household Revolution
In 1877, a new chemical tempering process promised Seattle residents that lamp chimneys would never crack again—even if you drove nails with them.
- The Perils of the Seneca Street Crossing
In 1877, Seattleites were forced to perform 'acrobatic feats' to traverse a dangerous gully, highlighting the city's struggle to keep pace with rapid infrastructure demands.
- The Dark Side of Seattle’s Growth
As Seattle expanded in 1880, its infrastructure struggled to keep pace with the population boom, leaving residents to navigate rotting sidewalks and unlit streets.
- Broken Bones at the Capstan
A dangerous industrial accident aboard the steamer Chehalis nearly claims a life in Lake Washington.
- The Narrow Escape on Whidbey Island
A quiet Sunday trip to church turns to tragedy for the Kellogg family after a pair of startled horses wreck their wagon in a field of stumps.
- 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 Broken Promise of the Puyallup Coal Road
A political scandal erupts as Seattle accuses an attorney of pocketing fees while failing to stop the Northern Pacific Railway from seizing massive swathes of King County land.