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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 19 |
| 1877 | 13 |
| 1878 | 3 |
| 1880 | 1 |
36 stories matching collect
- The Skagit River Jam Scandal
A public spat between two men regarding the funds collected to clear the Skagit River, a vital waterway for early logging and shipping.
- The City Collector’s Year-End Deadline
With the dawn of 1877 approaching, Seattle’s City Collector issues a final warning for delinquent taxpayers: pay up or lose your property.
- The Struggle for Tax Equity in 1876
A Seattle editorial argues that delinquent property taxes and legal loopholes are placing an unfair burden on the public, demanding legislative reform for the growing territory.
- The Ice Water Gambit: How a Seattle Drifter Was Framed for Theft
A local vagrant was doused in freezing water and coerced into a false confession by a cunning runner, only to be caught red-handed on Third Street.
- The City Collector’s Year-End Ultimatum
Before the turn of the New Year in 1877, Seattle’s city collector warned residents that delinquent property taxes would lead to the immediate seizure and sale of their homes.
- The River’s Revenge: How a Flood Saved the Jam Company Millions
While laborers toiled for months to clear the Snoqualmie Falls log jam, a sudden freshet swept away their equipment and valuable timber—yet paradoxically cleared the river faster than human hands ever could.
- Who Cares for the Poor in King County?
A call for sealed bids to provide housing and medical care for the county's indigent population in 1877.
- The Price of Public Charity in 1877
King County seeks the lowest bidder to house and feed the poor, a stark reminder of the nineteenth-century approach to social safety nets.
- The Great Block River Auction of 1876
A sprawling public sale in the countryside south of Seattle offers a snapshot of pioneer life, livestock, and the rhythm of late 19th-century farm commerce.
- Bidding on the Destitute: Seattle’s 1877 Poverty Contracts
Before modern social safety nets, King County put the care of its 'indigent poor' up for competitive bid, seeking the lowest price for housing and medical services.
- The Price of Compassion: King County's 1877 Call for Bids
In an era before robust public social services, King County officials solicited private bids for the 'care, lodging and medical attendance' of the city's indigent poor.
- The Price of Poverty in Pioneer Seattle
King County officials put out a call for bids to house and feed the 'indigent poor,' treating human welfare as a municipal contract.
- A Perilous Game on the Harbor
Local children are testing their luck by building makeshift rafts and navigating the harbor near the depot, to the growing alarm of local observers.
- The Struggle to Feed and House King County's Poor in 1876
Newly surfaced county records reveal the bureaucratic grind of managing public welfare, road construction, and the sequestration of municipal rents in 1870s Seattle.
- A Hearty Welcome to the Newcomers
Fourteen New Brunswick immigrants arrived and built an 18-foot skiff to scout Puget Sound farmland.
- The Giant of Wawawai
A crew grading a road near the Snake River unearths the remains of a man estimated to be thirty feet tall.
- The Stinking Gutters of 1876
While Seattle promoters bragged of a salubrious climate, a local newspaper editorial exposed the reality of deadly, stagnant cesspools lining the streets.
- The Midnight Thief on the Steamer Isabel
A passenger loses her entire fortune while dining, sparking a tense confrontation and a failed pursuit of justice on the Sound.
- The Seattle Winter That Shocked New York
When a Seattle colonel sent a bouquet of fresh January flowers to a snow-shrouded New York editor, the gesture became a national curiosity about Washington Territory's mild climate.
- The Struggle for Better Roads in 1870s King County
Frustrated residents call for a centralized superintendent to replace the inefficient and disjointed road-building system of the Washington Territory.
- The Burden of Local Taxes
An 1877 editorial from the Seattle Daily Intelligencer debates the crushing weight of multiple tax levies and argues for consolidating civic payments into a single annual transaction.
- The Forgotten Dream of a Seattle County Fair
In 1876, local boosters argued that Seattle needed a central fair to bring together the disparate agricultural valleys of King County—a dream of connection in a fragmented frontier.
- The Infant Glee Club of 1878
Before the city’s grand theaters were established, a neighborhood girl organized Seattle’s first children’s choir in her mother’s parlor.
- The Struggle for a Fire-Safe City
Early Seattleites grapple with the slow, expensive process of organizing a volunteer fire department to protect a rapidly growing town.
- The Original Seattle Growth Strategy
In 1877, business leaders debated how to fund a private office to lure immigrants from 'grasshopper-stricken' regions, mirroring today's debates over attracting talent and industry to the Pacific Northwest.