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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 9 |
| 1877 | 4 |
| 1880 | 3 |
16 stories matching control
- The Struggle for the Panama Portage
A power struggle between railroad titans over a critical transit monopoly leaves the Pacific Mail Steamship Company reeling.
- The Laundry Business Boom of 1870
A local editor observes the financial success of Chinese laundries in California and urges Seattle entrepreneurs to claim the market.
- The 1877 Argument to Run Seattle Like a Corporation
A fiery editorial from the Daily Intelligence argues that municipal voting should be tied to property ownership, mirroring the management of railroads and banks.
- The Charred Remains of a Pioneer: A Tragic Fire on Commercial Street
In the early days of Seattle, fire was the city's greatest enemy. On October 6, 1876, a blaze swept through the heart of the business district, claiming the life of a man named Hilder and destroying property near Jamison & Prescott.
- The Butter Paradox
Why is Seattle, surrounded by some of the world's richest grazing land, importing its butter from California?
- The Schoolhouse That Wasn't: Seattle’s Bureaucratic Battle Over Public Education
In 1877, a local dispute over the construction of a new school in Helltown reveals the early struggles of civic infrastructure and the tension between taxpayer demands and administrative delay.
- 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 Sermon on Seattle’s Future
In 1880, a local minister preached that Seattle’s prosperity depended less on its natural harbor and railroads, and more on the moral integrity of its citizens.
- The Struggle to Save the Harbor
Engineers and locals debate the best way to keep Seattle's waterfront from choking on silt and debris in 1876.
- The Bitter Feud Over a Burnt Seattle Sawmill
A public legal dispute between two businessmen reveals the high-stakes cost of the 1880 fire that razed a local mill.
- The Runaway Wife and the Saloon-Keeper's Fury
When a miner from Newcastle charged into Seattle hunting his wife, he found a city that prioritized refuge over his domestic control.
- The Brutal Genie of the River Valley
An 1876 editorial reflects on the cyclical devastation of Washington’s river floods and why farmers never seem quite ready for the waters to rise.
- The Price of Loyalty in 1880 Seattle
As Seattle went to the polls in 1880, local editors warned that political fealty to the Republican party was the only way to secure the University and future federal favors.
- The High Cost of a Pole: Seattle’s Timber Boom and the Workers Who Cut It
As thousands of telegraph poles flood the market from Thurston County, local laborers face volatile wages and dangerous conditions in the logging camps that fuel the city's infrastructure.
- The City That Refused to Drink: Seattle’s Water War of 1876
When the local water company demanded a quarter-century monopoly and the power to seize private springs, Seattle’s leaders said no. Now, with fire risks mounting and growth accelerating, the city faces a stark choice: build its own system or wait for disaster.
- The Day Seattle Woke Up: A Traveler’s Rave Review of the 'Metropolitan' Future
In July 1870, a San Francisco correspondent returns from a voyage down the coast and is stunned by the rapid transformation of his hometown into a booming commercial hub.