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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 27 |
| 1877 | 16 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1880 | 6 |
50 stories matching form
- The Death-Trap at Front and Seneca
A dangerous, makeshift bridge over a Seattle construction site is leaving pedestrians scrambling for their lives as the city struggles with incomplete grading.
- A Public Shaming in 1876 Seattle
A husband takes to the pages of the local newspaper to publicly disavow his wife, a common, legally sanctioned form of domestic surveillance in the late 19th century.
- The Great Mud Puddle: Seattle’s Drainage Nightmare
A massive sinkhole at the corner of Main and Colfax streets has turned a vital thoroughfare into a swamp, threatening the city's infrastructure and hygiene.
- The Fragile Earth Beneath Our Feet
An 1877 editorial from the Seattle Daily Intelligencer warns that the city's obsession with waste and its failure to return fertility to the land mirror the downfall of Rome.
- The 1878 Dream of Building Societies
A look at the early mutual loan movement, promising that the average working man could escape the cycle of high rent and finally own his home.
- The Silent Epidemic: Diphtheria in 1880 Seattle
A harrowing, vivid account of the early stages of diphtheria, a 'perplexing theme' of illness that terrorized families and baffled medical practitioners in the Washington Territory.
- The 'A Co.' Misunderstanding
A linguistic confusion at a Seattle restaurant leads to a partnership change and a new sign.
- Nature’s Engineering: Lessons from the Baltic Dikes
An 1875 perspective on how the Baltic coastline’s natural defenses against the sea served as a blueprint for human resilience and infrastructure.
- The Boomtown Pulse of 1876
A booster’s-eye view of a rapidly industrializing Seattle, where housing was cheap, the bay teemed with fish, and laborers arrived by the steamer-load.
- The Real Estate Inheritance Marriage
When a Seattle man's son passed away, he left his property to his father, in trust for his widow—with a clause insisting they live under the same roof. The result was a local wedding that defied convention.
- Life and Sport at a Puget Sound Mill Town
Dispatch from Port Gamble captures the rhythm of mill life, local politics, and a crushing victory on the baseball diamond.
- The Pioneer Dream: Settling Seattle as an Organized Colony
In 1877, Seattle newspapers championed the idea of 'colonizing' the Washington Territory to solve the isolation of homesteading, mirroring today's debates over density and regional growth.
- The Midnight Rescue at Crawford & Harrington Wharf
A desperate cry from the dark waters of the Seattle waterfront led to a daring rescue—and a surprising discovery about the survivor.
- The Spirit of '76: Seattle’s Grand Centennial Celebration
A meticulous guide to how Seattleites organized their first massive city-wide celebration of the American Centennial in 1876, featuring a parade, a regatta, and grand fireworks.
- The Wharf That Ate Its Workers: Seattle’s First Major Infrastructure Failure
In September 1876, a newly built lumber wharf in Seattle collapsed under the weight of its own laborers, sending Chinese workers and timber plunging into the Duwamish River. The disaster exposed the rotting reality of territorial construction and the precarious lives of immigrant labor.
- The Centennial Fourth: Seattle's 1876 Independence Day Extravaganza
Before the skyscrapers, Seattle celebrated the nation's 100th birthday with a massive, carefully choreographed procession of coal miners, firemen, and laborers winding through the dusty streets of a growing frontier town.
- The Meteorology of the Woods
An 1880 meteorologist argues that deforestation is responsible for the drying of rivers and the loss of rainfall, a warning from the early days of Washington Territory.
- The Church of the Pacific Northwest
As the Episcopal Church gathered in 1880, its internal struggles over mission work, inclusion, and the 'Indian question' revealed a rapidly expanding organization looking toward the frontier.
- 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 Seattle Coal Cooperative of 1876
A century and a half ago, Seattle workers formed a mutual benefit mining company to secure their own fuel and profits.
- The Governor’s Unacknowledged Son
A condemned prisoner in the city jail delivers a final, shattering letter to the Governor, revealing a secret connection that exposes the cruel indifference of the ruling class.
- Seattle Incorporates Northern Pacific Iron Works
A look at the birth of the Northern Pacific Iron Works, a grand manufacturing dream that once promised to turn Seattle into a regional powerhouse.
- 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 Great River Flood of 1876
As heavy rains inundate the Duwamish Valley, Seattle settlers and livestock struggle to survive the rising waters.
- The Price of Neglect: Seattle’s Summer Stench
In 1876, the Duly Intelligencer called out the city for ignoring stagnant, disease-breeding gutters in the business district, warning that the 'healthiest city on the coast' was becoming a hotbed for fever.