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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 11 |
| 1877 | 20 |
| 1878 | 4 |
| 1880 | 2 |
37 stories matching idea
- The Perilous Path to Union Bay
A steamship pioneer makes a daring, experimental voyage to prove that a 'long-ignored' channel could transform the future of Seattle’s local trade.
- The Practical Joke of the Frontier
A settler’s terrifying encounter with two armed Indigenous men concludes not with the massacre he feared, but with a surreal—and expensive—demanding of his household supplies.
- The Struggle for a Safer Seattle Waterfront
As the city rapidly expands its harbor, a push for a new railing along the waterfront aims to protect nighttime travelers from accidental falls.
- The Judge and the Minstrel Show
When a visiting Chief Justice toured a Seattle courtroom in 1878, he was shocked by the advertisements for a traveling minstrel show plastered on the courthouse walls.
- The Tragic Death of a Chinese Cook at Port Gamble
An accident in shallow water claims the life of a laborer, highlighting the precarious conditions for workers in the Puget Sound mill towns of 1877.
- The Failed Toothpick Empire of Merrihew
A classic tale of a get-rich-quick scheme gone wrong, where a man's attempt to corner the national market on thorns turned his farmland into an impassable fortress.
- The Mud-Trap at the Old Seattle Gas Works
A young delivery driver narrowly escapes a watery grave after his team sinks into the treacherous quicksand of the tide flats.
- The Dog Who Defied Gravity (and the Mayor)
A canine visitor to Seattle’s Tremont Hotel proves that while political patronage is hard to shake, a dog’s instinct for self-preservation is stronger.
- The Unfinished Business of Education
A reflection on school life, lifelong learning, and the ambitious spirit of Seattle’s youth in 1876.
- 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.
- Seattle's Grand New Courthouse Plans Unveiled
Architect Isaac Palmer presents a bold, brick-and-mortar vision for the corner of Third and Jefferson, signaling the city's aspirations for civic permanence.
- The Labor of Your First Thousand
A classic 1876 editorial from the Seattle Daily Intelligencer on the moral and industrial value of earning one's keep from scratch.
- The Transformation of the 'Lava Bed'
A historic Seattle neighborhood known for 'drunken revelry and hellish orgies' faces an impending industrial rebirth.
- 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 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 Drunken Voter and the Drain: Seattle’s 1876 Election Reform Ideas
While the 1876 presidential election left the nation in suspense, the local Seattle press used the quiet polling day to propose strict new moral and administrative reforms for the growing town.
- 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 Forgotten Quest for an Agricultural Mortgage Bank
An 1877 op-ed from the Seattle Daily Intelligencer argues that the Territory's economic future depends on fixing the rural credit crunch.
- An Invitation to a Celestial Feast
An 1877 dispatch offers a rare, albeit patronizing, glimpse into the intricate social etiquette and lavish dining culture of Seattle’s Chinese mercantile class.
- 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 Price of Injustice: Seattle’s Jailhouse Debt
A messy legal arbitration reveals how King County’s jail construction spiraled into a financial debacle—and why the city's approach to housing prisoners remained a 'miserable farce.'
- The Ghost of Belltown and the Battle for the Ballot
In 1880, as Seattle’s population swelled, the newspaper sparred with shipping reports over the identity of a neighborhood that 'did not exist' and the urgent need for more polling stations.
- The Dairy Dilemma of 1876
Before high-tech factory farming, Seattle's early settlers navigated the delicate, labor-intensive art of managing livestock health by hand.
- The Perils of the Victorian Parlor
A late-night rumination on the changing customs of romance in 1876 Seattle, where the 'exclusive' courting of young lovers in the family home was already starting to baffle the older generation.