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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 15 |
| 1877 | 13 |
| 1878 | 2 |
| 1880 | 4 |
34 stories matching plain
- The Social Climber and the Boarding-House Landlady
When an imposter claiming aristocratic ties tried to swindle a respectable family at a Seattle party, an uninvited cousin from Albany arrived to set the record straight.
- The Great Reclamation: Opening the Interior
How a 1877 federal law sought to transform the 'Great American Desert' of the Yakima plains into a productive landscape.
- The Midnight Laborer of Seattle’s Waterfront
A rare, intimate portrait of a 19th-century 'night worker' advertising his specialized sanitation services in the growing settlement of Seattle.
- The Audition at Leslie’s
When an art agency put out a call for a model, dozens of women showed up at a steep office staircase, each hoping for the stability of a steady wage.
- The Sad Passing of Seattle's First Donation Claim Holder
Mrs. Diana Collins, a pioneer who arrived in 1850 and survived the tragedy of the Duwamish River, has passed away.
- The 1876 Plea to Ditch the City for the Soil
Amidst economic stagnation in a young Seattle, a local editorial poem urges the 'idle clerks' and unemployed of the city to trade their pens for plows.
- The Tall Tale of 'Bluffier Ben'
A boastful trapper spins wild, bloody yarns for free drinks in a Seattle saloon, leaving the barkeep to settle the tab.
- The Great Migration to the Pacific Northwest
An old pioneer of the Washington Territory returns from Iowa, leading a massive train of hundreds of wagons toward the growing settlements of the Puget Sound.
- Waddell & Miles Stocked 50 Stove Styles in 1877
A look at the bustling specialized trades and supply chains that built a growing Washington Territory city in 1876.
- The Price of Our Forests
An 1877 reflection on the rapid industrial logging of Puget Sound and its potential impact on the climate and water supply.
- The Miracle Crop of the Duwamish Valley
In 1876, a local farmer touted the 'Hulless Oat' as an agricultural revolution for the Seattle region, promising heavier yields and sweeter grain than traditional varieties.
- The Iron Backbone of the Puget Sound Frontier
Before skyscrapers and tech, Seattle was built on pipes, brick-ovens, and the ambition of merchants like Waddell & Miles who powered the city’s rapid expansion.
- 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 Iron Heart of Industrial Seattle
A look at the expansive storefront of Waddell & Miles in 1876, a one-stop shop for the pipes, stoves, and industrial machinery that built the frontier.
- The Nine-Inning Scandal at the Old Exchange
A local baseball game ends in a high-stakes confrontation that reads like a pulp novel, leaving one man bitter and another victorious.
- The Decades-Long Battle Over Yesler’s Mill
A landmark legal struggle over the future of Seattle’s foundational sawmill reaches a tense standoff in the courts.
- The Tax War That Almost Killed Seattle's Economy
In 1877, a federal order threatened to strip Seattle of its tax base by forcing steamships to register their 'home port' in Port Townsend. The local press warned that without this revenue, the county would collapse.
- The Midnight Death of Seattle’s Charter
When a judge declared the city’s incorporation invalid in 1877, the local newspaper editor went on the warpath to save the municipality from 'gratuitous anarchy.'
- The High Cost of Keeping Warm in Pioneer Seattle
As Seattle's population climbed toward 45,000 in 1880, local leaders sounded the alarm on the soaring price of firewood and looked to the untapped coal mines of the region for a heating revolution.
- The Great Dakota Exodus: 100 Settlers Arrive in Seattle
As the rest of the country heads west, a steady stream of homesteaders from the plains is turning north to the Puget Sound, bringing new life to the young city.
- The Judge Who Scratched Out His Own Eyes
A Seattle judge’s legal flip-flop on municipal taxation sparks a fiery editorial showdown and accusations of corrupt land speculation.
- 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 Perilous Journey of the Little Brown Jug
A logger's desperate, tipsy attempt to retrieve his prized whiskey jug from the Seattle harbor makes for a chaotic afternoon on the waterfront.
- The Unclaimed Frontier of the Central Valleys
An 1876 editorial reflects on the economic potential of the Yakima and Kittitas valleys, eyeing the end of tribal reservation boundaries for land settlement.
- The Angel of Pestilence: Seattle’s War on Rot and Ruin
In May 1877, a local merchant’s complaint about piles of carrion near the sawmills sparked an editorial outcry against civic negligence, declaring that 'malarial vapors' were generating poison and death in the growing town.