Research the archive
Narrow 27,002 newspaper stories by words, years, place, newspaper and subject. See when and where they ran, then download what you find.
Put a phrase in quotes ("rent strike") or leave a word out with a minus (strike -baseball). Old scans misspell names, so when little is found, near-spellings are offered.
Refine1 on
Show the numbers
| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 19 |
| 1877 | 10 |
| 1880 | 5 |
34 stories matching previous
- The Tragedy of a Desperate Courtship
A jilted suitor’s attempt to force a marriage ends in violence and a desperate shooting near Seattle.
- The Roads of Seattle: A Grumbling Legacy
A wealthy traveler’s sharp assessment of Seattle’s infrastructure in 1880 highlights a civic struggle over street quality that feels strikingly familiar to modern residents.
- The Strict Rules of Territorial Ballot Boxes
Before the secret ballot was standardized, Washington Territory enacted stern penalties to prevent election-day fraud, coercion, and liquor-fueled chaos.
- A Brutal Mill Accident at Port Blakely
A mill worker loses his foot to the saw, marking another dangerous day in the Puget Sound timber industry.
- The Man Who Vanished: A Tacoma Mystery
A stock raiser leaves his home in fine clothes and is never seen again. Is it a disappearance or foul play?
- The Man Who Thought He Was a Millionaire: A Seattle Mental Health Tragedy
In April 1877, a man wandering the streets of Seattle claimed his parents were murdered and he was retrieving buried fortune. After assaulting a stranger with a dagger, he was committed to an asylum.
- The High Cost of Paving the Frontier
A rare glimpse into the 1880 King County commission meetings reveals bitter political squabbles over road funding that mirror today's infrastructure debates.
- The Iron Giant of Seattle: How a Local Foundry Fueled the City’s Rapid Rise
In 1876, Seattle’s industrial heart was beating with molten metal. As the Puget Sound Iron Works churned out rails for expanding railroads and coal mines, local leaders predicted a future where Seattle would rival San Francisco as a Pacific coast manufacturing hub.
- The Great Seattle Straw Hat Swindle
A smooth-talking grifter fleeced the crowds of Seattle by promising cheap hats, only to leave them holding handfuls of worthless paper.
- The Tragedy of a Midnight Gale
A young sailor's life is cut short in a brutal storm, his small boat found shattered and abandoned near Vashon Island.
- The Funeral Boat on the Black River
A funeral party's journey home from Renton to Seattle is upended when their steamer breaks down, forcing a mud-caked, cross-country trek by wagon.
- The Classroom Crunch of 1877
Before Seattle grew into an educational hub, the city struggled to find enough space for its students, forcing a desperate lease of university buildings.
- The City That Couldn't Keep Up: Seattle’s Housing Crisis of 1876
As immigrants flood in from Kansas and beyond, the city's building boom fails to match the demand for shelter, threatening a severe shortage before winter sets in.
- 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 Price of Apathy in the 1876 Seattle Election
A pre-election plea from the Daily Intelligencer warns that if 'responsible' business owners don't turn out to vote, the city will pay a heavy cost in taxes and mismanagement.
- The Lost Cook of Lowell
A camp cook vanished from the logging woods near Snohomish, leaving behind his belongings and fueling local rumors of desertion or death.
- The Midnight Escape from the War Hawk
A maritime labor dispute turns into a dramatic midnight jailbreak from a leaky ship at the Seattle waterfront.
- The Great Cedar Jam: How Settlers Cleared the Skagit River by Hand
In September 1876, a group of determined farmers and loggers took on the massive timber jams blocking the Skagit River, hoping to unlock sixty miles of navigation for their struggling community.
- The War That Shook Seattle’s Wallet: How European Conflict Spiked Wheat Prices
While the rest of the world braced for war in the Balkans, Seattle merchants watched their profits soar as panic buying drove wheat prices to historic highs.
- 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 Rising Sentiment Against Chinese Labor in Seattle
An editorial reflection on the arrival of Chinese laborers in Seattle and the prevailing local attitudes regarding their employment.
- The Cattle Drive Through Seven Feet of Snow
Defying winter, a determined group of drovers successfully pushed fifty head of cattle through the Snoqualmie Pass, a feat never before recorded this early in the year.
- The Boomtown Blueprint: Seattle's 1877 Real Estate Pitch
As lumber prices cratered and labor became cheap, local papers urged investors to stop building shoddy shacks and start constructing 'neat, commodious cottages' for high-interest returns.
- The Missing Payday at the First Seattle Railroad
Workers on the nascent Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad staged a walkout after a payroll error left them empty-handed.
- The Forged Signature and the Legal Loophole of Marriage
A husband accuses his wife of forgery for signing his name, only to have a judge dismiss the case based on the legal doctrine of coverture.