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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 15 |
| 1877 | 6 |
| 1878 | 2 |
| 1880 | 1 |
24 stories matching provis
- The Man Who Vanished Into the Mist
A local resident disappears after a three-day canoe trip from the Duwamish River mouth, leaving behind only his revolver and provisions.
- The Right to Testify
A Seattle magistrate clarifies that Indigenous people in Snoqualmie Precinct have the legal standing to sue in civil court and testify in trials.
- The Pioneer Baker of Seattle
A rare glimpse into the early daily life and food infrastructure of a growing Seattle.
- The Sugar Rush: Seattle's Pacific Ambitions in 1876
A century and a half ago, Seattle business leaders were banking on a trade treaty with Hawaii to turn the city into the West Coast’s sugar refining capital.
- The Centennial Lottery Gamble
In 1876, the Washington Territorial Legislature authorized a public lottery to fund a wagon road across the Cascade Mountains, marking a desperate and creative approach to frontier infrastructure.
- 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.
- Inside the New King County Jail
A detailed look at the 'infallible' brick and iron lockup built to replace older, makeshift holding cells in 1870s Seattle.
- The Bankruptcies of 1878: A Wave of 'Fraudulent' Insolvency?
As financial panic grips the Pacific Coast, Seattle editors decry a suspicious surge in businesses filing for bankruptcy before new laws take effect.
- City Hall's Belt-Tightening Cost Two Officers Their Badges
Facing a sudden budget crunch in 1876, the Seattle City Council moves to dismiss two members of the police force to balance the books.
- The Potato Crisis of 1877
As Puget Sound farmers face crop failure from decades of neglect, editors call for a shift to the 'fine art' of fruit cultivation.
- The Minister and the Mysterious Cartload of Produce
A thrifty frontier couple surprises a local minister with a literal 'garden' fee for his services, proving that a modest beginning can grow into a generous legacy.
- The High Price of the Cedar Harvest
An 1876 editorial from Seattle critiques the 'disproportionately large pay' of loggers, blaming high wages for the financial instability of the industry.
- The Original Seattle Growth Strategy
In 1877, business leaders debated how to fund a private office to lure immigrants from 'grasshopper-stricken' regions, mirroring today's debates over attracting talent and industry to the Pacific Northwest.
- The Plague at the Doorstep: Seattle’s Battle Against Smallpox in 1877
As smallpox ravages Port Orchard and Salmon Bay, the city's Health Officer takes drastic quarantine measures against Indigenous communities, highlighting the fragile public health infrastructure of early Seattle.
- The Skagit Gold Rush Mirage
When the promise of easy riches on the Skagit River sparked a frantic, ill-fated mining boom, Seattle’s local press faced accusations of peddling a dangerous myth.
- The $1,000 Payroll: How Seattle’s Hop Boom Put Cash in Local Hands
A local farmer’s record-breaking harvest didn’t just fill warehouses—it injected a thousand dollars into the city’s economy by hiring Indigenous laborers who spent their wages right here.
- Rain Turns Early Seattle's Front Street to Mud
When heavy rains turned downtown thoroughfares into impassable quagmires, residents demanded better engineering than the temporary, 'penny-wise' patch jobs of the 1870s.
- The Farmers’ Fight to Clear the Skagit River
When the government refused to fund the removal of dangerous log jams, local settlers and merchants took the job into their own hands, relying on community donations rather than official aid.
- The High Cost of City Living in 1876
An expatriate writing from London offers a comparative analysis of the staggering costs of housing, labor, and provisions in New York City versus abroad.
- The Great Seattle Silence: A Christmas Without Drunks or Arrests
In a rare departure from holiday tradition, the city remained remarkably sober and quiet on Christmas Day 1876, with zero arrests recorded despite the usual festive revelry.
- The Swamp That Was: How a Drainage Project Threatened to Reclaim King County’s Wetlands
In 1876, local farmers petitioned the county to drain the marshes between White and Black rivers, arguing that reclamation would boost public health and add millions to the region's wealth.
- The Road Less Traveled: Seattle’s Shameful Contrast with Victoria’s Fine Highways
In 1876, the local press lambasted King County’s broken road system, praising British Columbia’s turnpikes as a model for Seattle’s own stagnant development.
- The Great Seattle Lottery: A $100,000 Sawmill and a Road to Nowhere
In 1876, the Washington Territory legislature authorized a massive public lottery to fund a road through Snoqualmie Pass. The grand prize? Yelver’s Steam Saw Mill. It was a bold gamble on infrastructure that reveals how early Seattle funded its growth.
- The Land Grab That Built Tacoma: How the Northern Pacific Railroad Stole Millions of Acres
A furious editorial in the Seattle Star exposes the Northern Pacific Railroad’s scheme to misappropriate public lands for a private coal line, arguing that the company is using legal loopholes to steal from settlers in King and Snohomish counties.