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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 14 |
| 1877 | 4 |
18 stories matching test
- The Bachelor's Ruse: A Victorian Love Game in Seattle
A lonely Seattle bachelor attempts to 'test' his ward’s character through a series of elaborate, scholarly letters, only to find himself the one being studied.
- The Integrity Test of 1876
A young dressmaker, struggling against the poverty of pioneer-era Seattle, faces a life-changing moral dilemma when she discovers a hidden fortune in an old waistcoat.
- The Great Escape: Professor Baldwin’s Spectacular Deception in Seattle
In July 1876, a traveling spiritualist and escape artist took over Yeager's Hall, challenging the public to witness his 'human agency' escapes from handcuffs and pillories, exposing the mediums of the day as frauds.
- The Judgment Day Landlord
A Seattle resident finds his patience tested when his neighbors' millennial religious fervor leads to the systematic expropriation of his household goods.
- The Professor Who Escaped the Shackles: A Seattle Spiritualist’s Audacious Escape
In July 1876, Professor S.S. Baldwin drew a crowd at Yesler’s Hall not for his spiritualist tricks, but for his daring escape from handcuffs and leg irons—a feat that left the audience gasping and proved he was no fraud.
- The Ghost in the Photograph
A grieving man’s obsession with the afterlife leads him into the dark, hidden corners of 1876 Seattle—and to a tragic end.
- The Fire That Never Came: Seattle’s Barely-Staffed Engine Company
In 1878, the city finally bought a hand engine for fire protection, but with only ten men to crew it, officials warned that a real blaze would leave the town helpless.
- The Great Smokestack Hoax: Seattle’s Mountain Top Mystery
In 1873, local entrepreneur S. W. Peck convinced the city that a legendary 'living rod' lay buried atop American Flat. His desperate drilling operation reveals more about the era's speculative fever than geological truth.
- The Ferry Fight on the Duwamish
A contest over a river crossing franchise exposes the competition for infrastructure and land rights along the lower Duwamish in 1876.
- An Expedition to the 'Niagara of the North'
A rugged traveler describes a treacherous 1874 journey by canoe and foot to witness the majesty of Snoqualmie Falls.
- The Clerk’s Odd Sales Pitch
A farmer learns a strange and aggressive new way to test if his wife is 'sound' while shopping in 1877 Seattle.
- A Perilous Game on the Harbor
Local children are testing their luck by building makeshift rafts and navigating the harbor near the depot, to the growing alarm of local observers.
- The Race That Wasn't: A 'Compulsory' Chase on the Snoqualmie Road
In September 1876, a traveler near Fall City was forced into a high-speed gallop by five Indigenous men who claimed they only wanted to test their horses' speed against his.
- The 'Hulless' Oat Promise of 1876
An early Seattle entrepreneur touted a revolutionary 'agricultural wonder' grain, promising local farmers a harvest that outperformed wheat with half the labor.
- The Unseasonable Winter Flowers of 1877
A boastful look at Seattle's climate resilience in the face of mid-winter blooms.
- The Lawyer, the Boy, and the Five-Cent Lesson
A shrewd Seattle attorney tests a boy’s integrity with a lesson in promissory notes and the value of a promise.
- The 'Agricultural Wonder' of the Skagit Valley
A local farmer promises to transform the economy of the Territory with a miracle oat that promises to outgrow all others.
- The Counterfeiters of 1877
An expert assayer at the U.S. Mint offers local shopkeepers a masterclass in detecting 'whitish brass' counterfeits circulating in the Pacific Northwest.