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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 28 |
| 1877 | 9 |
| 1878 | 5 |
| 1880 | 3 |
45 stories matching togeth
- The Struggle for a Fire-Safe City
Early Seattleites grapple with the slow, expensive process of organizing a volunteer fire department to protect a rapidly growing town.
- The Forbidden Courtship of Seattle’s Laboring Class
A satirical poem recounts the trials of a young couple forbidden by their employer from speaking while working on his land.
- The Wild Foot Race on Commercial Street
Before the city grew, Seattle’s main thoroughfare hosted a high-stakes sprint that drew crowds to the rooftops and left bettors stunned.
- The Auditor and the Sheriff: A Public Spat Over Corruption
In the lead-up to the 1876 election, a public war of words between King County's Auditor and former Sheriff exposes the messy, opaque, and highly questionable state of territorial bookkeeping.
- The Mother Who Chased Her Daughter Off the Train
A stern mother keeps a watchful eye on her daughter during a geological expedition’s outing, resulting in a comical train-platform confrontation.
- 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 Farming Pioneer of Protection Island
A bold settler bets on agriculture in the San Juan Islands, finding a thriving home where others saw only isolation.
- The Industrial Heartbeat of 1876 Seattle
A glimpse into the daily churn of a rapidly growing frontier town, where hardware, coal, and steam power built the foundation of the Emerald City.
- The Artist and the Terrier: A Seattle Romance
A down-and-out clerk uses his only asset—a well-trained terrier—to win the favor of a grumpy painter and the hand of his beloved in 1870s Seattle.
- The Dream of Homeownership in 1878 Seattle
A century and a half ago, the Intelligencer urged Seattle residents to anchor themselves through property ownership as a moral and familial duty.
- Seattle’s Volunteer Firefighters Organize for Protection
Citizens and council members gather to establish the first official fire company for a growing city.
- The Circus Comes to Town: Montgomery’s Queen’s New Brings the 'Wonderful Kenebels' to Seattle
In October 1876, the largest and most brilliant circus company in the West descended upon Seattle, offering a night of acrobatics, animal acts, and high-flying daredevils for just one dollar.
- Raising the Barn: A Frontier Memory
A look back at the communal labor and rough-and-tumble celebrations that defined building a new life in early Washington Territory.
- The Centennial Vision for a Frontier Metropolis
On the 100th anniversary of American Independence, a local orator laid out a grand—and strikingly prescient—economic blueprint for the future of Seattle and Washington Territory.
- The $100,000 Gamble: Yesler’s Great Lottery
To fund a mountain road, Seattle pioneer Henry Yesler turned to a massive, state-sanctioned lottery, putting his own saw mill and downtown lots on the line.
- The Midnight Memory Lapse of a Seattle Husband
A husband’s errand to the druggist turns into a long, forgetful night at the local saloon, until a sudden telegraph dispatch snaps him back to reality.
- The Panther and the Mountain Cave
A pioneer’s harrowing brush with death during a massive Washington landslide leads to an unlikely alliance with a wild beast.
- A Wedding on the Skagit Flats
A frontier celebration in the late 1870s brings together four river communities for a night of dancing and revelry.
- The Forgotten Dream of a Seattle County Fair
In 1876, local boosters argued that Seattle needed a central fair to bring together the disparate agricultural valleys of King County—a dream of connection in a fragmented frontier.
- The Potato Famine That Never Left the Sound
A century and a half ago, Seattle farmers lamented the mysterious collapse of the Puget Sound potato trade, marking the end of a boom that once promised regional prosperity.
- 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 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 Bartender Who Saved a Life
A skeptical Seattle saloon keeper prevents a man from swallowing a mysterious powder, leading to a strange and poignant discovery.
- The Victorian Anxiety Over 'Fat Babies'
An 1880 advice column warns parents that 'excessive fat is really a disease' and cautions against the physical toll of oversized toddlers on their own developing bones.
- The Unsung Genius of the Barrel
A deep dive into the history of an everyday object that the 1880s public took for granted, tracing its utility from Egyptian antiquity to modern Seattle.