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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 106 |
| 1877 | 87 |
| 1878 | 19 |
| 1880 | 18 |
230 stories matching work
- 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 Unending Grading of Front Street
Seattle's downtown thoroughfare is locked in a cycle of costly miscalculations, mud, and construction delays.
- The Pioneer Wagon Shop's Promise of Work
In an 1877 classified advertisement, a local craftsman highlights the necessity of reliable logging and repair work in a growing frontier Seattle.
- Seattle’s First City Hall: A $500 Bill for Front Street
In September 1876, the fledgling city council authorized a payment to George Edwards for rebuilding the cribbing and earthworks on Front Street, marking one of the earliest municipal infrastructure contracts in Seattle's history.
- The City’s Refusal to Put Prisoners to Work
An 1877 editorial slams Seattle’s leadership for failing to use jail inmates to clear public road obstructions, citing the 'delicate hands' of the prisoners.
- The Wellington Strike: When Coal Miners Said 'No' to a Pay Cut
In July 1876, 70 miners at the Wellington colliery were fired for refusing a wage reduction, bringing the mine to a halt in a struggle that defined labor relations on the Pacific Northwest frontier.
- The Pioneer Wagon Shop of 1875
A craftsman’s call to the growing city of Seattle to supply iron-wrought wheels and reliable repair work for a rugged frontier landscape.
- The Tenement Trap: Why Seattle’s Working Men Should Be Grateful
A local editorial contrasts the comfortable cottages of early Seattle with the squalid overcrowding of New York City's tenements, urging citizens to value their land and labor.
- The Artisans of the Foundation
A glimpse into the heavy labor and craftsmanship that quite literally built the streets and structures of early Seattle.
- The Radical Defense of Sweat Equity
In an 1876 editorial, a fierce local voice challenges the city’s idle wealthy to stop 'illustrating fashion's caprices' and embrace the dignity of physical labor.
- The Great Fill: Seattle’s First Major Land Reclamation and the Fight for White Labor
In October 1876, workers are frantically raising Front Street to save it from the Duwamish River. The local press frames this massive public works project not just as engineering, but as a moral victory for 'white labor' over cheap Chinese competition.
- The Unsung Pioneers Clearing the Skagit River
While the territory hailed the opening of the Skagit Valley to navigation, the men bankrolling the arduous labor of clearing the massive log jam were left bankrupt.
- The Great Rancher's Fiasco: When Seattle Met the 'Eastern Immigrant'
A local farmer’s desperate search for farmhands on the docks of Pioneer Square ends in comedy of errors, revealing a cultural clash between Washington Territory agriculture and the influx of Eastern settlers.
- 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 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.
- A Final Shift at the Foundry
A Union veteran's tragic death while returning to work reflects the precarious nature of labor and health in 1878 Seattle.
- The Dignity of the Oyster Bar
A young woman, destitute after her father's death, finds that the labor market is far more welcoming than her former social circle.
- The Struggle for Better Roads in 1870s King County
Frustrated residents call for a centralized superintendent to replace the inefficient and disjointed road-building system of the Washington Territory.
- The Makah Nation’s First Harvest of Grass
In an era defined by displacement, a small group of Makah Indians surprised Port Townsend residents by arriving with scythes to offer their labor in the local hay fields.
- 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 Price of Poverty in 1877 Seattle
When the County Commissioners opened a new poor house, they explicitly designed it as a workhouse to deter the 'dissolute class' from seeking public assistance.
- An Indigenous Burial Site Unearthed on Commercial Street
Construction work in front of Mr. Amos Brown’s residence reveals human remains, highlighting the history of the land.
- The Dangerous Plank Walk of Old Seattle
While the city dragged its feet on street improvements in 1878, residents were forced to navigate treacherous, makeshift wooden planks, causing frustration and daily peril.
- A Perilous Ascent on Front Street
A construction worker suffers a violent fall while building a new home, sparking a community health scare in 1870s Seattle.
- The Great Seattle Front Street Excavation of 1876
As teams and scrapers descend on the heart of the city, laborers begin carving out the steep terrain between Cherry and James to make way for the future.