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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1871 | 1 |
| 1872 | 9 |
| 1876 | 13 |
| 1877 | 8 |
| 1878 | 17 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1880 | 5 |
54 stories matching amount
- The Railroad That Bought Its Way to Glory
While the rest of Seattle debates politics and morality, a coalition of bankers and developers is quietly laying the groundwork for the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad, betting millions on land and gold bonds.
- The City Clerk’s Sharp Rebuke to the Intelligencer
In 1878, Seattle’s local government publicly called out the city’s leading newspaper for 'misrepresentation' regarding the municipal debt.
- The Shack They Called a Courthouse
A visiting traveler shames Seattle's leadership for holding federal court in a dilapidated building while tax dollars bled away.
- The Tax Swindle: How Seattle’s Printer Defrauded His Neighbors
In 1872, the publisher of the *Puget Sound Dispatch* exposed a collusive scheme between local tax collectors and a rival newspaper to overcharge delinquent taxpayers for legal notices, sparking a bitter war of words in the territorial press.
- The Price of a Glass of Beer
A Seattle man faces legal consequences for a small, unthinking gesture that violated the territory's strict and discriminatory liquor laws.
- The Paper War: How Seattle’s ‘Public Thieves’ Exposed a Corrupt Ring
In 1872, the *Puguet Sound Dispatch* accused local officials and the rival *Intelligencer* of extorting taxpayers through inflated advertising rates for tax sales, framing it as a 'Tammany ring' stealing from the public.
- A Community Rallies After a Railway Tragedy
When a young brakeman loses his foot in a rail accident near the Cedar River, local citizens organize to secure his future.
- The Industrial Gamble That Defined a City
How local visionary James M. Colman pushed Seattle into the future by betting his fortune—and demanding the town follow suit—on a critical rail link to the coal mines.
- The Hurdy-Gurdy House on Main Street
A Seattle neighborhood erupts in a formal complaint against the raucous music and nightly disturbances of a Main Street 'hurdy-gurdy house.'
- The Unlikely Heroism of 'Old Yesler'
Derided as a 'hog' and a 'dog-in-the-manger' for years, Henry Yesler silences his critics with a massive financial commitment to Seattle’s future.
- Seattle Paper Warns Chinese Money Could 'Cede the Pacific Coast to China'
An 1880 editorial attacks Chinese campaign contributions to Garfield, casting the Pacific coast as a racial prize.
- The Unseen Hustle of the Seattle Waterfront
While critics dismissed the city as a sleepy backwater, the secret traffic of sloops and warehouses revealed a burgeoning trade hub.
- The Contractor Who Left a Trail of Debt
After securing $1,500 in contract payments, a local builder vanished in a rowboat, leaving his creditors behind in the dust.
- The Unsparing Champion of Right
In 1878, the Weekly Puget Sound Dispatch positioned itself as the 'Fearless Champion' of the common citizen, promising to be the cheapest and most comprehensive source of news in the Washington Territory.
- A Steep Price for Three Dollars' Worth of Wood
A father and his fifteen-year-old son were sentenced to pay a staggering fine—$46 total—after being caught pilfering scrap lumber from the city wharf.
- The Taxation Trap: How Seattle’s Liquor Licenses Were Feeding the County, Not the City
In 1876, a territorial newspaper railed against a fiscal injustice: Seattle taxpayers were footing the bill for policing and street maintenance, while the county kept the revenue from liquor licenses sold within city limits.
- The $6 Million Secret: How Seattle’s Future Railroads Were Sold to Washington Politicians
A shocking dispatch reveals that the Northern Pacific Railroad and its associated land companies were secretly divided among top U.S. Senators, Grant, and a 'army of lobbyists'—proving that the infrastructure shaping Puget Sound was built on political patronage.
- The Human Spider of Occidental Square
A sailor scaled a 135-foot flagpole in downtown Seattle to keep the city’s Fourth of July celebrations on schedule.
- The Ghost of the Old Foundry
A group of boys wreak havoc in a derelict Seattle building, leaving neighbors to wonder about the city's crumbling youth management.
- The Midnight Attack on a Chinatown Cigar Stand
A deliberate arson attempt threatens to ignite the heart of downtown Seattle after rags soaked in coal oil are discovered burning against a Chinese-owned business.
- The Disappearing Blind Musician of Seattle
A itinerant musician duped local merchants before vanishing to California, highlighting the precarity of trust in a growing port city.
- The Copper Bonanza on San Juan Island
Local entrepreneurs Morgan and O'Bryant strike it rich with a silver-laced copper vein, promising to transform the rugged island into a major mining hub.
- The Unsung Pioneers of the Skagit River
When federal funds for regional infrastructure failed to materialize, a group of Seattle loggers took matters into their own hands to open the Skagit River to navigation.
- The Pioneer Struggle to Pave Commercial Street
Before it was the bustling core of Pioneer Square, Seattle’s Commercial Street was a rough-hewn stretch of dirt and mud in dire need of basic infrastructure.
- Sabotage on the Coal Line
A dangerous attempt to derail a coal train near Seattle highlights the intense tensions surrounding the city's burgeoning industrial infrastructure.