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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 7 |
| 1876 | 10 |
| 1877 | 11 |
| 1878 | 11 |
| 1879 | 2 |
| 1880 | 5 |
46 stories matching close
- The Day Seattle Stood Still: A Sunday of Sobriety and Silence
In November 1876, the city’s saloons closed their doors for a rare day of peace, while the newspaper editor noted with relief that there were no fights to report.
- The End of a Printing Era
As the Seattle economy shifts, one of the city's early job printers liquidates his massive wood type collection, marking a quiet close to a chapter of local industry.
- The End of an Era for a Pioneer Printer
Austin A. Bell closes his Seattle jobbing business, offering his entire stock of type and heavy press equipment at a clearance price.
- The Cold Reality of Seattle’s Waterfront
While the city prepared for festive holidays, thirty Chinese laborers arrived from Port Blakely, unceremoniously discharged and packed onto a steamer like freight.
- The Closing of a Pressroom Era
As the Seattle economy shifts, a local printer liquidates his entire inventory, marking the end of a small-scale business in a growing territory.
- An Explorer's Curious Discovery in the Puyallup Valley
In 1878, a local explorer ventured into the uncharted territory of the Puyallup Valley, reporting back with observations that bordered on the absurd.
- The Logging Camp Cougar Standoff
A Christmas-season encounter on a trail near Snohomish leaves a local hotelier shaken when his revolver fails him.
- The New England Hotel's Ban
A local hotel owner strikes a blow against Chinese labor, signaling a rising tide of xenophobic economic policy in the Pacific Northwest.
- The Struggle for Space: Seattle’s School Crowding Crisis of 1877
When the closure of the local university forced dozens of children into an already overburdened public school system, the city grappled with the same challenges of rapid growth and insufficient infrastructure that define Seattle today.
- Convicted in Five Days: The 1877 Murder Case That Shocked a Seattle Editor
After Solomon Baxter was killed, John Thompson went from arrest to a first-degree murder conviction in less than a week. The local paper called it a 'summary proceeding' with no parallel in American law.
- The Price of Print: A Pioneer Newspaper’s Inventory Liquidation
A rare glimpse into the mechanics of 1878 journalism as a Seattle printer liquidates his entire shop, signaling the volatile life of local presses.
- The Great Sound Mill Slowdown of 1879
A secret price-fixing agreement in San Francisco forces local mills to cut production, threatening the livelihoods of workers across the region.
- The Company Town That Built Itself: Inside Port Gamble's Lumber Empire
In 1876, the Puget Mill Company turned a remote bay into a model industrial community, complete with its own fleet, brass band, and company-owned housing.
- The Embroidered Vow: A Victorian Romance in Seattle
When an accident leaves a young woman scarred, she retreats from society, only to discover a secret message stitched into a handmade cushion.
- 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.
- The Great Freeze of 1872
When an arctic blast paralyzed Puget Sound, turning the Columbia River to ice and testing the grit of Seattle's early pioneers.
- The Seattle Lottery Scandal of 1876
A local editor confesses his regret for backing a 'legal' lottery that turned the city into an open gambling hell.
- The Great Seattle Homestead Fraud
A whistleblower exposes how workers were swindled out of their hard-earned money by a predatory land development scheme.
- The Widow’s Last Ledger
On her deathbed, a thrifty farm wife attempts one final audit of the neighborhood’s debts, only to find her husband’s memory suddenly failing when it comes to money she owes others.
- He Tore Up the Railroad Track, Then Flagged Down the Train
In 1877, a King County farmer named John Ross ripped up Seattle Coal & Transportation Co. rails to force a right-of-way dispute into court — then warned the locomotive before it reached the break.
- The Paradoxes' Last Argument
After three years of domestic strife, a Seattle couple reconciles on the eve of a formal separation, proving that sometimes the best way to handle a 'horrid temper' is to tear up the legal papers.
- The Deadly Prescription of Clifton House
A physician’s sinister plot to poison his young wife for her inheritance ends in a gruesome, ironic justice on the frontier.
- The Territorial Auditor and the Slander Machine
When the Walla Walla Statesman accused a prominent territorial official of being a fugitive felon, it sparked a local crisis in journalistic ethics and public reputation.
- Seattle’s New Year Outlook: A Refuge from the Gilded Age
An 1877 editorial contrasts Seattle’s frontier promise with the labor riots and extreme inequality ravaging the rest of the nation.
- The City Council's Yellow Flag Fiasco
When Seattle officials passed a health ordinance to curb contagion, they refused to apply it to a notorious local brothel, sparking a public outcry against political hypocrisy.