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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 5 |
| 1876 | 9 |
| 1877 | 2 |
| 1878 | 8 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1880 | 2 |
27 stories matching command
- The Fallen Commander: Major Thornburgh’s Frontier Legacy
Remembering the life and service of the military officer who served in Washington Territory and met a tragic end on the frontier.
- Salmon Cannery Takes Root on the Duwamish
A local entrepreneur transforms an old homestead opposite Seattle into a new industrial venture.
- The Day a Prisoner Broke His Chains and the Police Chief Grabbed a Boy's Horse
A robbery suspect makes a mid-day run for the bushes from the chain gang; Seattle's police chief commandeers a horse and trees him just outside town.
- The Mule-Mounted Howitzer Fiasco
An ambitious Army experiment at a Western fort goes hilariously and dangerously wrong when a cannon-strapped mule decides to take matters into his own hooves.
- The $350 Fine That Stopped a Ship: Smuggling and Sovereignty on the Strait
In July 1876, the schooner Superior was seized by U.S. authorities for entering Victoria without clearance, sparking a legal battle over customs laws and the volatile border between Washington Territory and British Columbia.
- The Shadow Army of 1880
A secret, oath-bound military organization of 'Boys in Blue' stirs fears of a rigged election and armed insurrection in Washington Territory.
- The Simple Logic of a Territorial Divorce
A jilted husband pens a candid letter to a Justice of the Peace, asking how to dissolve his marriage and if the court might offer a replacement wife.
- The Avarice of the Soil
An 1871 lecture on why farmers must stop starving themselves to save a few pennies.
- The Pirate King of Seattle
A real-life adventure of a man who survived a childhood on a pirate ship and returned to Seattle to recruit a crew for a treasure hunt.
- The Promised Land of Eastern Washington
A look at the thriving agricultural output of the territory's interior as a draw for new settlers.
- Seattle Sheriff's Auction Over an 1878 Debt
Legal notices from 1878 reveal a stark trail of property foreclosures, sheriff's auctions, and financial upheaval in the early days of King County.
- The Price of Industrial Expansion
A sheriff’s auction reveals the crushing debt behind the rise of Seattle’s coal industry in the 1870s.
- The Citizens' Revolt Against the 'Official Ring'
When an informal mass meeting in 1872 Seattle bypassed party conventions to nominate their own candidates, the local press didn't just report it—they waged a war against the city's political machine.
- The Price of Early Seattle Speculation
A series of 1878 sheriff's sales reveals the precarious nature of land ownership during Seattle's early frontier development.
- A.A. Denny's Addition Property Sold for 1878 Judgments
A wave of sheriff's sales across King County in 1878 signals the brutal fallout of debt and property litigation in a young, boom-and-bust frontier city.
- The 'Virtuous Spasm' of 1876: Seattle’s Early Critique of Political Greed
An editorial from the Puget Sound Dispatch captures the simmering public outrage over a government scandal in Washington Territory, drawing parallels between national corruption and the mismanagement of local university land grants.
- The Price of Early Seattle Expansion: A Sheriff’s Sale of the Talbot Coal Company
In 1878, as Seattle struggled to build its industrial backbone, the courts were already dismantling the assets of struggling developers, illustrating the precariousness of the city’s early capital-intensive boom.
- The Pilot Who Dropped Dead at the Helm
A seasoned navigator suffers a fatal stroke while guiding a British ship through the Golden Gate, only for the crew to be extorted by a tugboat captain who demands an 'exorbitant' fee to save them.
- The Struggle for Rails and Revenue in Pioneer Seattle
An editorial chastising local property holders for failing to invest in their own infrastructure, warning that without local buy-in, Seattle’s growth remains a hostage to outside capital.
- The Price of Frontier Survival: A Seattle Sheriff's Sale
A 1878 legal notice reveals a bleak snapshot of life in early Seattle, where debt-ridden families faced the auction block under the gaze of a booming young city.
- The Sheriff’s Gavel: Seattle Land Auctioned to Pay a Debt
In October 1876, King County Sheriff L.V. Wyckoff prepared to sell 160 acres of land in front of the courthouse to satisfy a judgment against Duncan Dewar, illustrating the harsh realities of property law in early Seattle.
- The Sheriff’s Gavel: A King County Farm Vanishes at Auction
In October 1876, Duncan Dewar lost 160 acres of prime land in Seattle to satisfy a $300 debt. The legal machinery of the young territory was grinding away, turning homes and fields into line items.
- The Mayor Who Bought His Seat with Lottery Money
In Seattle’s first hotly contested municipal election of 1876, the newspaper publisher who ran for mayor lost to Dr. Weed—not because he lacked support from mechanics and laborers, but because his opponent mobilized the city’s notorious lottery gamblers.
- The Ring is Broken: Seattle’s Republicans Revolt Against the 'Corrupt' Delegate
In a stunning display of local defiance, prominent Seattle citizens and Republican leaders publicly repudiate Territorial Delegate George W. Gillette, accusing him of betrayal and corruption ahead of the 1873 election.
- Thrown Into a Saw at Colman's Mill — and the Law Looked the Other Way
When Peter Feeney attacked a Chinese coworker in a Seattle sawmill, the man's foot was mangled beyond repair. The justice of the peace declined to hold Feeney, the prosecutor dismissed the case, and the town's paper argued the injury was just an accident.