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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 2 |
| 1876 | 5 |
| 1877 | 6 |
| 1878 | 9 |
| 1880 | 1 |
23 stories matching commit
- The Nine Men Who Refused to Work: Seattle’s First Labor Standoff
In December 1876, nine coal miners at the Seattle bunkers defied orders on the ship *War Hawk*, leading Commissioner Smith to commit them to jail until the vessel sailed.
- The Disappearing Patient of King County
A small-statured man, well-dressed in slate colors, walks out of the Territorial Insane Asylum and vanishes without a trace.
- The Stranger’s Fatal Fight at Benton
A bystander’s attempt to break up a tavern brawl in a small town near Seattle ends in a tragic, senseless death.
- The Great Cigar Heist of Front Street
When a local merchant's inventory went missing in the night, the hunt for the culprits led straight to a city saloon's coal bin.
- The Price of Sin in Pioneer Seattle
While the city's elite debated municipal elections and infrastructure, a thief made off with a trunk full of coins and jewelry from a house on the margins of society.
- 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 Price of Secrecy in the Puyallup Coal Fields
When a contractor is jailed for contempt, the future of a key territorial infrastructure project hangs in the balance.
- The Price of a Smuggled Vice
Two brothers arrested with thirty pounds of opium off the steamer California face the cold reality of a federal court judgment.
- The Solitary End of a Salmon Bay Logger
A lonely worker’s death by suicide at a cabin in Salmon Bay highlights the hidden struggles of the frontier laborers who built the region's early economy.
- The Wild West of Washington Journalism
When the courts declared they had no power to punish libel, Seattle editors went to war with their pens—and their reputations.
- The Puppet Editor's Expensive Betrayal
A cautionary tale of a local 'figurehead' editor who was used by power brokers to spread libel, only to be abandoned when the lawsuits started arriving.
- The Apprentice Who Chose Grime Over Gold
In 1872 Seattle, a young man defies his parents' expectations by rejecting his inheritance to work in a boiler shop—and finds his own path to dignity.
- The Paradise of Thieves: Seattle’s 1876 Corruption Crisis
When the Territorial Legislature legalized gambling to fund a mountain road, Seattle residents warned that the city was becoming a lawless playground for criminals.
- The Jailhouse Blunder in Seattle
A man was locked away for a week without due process, exposing deep incompetence in the administration of territorial justice.
- The Seattle Editor Who Fought a Mob
After being accused of being a 'blatant traitor' and a secret sympathizer of Lincoln’s assassin, Seattle publisher Beriah Brown strikes back at his political rival.
- Hanged on a Doubt: Washington Territory's First White Execution
When John Thompson was hanged in Seattle in 1877, many believed he was guilty of manslaughter, not murder. The Dispatch made the case that the law had taken a life it should have spared.
- 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.
- The Penitent Lion-Tamer
A quiet laborer in a traveling Seattle menagerie finds redemption through a final, fatal sacrifice.
- The Political Machine Behind the Scenes
An 1873 editorial exposes the 'Tacoma Land Ring' and the manipulation of delegate votes to serve corporate monopoly interests in Washington Territory.
- The Siege at the St. Charles Hotel
A young woman recounts a harrowing night of confinement after a local man tricked her into his room, only to be met with a public denial and claims of 'blackmailing.'
- 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 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.
- A Seattle Pastor on Trial: 'Attentions' to Another Woman, Harsh Words at Home, and a Public Rebuke
In 1877, the Presbytery of Puget Sound spent six days in Seattle deciding whether Rev. E. P. Dunning had crossed the line with another woman and mistreated his wife — then publicly reproved him and urged him to guard his conduct.