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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1871 | 2 |
| 1872 | 20 |
| 1876 | 16 |
| 1877 | 15 |
| 1878 | 31 |
| 1879 | 2 |
| 1880 | 10 |
96 stories matching order
- The First Teachers’ Institute: A Battle for Seattle’s Soul
In September 1872, the Territory’s top educators gathered in Seattle to debate everything from corporal punishment to the role of women in teaching, laying the groundwork for public education in Washington.
- Seattle’s Final Resting Place
How a fraternal order secured a new burial ground for the city's future.
- The Unsettled Estate on the Edge of Lake Union
A legal notice from 1877 reveals the struggle of a widow attempting to settle a deceased spouse's debts by liquidating land near the wild, undeveloped frontier of Seattle's Lake Union.
- The Confidence Game: How a Fake Order Stole from Seattle’s Own
A merchant in Waitsburg receives goods he didn't order, paid for by a 'Mr. Williams' who doesn't exist—revealing a sophisticated fraud ring targeting Pacific Northwest businesses.
- Court Orders Sale of Denny's Addition Lots, 1878
A wave of court-ordered property auctions signals a struggling post-boom economy in the late 1870s.
- The Waterfront Fugitives of Milton
When two men were caught butchering stolen beef, a routine arrest at the water's edge turned into a desperate aquatic brawl.
- The Price of Seattle’s Growth: A 1878 Land Liquidation
A wave of court-ordered property auctions in 1878 reveals the precarious nature of land ownership and debt in early Seattle, as local families and businesses faced the loss of their holdings.
- The Price of a Wagon Road: Financing the Frontier
A look at the logistical grunt work of early King County, from building roads to settling school district boundaries in 1878.
- The Centennial That Saved Seattle: How 8,000 Souls Turned a Territorial Mist into a City
On July 4, 1876, despite being late to statehood and lacking federal funding, Seattle’s pioneers pulled off a spectacle of flags, steamers, and speeches that proved the town was here to stay.
- 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 Rowdy Election of 1872: When Seattle Politics Was a Bare-Knuckle Brawl
A stormy Republican County Convention in 1872 exposes the messy, insider-heavy machinery behind early Seattle's local government.
- The Gold Rush to Ruby Creek
A local merchant receives a singular order for gold scales from miners in the North Cascades, signaling a major mineral boom on the Upper Skagit.
- The Day a Cannon Changed History at the Cascades
Before he was a Civil War legend, Philip Sheridan fended off a regional uprising with a single, deafening shot.
- A.A. Denny’s Seattle Addition Lots Sold at 1878 Sheriff’s Sale
A sheriff’s notice reveals the brutal efficiency of debt collection in 1878, as land in Denny’s Addition and the Duwamish River banks are liquidated to satisfy private loans.
- The Price of Seattle's Expansion: A Sheriff's Sale
Legal notices from 1878 reveal a community grappling with debt, foreclosures, and the relentless churn of land ownership in the rapidly developing territory of Washington.
- 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 Price of Industrial Expansion: A Sheriff's Sale on the Duwamish
In 1878, a court-ordered auction of land near the Duwamish River revealed the high-stakes debt and legal entanglements defining early Seattle development.
- The Yellow Flag Mandate of 1872
Before the age of modern public health infrastructure, Seattle's early municipal government passed strict, penalty-heavy laws to contain contagious diseases through quarantine and public shaming.
- The Price of Debt in 1877 Seattle
Foreclosure notices reveal the rapid shift in property ownership as King County land was liquidated at the courthouse steps.
- 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 Great Mill Auction: A Kingpin’s Empire Divided
In December 1876, the District Court in Seattle ordered the liquidation of a massive timber and land empire owned by A.M. Simpson, offering hundreds of acres and a high-capacity sawmill to the highest bidder.
- The Price of Panic: Losing the Farm to the Sheriff
After a grueling economic downturn, a King County family faces the auction block as court-ordered sales sweep Seattle.
- Seattle’s First Steam Fire Engine
Facing a growing city's vulnerability, Seattle’s leadership authorized a massive expenditure in 1878 to modernize the local fire brigade.
- The Forgotten Wife of Seattle: Dr. Maynard’s Double Life
A landmark land dispute in 1872 reveals how the territorial government attempted to erase the existence of Dr. David S. Maynard's first wife, Lydia, to secure a donation claim for his second family.
- The Delegate Who Sold Seattle’s Future for Five Thousand Dollars
A scathing editorial in the Puget Sound Dispatch accuses Territorial Delegate George Freeman Willard of betraying Seattle’s interests—specifically the mud flats of Duwamish Bay—to secure his own political and financial gain, while simultaneously accepting bribes from rival railroad companies.