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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 3 |
| 1876 | 3 |
| 1877 | 4 |
| 1878 | 7 |
17 stories matching self
- The Man Who Would Build His Own Locomotives
In 1876, Seattle industrialist J.M. Colman rejected foreign machinery in favor of local manufacturing, predicting a self-sufficient Pacific Northwest within five years.
- From the 'Brink of the Pit' to the Pulpit
An immigrant's harrowing reflection on poverty, addiction, and spiritual rebirth in Port Manson, 1877.
- The Skagit Harvest Strike of 1878
A radical field hand pens an open letter from the Skagit River flats, decrying a race to the bottom in wages and the 'swine-like' conditions imposed on labor.
- The Troubled Piano Man of Seattle
After shooting himself in a drinking saloon, a local piano player insists on his right to die, highlighting the brutal intersections of addiction, mental health, and the public gaze in 1878 Seattle.
- The Politics of Poverty: Seattle’s 1878 Voter Suppression Fight
A century and a half ago, local officials tried to implement a 'poll tax' to restrict voting rights, sparking a fierce debate over whether a citizen’s right to participate in democracy could be tied to their financial status.
- Billy Fife: Self-Taught Caricaturist of Frontier Seattle
A biography of Billy Fife, a sailor and self-taught caricaturist whose sharp wit and rare artistic skill captured Seattle's frontier life.
- 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 Independent Candidate Who Fought the Party Machine
After suffering a broken arm, a local editor decries the 'spoils system' and the grip of party caucuses over Washington Territory's first constitutional process.
- The Unfortunate Travels of an 'Imperial' Grifter
A self-proclaimed Russian noble finds that Seattle hospitality—and the local church choir—has its limits when his 'aristocratic' habits turn out to be nothing more than petty fraud.
- The Bullet That Ended a Bully: A Seattle Man’s Deadly Stand on the Walla Walla
Michael Emerick, a former Seattle job wagon driver, faces murder charges after killing Joe Gordon in self-defense during a long-simmering land dispute.
- The Partisan’s Price: How Civil Service Reform Cost a Delegate His Seat
In 1876, King County’s Republican establishment turned on Judge O. Jacobs for refusing to hand out federal jobs to party loyalists, revealing the brutal mechanics of the spoils system in early Washington Territory.
- The Jailbreak Problem: When Every County Was Its Own Penitentiary
In 1877, Washington Territory struggled with a chaotic, decentralized justice system where county jails were crumbling and prisoners were held for profit.
- The Avarice of the Soil
An 1871 lecture on why farmers must stop starving themselves to save a few pennies.
- The Editor Who Sold His Paper to a Brothel Keeper
A scathing letter in the Puget Sound Dispatch exposes the corrupt alliance between Seattle’s Republican party and its most notorious vice kingpins, asking: 'What of that newspaper publisher... who for a palm share in the wages of prostitution gives his aid and influence?'
- The Social Duty of Wealth in 1878 Seattle
A local editor challenges a wealthy property owner who claimed he owed nothing to the community that built his fortune.
- 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.