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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1871 | 3 |
| 1872 | 9 |
| 1876 | 9 |
| 1877 | 6 |
| 1878 | 12 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1880 | 7 |
47 stories matching settl
- The Last Stand of Bebe Low: A Saloon Keeper’s Final Plea
In August 1876, Seattle saloon owner Bebe Low publicly demanded his debts be settled before disappearing from the city, leaving behind a cryptic notice and a legacy of vanished frontier commerce.
- The Shootout at Crout's Hotel
A domestic dispute in Seattle turns bloody when a husband from Cheyenne arrives to settle a score with a revolver.
- The Tragic End of Ferryman Henry Smith
A lonely death on the Duwamish River captures the precarious reality of life in early Seattle.
- The Great One Thing: Seattle’s First Bid to Stop Strangers from Leaving Empty-Handed
In 1876, a group of local citizens proposed an 'Immigration and Labor Bureau' to help newcomers find work and land, recognizing that Seattle was losing potential residents because they didn't know where to start.
- The Land is Moving Beneath the Mills
As Seattle's waterfront expansion struggles against unstable geology, a sash and door factory is forced to shutter as the hillside slips toward the bay.
- The Zephyr’s Relief Mission to the Snohomish Valley
After the mountain snows melted and triggered a devastating flood, the steamer Zephyr served as a critical lifeline to the isolated settlers of the Snohomish River valley.
- The Ghost of the Old Foundry
A group of boys wreak havoc in a derelict Seattle building, leaving neighbors to wonder about the city's crumbling youth management.
- The Great Railroad Delay: Washington Territory’s Fight for the Northern Pacific
Federal lawmakers in Washington D.C. have rejected a proposal to settle land claims in Washington Territory, opting instead to grant the Northern Pacific Railway an eight-year extension to complete its tracks.
- Winter Blooms on Orcas Island
A mid-winter letter from a settler describes the unexpected beauty of a January garden and the quiet expansion of island life in 1878.
- The Price of a Summer Flirtation
A classic story of Victorian social mores, heartbreak, and a young woman's calculated revenge gone wrong.
- The Smallpox Panic: A Quarantined Ship and a City on Edge
When the steamer *Dakota* arrived in Port Gamble with an infected crew member, the community locked down in fear. But as the dust settled, a more insidious threat emerged from within Seattle's own political ranks.
- The Property Battle for Old Seattle
A lawyer and property claimant fight to secure titles to a sprawling Seattle donation land claim amidst territorial legal confusion.
- The Price of Failure on the Duwamish
As Seattle grew, a wave of court-ordered property auctions flooded the local papers, displacing families and settling debt with the cold finality of the sheriff’s gavel.
- The Hilltop Slip: Seattle’s Shifting Waterfront
Decades before the regrades reshaped the city, residents of the Belltown waterfront watched their homes slide into the bay as the ground beneath them turned to quicksand.
- Unidentified Man Found Slain Near Seattle
A young immigrant worker is found brutally murdered in the woods, highlighting the dangers facing newcomers in the rugged economy of 1880s Washington.
- The Rules of the Game: How Seattle's First Lawyers Codified the Fight for Land
When the Washington Territorial legislature overhauled the rules of civil procedure, they essentially wrote the blueprint for how Seattle’s developers and land speculators would battle over the city’s footprint for decades to come.
- The Deserted Crew of the Bark Northwest
Thirteen mariners sue for back wages and passage home after their vessel’s voyage abruptly ends at Port Madison.
- The Skagit River Snag-Clearer's Defense
After volunteers broke their backs clearing river jams, a community organizer had to fight off accusations of embezzlement.
- The Jail That Took Too Long
A Snohomish correspondent laments the bureaucratic foot-dragging that delayed the construction of the county's first lock-up.
- The Abandoned Wife of Seattle's Founder
Dr. David S. Maynard claimed 640 acres in Seattle, then secretly divorced his wife of 24 years to marry another—a legal battle that exposed the heartless machinations of the city's early days.
- 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.
- The Dangerous Burden of Judging a Seattle Baby Show
Five of Seattle’s leading citizens face social catastrophe and financial ruin after being unwillingly drafted as judges for a high-stakes baby competition.
- Seattle’s First Call for a Seamen’s Bethel
In 1877, a local captain campaigned in New York to build a refuge for the thousands of sailors arriving in the 'future storehouse of the Territory'—a young, booming port that lacked any formal shelter for the maritime labor force.
- A Frontier Vendetta Spills onto the Beach
An Indigenous man is shot in a dispute over a death attributed to 'bad Tamanas' or spiritual curses.
- 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.