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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 5 |
| 1876 | 11 |
| 1877 | 4 |
| 1878 | 9 |
| 1880 | 3 |
32 stories matching smith
- The Editor, The Gambler, and The Incorruptible Judge
A fiery editorial from 1876 exposes a local feud between the press and the judiciary, revealing a landscape of 'dance houses,' gambling hells, and political bitterness.
- The City That Wasn't: Seattle’s First Real Estate Scam
In April 1876, a man named Charles Smith claimed to own the entire town of Seattle and tried to sell it to investors. The local press exposed him as a fraud, but his audacity reveals how fragile the young city's land titles were.
- The Tragic End of Ferryman Henry Smith
A lonely death on the Duwamish River captures the precarious reality of life in early Seattle.
- The Jailbreak at Milton
A man detained by the authorities in Milton on suspicion of insanity successfully escaped by stealing the clothes of his own guard.
- The Duwamish River Schoolhouse Scandal
A romantic dispute between two suitors erupts into violence at a church service, forcing a local justice to mediate the cost of their bruised egos.
- 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 Avarice of the Soil
An 1871 lecture on why farmers must stop starving themselves to save a few pennies.
- The Legal Scramble for a Seattle Property Claim
A standard legal notice in the Seattle Weekly Intelligencer reveals the tense, high-stakes nature of territorial property disputes in 1880.
- The Unpaid Labor of Libbie Reinheimer
A rare 1876 court case highlights a wife suing her own husband's firm for unpaid wages.
- The Graveyard That Vanished: Seattle’s Urban Sprawl Swallows the Dead
As new dwellings rise on Front Street and Stewart Square, the old burial ground is being paved over, erasing a physical link to the city's earliest days.
- A Steep Price for Three Dollars' Worth of Wood
A father and his fifteen-year-old son were sentenced to pay a staggering fine—$46 total—after being caught pilfering scrap lumber from the city wharf.
- The Tyrant of the High Seas: A Sailor’s Knife vs. a Mate’s Revolver
In a dramatic trial before U.S. Commissioner D.S. Smith, witnesses describe how the first mate of the brig *Sampson* beat a sailor into paralysis with an iron bar and revolver, sparking outrage over maritime abuse.
- The Great Seattle Construction Boom of 1878
Falling material costs spark a building frenzy in the frontier town, signaling a rapid expansion for early property owners.
- The Widow’s Last Ledger
On her deathbed, a thrifty farm wife attempts one final audit of the neighborhood’s debts, only to find her husband’s memory suddenly failing when it comes to money she owes others.
- 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.
- Seattle’s Early 1878 Council Meetings
Before the skyline, the city was built on ordinances, grain dryers, and the push for a trans-mountain railroad.
- The Crew That Wouldn't Sail: A Mutiny on the War Hawk
Seattle's shipyard workers and legal system clash as the crew of the brig War Hawk refuses to depart, citing safety concerns, while the city watches a habeas corpus battle unfold.
- The Child Who Vanished: A Tragedy on the Columbia Bar
A two-year-old girl was swept overboard from a steam tug in the Pacific Northwest, becoming one of the many unnamed victims of the region's treacherous waters.
- The Pioneer Moralists of Chehalis
While Seattle’s 1872 boosters bragged about their town’s vibrant saloon culture, the neighboring Chehalis valley was being touted as a teetotaling, prosperous paradise of butter-makers.
- 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 Midnight Escape from the King County Jail
When four inmates mysteriously vanished from their cells, the local authorities were left baffled and scrambling to track them down along the muddy roads of old Seattle.
- The Midnight Shot at the Eldorado
A quiet night in a Seattle saloon turns into a tense legal spectacle after a musician goes on a shooting spree during a restless sleep.
- 7,000 Miners Head for the Skagit, But High Water Halts the Diggings
Spring freshets wash out the wingdams on Ruby Creek while hundreds of men wait at the Portage for a trail and pack animals — and California newspapers predict a stampede of thousands.
- How Washington Territory's Public Printing Became a Corrupt Political Perk
A Seattle editor rails against the patronage and fraud in the territory's printing contracts, revealing that one printer paid Secretary Smith $2,000 for the appointment.
- The Secret Benefactor of a Struggling Seattle Teacher
A modest schoolteacher discovers that her late aunt, a wealthy woman she hardly knew, had been paying her bills in secret long before the surprising terms of her will were revealed.