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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1871 | 1 |
| 1872 | 7 |
| 1876 | 1 |
| 1877 | 5 |
| 1878 | 11 |
| 1880 | 1 |
26 stories matching unless
- 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.
- Seattle's 1878 Auction of Property for Unpaid Taxes
When the city of Seattle moved to liquidate the private property of its citizens to cover a year of unpaid taxes.
- The Delinquent Tax Auction of 1878
A sweeping list of King County residents facing property forfeiture offers a window into the messy, frontier-era accumulation of Seattle real estate.
- Seattle’s 1878 Auction of Delinquent Tax Properties
When the city's growth outpaced its residents' pockets, dozens of Seattle properties were put on the auction block to cover delinquent taxes.
- The 1878 Great Seattle Tax Auction
Before the skyline, there was the spreadsheet: A massive public auction of delinquent Seattle properties reveals the names, debts, and land-holdings of the city's pioneer founders.
- Divorcing the 'Unsuitable': Seattle Legal Notices from 1872
Public legal notices reveal the stark reality of marital dissolution in early Seattle, where 'incompatibility' and 'neglect' served as grounds for separation in the King County District Court.
- 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 Wild West of the Seattle Waterfront
A dangerous 1877 standoff between captains reveals a lawless, unregulated harbor where ship lines were a hazard to life and limb.
- The Bridge Over Broken Trust
In 1878, a sharp dissent by a King County Commissioner reveals the classic political struggle over infrastructure spending and the limits of the public purse.
- Surveying the Wilderness for Iron Rails
As the Northern Pacific Railroad push reached deep into the Montana and Washington territories, engineers braved brutal winter storms and rugged mountain passes to chart the future of the Northwest.
- The Great Seattle Land Foreclosure of 1878
A sweeping list of hundreds of local property owners faced with losing their land to the county for unpaid taxes, signaling the precarious nature of early Seattle real estate.
- The Great Legal Squabble of 1871
A simmering territorial dispute over the 'Big Wigs'—the lawyers and judges—debating exactly when a law becomes a law.
- The Rotten Beef Scandal of 1872
When a local market was accused of selling diseased meat, the ensuing war of words revealed the thin line between journalism and extortion in early Seattle.
- The Rowdiest Port in the Pacific Northwest
An 1872 report describes the brutal realities of the maritime labor market in Port Townsend, where sailors were coerced into service and returned to shore battered and bruised.
- 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 Human Cost of the Seattle Labor Crisis
As unemployment rises in the late 19th century, Chinese laborers in Seattle face severe hardship as employers replace them with white workers during a period of economic depression.
- An 1877 Plan for Workers to Buy Seattle Homes
As Seattle rents rise, the paper outlines a radical, cooperative vision for workers to escape the landlord's grip through building associations.
- 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.
- Walla Walla Debates County Bonds for Railroad
An 1877 debate over public bond issues for the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad reveals a city hungry for connectivity and skeptical of the 'blood money' demands of big capital.
- The Railroad Gamble
In an 1878 editorial, the Seattle Weekly Dispatch argues that the economic survival of the region depends on using Chinese labor to build the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad, claiming that white capital refuses to invest unless labor costs are kept low.
- Seattle's 1877 Plea: Build a Wagon Road Over the Cascades Before Portland Steals the Inland Empire
With no railroad yet across the mountains, a Seattle newspaper argued the city's future depended on a wagon road to Yakima—before Portland grabbed the inland trade forever.
- The Great Timber Heist: Federal Law Cracks Down on Puget Sound Loggers
In 1872, the U.S. government enforced a strict new law protecting live-oak and red-cedar from unauthorized removal, threatening massive fines and ship seizures for anyone caught logging federal lands without Navy permission.
- The Pig That Pays the Bills: How Swine Became Puget Sound’s Secret Wealth
In 1876, while Seattle looked to timber and fish for its future, a local article argued that raising hogs on wheat stubble was the most reliable path to prosperity.
- The Captain’s Silence: A Seattle Court Rules on Brutality at Sea
In a landmark Admiralty case heard in Seattle in 1872, Judge Jacobs holds ship owner E.A. Nickels liable for the brutal beating of sailor Frank Griffin, establishing that a captain's failure to stop abuse is an endorsement of it.
- The Shoe That Could Save Seattle: Why We Must Stop Exporting Our Hides to San Francisco
An editorial in the Puget Sound Dispatch argues that Seattle’s economic survival depends on manufacturing its own boots and shoes locally, rather than shipping raw hides south for a 10% premium.