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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1871 | 1 |
| 1872 | 7 |
| 1876 | 6 |
| 1877 | 6 |
| 1878 | 11 |
| 1880 | 2 |
33 stories matching warn
- He Tore Up the Railroad Track, Then Flagged Down the Train
In 1877, a King County farmer named John Ross ripped up Seattle Coal & Transportation Co. rails to force a right-of-way dispute into court — then warned the locomotive before it reached the break.
- The Price of Early Seattle: A Tax Deadline
A crisp warning from the City Treasurer reminds 19th-century residents that the clock is ticking on the 1878 tax bill.
- A Painful Step in Belltown
A late-night walk leads to a broken leg and a warning about the precarious state of city sidewalks in 1877.
- The Fish That Confessed: A Sturgeon’s Warning to a Sweeping Reporter
In this bizarre piece of 1876 satire, a newspaperman encounters a talking sturgeon at the market who reveals he is a reincarnated swindler, warning the reporter that frauds become fish after death.
- Seattle Paper Warns Chinese Money Could 'Cede the Pacific Coast to China'
An 1880 editorial attacks Chinese campaign contributions to Garfield, casting the Pacific coast as a racial prize.
- The Unwritten Laws of Seattle’s Press
When a local paper targeted young women in its columns for 'assuming social superiority' at a dance, a vigilante citizen took matters into his own hands.
- A Tragic Warning in the Slate Creek Woods
A logger is killed by a falling tree, fulfilling a premonition voiced by his son just moments before.
- The Shadow Over San Juan Island
A Supreme Court justice warns that the legal limbo surrounding the San Juan islands threatens to turn the territory into a lawless refuge for criminals.
- The Fight for the Future of Washington's Soil
An 1877 editorial warns against the 'monster evil' of land monopoly, arguing that preventing a feudal system of landlord-tenant reliance is the only way to ensure the new state's future liberties.
- The Great Gale of 1878
A rare, unprecedented windstorm tears through downtown Seattle, rattling the nerves and rooflines of the city’s early pioneers.
- The Avarice of the Soil
An 1871 lecture on why farmers must stop starving themselves to save a few pennies.
- Seattle’s Tinderbox: A Warning from the Ashes of Reno
As a massive fire ravages Nevada, this Seattle editor sounds the alarm over the city’s wooden buildings and exorbitant insurance costs, urging brick construction before disaster strikes.
- The Dog in the Manger: How Seattle’s Landlords Are Killing Its Future
An editorial in the 1876 Puget Sound Dispatch warns that greedy real estate owners are pricing out workers with usurious rents, comparing their tactics to Shylock and urging them to lower prices before the city stagnates.
- The Dignity of the 'Horny Hand'
In 1878, a Seattle editorial warned against the ‘pauperism’ caused by an overabundance of professional graduates who were too proud to labor.
- The Midnight Pork-Thieves of Belltown
A wave of petty food thefts from residential pantries has Seattle neighbors on edge, prompting warnings about the 'nocturnal nippers' prowling the city's outskirts.
- The Political Gossip That Almost Toppled a Judge
In an era of vicious party-line journalism, a Seattle editor defends his local officials against accusations of being 'copper-heads' and 'carpet-baggers,' echoing today’s heated partisan discourse.
- The Fight Against Washington’s Land Barons
An 1877 editorial warns that unchecked land speculation in the Washington Territory is turning away settlers and creating a class of 'land fiends' who gobble up public resources.
- 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 'Disgusting Custom' of Victorian Child-Kissing
As diphtheria claimed lives along the Pacific Coast, public health experts in 1877 issued a stark warning against social rituals that helped the contagion spread.
- The Apprentice Who Chose Grime Over Gold
In 1872 Seattle, a young man defies his parents' expectations by rejecting his inheritance to work in a boiler shop—and finds his own path to dignity.
- The Deadly Prescription of Clifton House
A physician’s sinister plot to poison his young wife for her inheritance ends in a gruesome, ironic justice on the frontier.
- The Paradise of Thieves: Seattle’s 1876 Corruption Crisis
When the Territorial Legislature legalized gambling to fund a mountain road, Seattle residents warned that the city was becoming a lawless playground for criminals.
- When a Railroad Held the Territory Hostage: The 1877 Fight Over the Northern Pacific Land Grant
Governor Ferry's message to the Legislature proposes a 10-year extension for the Northern Pacific—but warns the territory will be crippled if the western terminus lands in Portland instead of Puget Sound.
- The Price of Progress: Seattle’s 1878 Ultimatum
Facing a desperate need for a mountain-crossing railroad, Seattle civic leaders demanded total community compliance—and warned that those who refused to subsidize the line would face 'social ostracism.'
- The Futility of the Gallows
One month after Seattle's first judicial execution of a white man, the local press questions whether state-sanctioned violence actually deters crime or simply breeds contempt for the law.