Research the archive
Narrow 27,002 newspaper stories by words, years, place, newspaper and subject. See when and where they ran, then download what you find.
Put a phrase in quotes ("rent strike") or leave a word out with a minus (strike -baseball). Old scans misspell names, so when little is found, near-spellings are offered.
Refine1 on
Show the numbers
| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 11 |
| 1877 | 6 |
| 1878 | 11 |
| 1879 | 3 |
31 stories matching serv
- The Ghost in the Machine: How a 'Practical Little Woman' Tamed the Steamboat Turbulent Sea
In the chaotic early days of Puget Sound steam navigation, one female cook didn't just serve meals—she served stability, calming a terrified crew with her own brand of turbulence.
- The Frontier General Store: An Engine of Commerce in Stanwood
A look at the thriving retail trade in Snohomish County during the late 19th century, where general stores served as essential hubs for agriculture and logging life.
- Forging a Frontier Living
A glimpse into the daily trade of a local blacksmith in 19th-century Snohomish, serving the loggers and farmers who carved the town from the wilderness.
- The Great Snohomish Jailbreak
Four prisoners, including one Indigenous man, successfully flee the Snohomish County jail, leaving authorities scrambling.
- The Daily Provisions of a Sawmill Town
A look inside the mercantile life of 19th-century Snohomish, where the local market supplied everything from salted pork to imported tobacco to the booming timber workforce.
- The Boarding House Debt
A legal dispute over unpaid bills for housing and goods reveals the precarious reality of daily life in the Washington Territory in 1877.
- The $242 Debt That Haunted the Frontier
A legal summons from 1878 reminds us that even in the budding town of Snohomish, debt was a serious, court-ordered business.
- 1878 Snohomish Court Summons Names Murley and Rullan
A legal summons reveals the steep cost of debt in 1878 Snohomish, where a defaulted promissory note leads to a District Court reckoning.
- The Final Deadline
A foreman for the Times, devoted to his craft until his final breath, dies after a sudden illness.
- The Social Anchor of Snohomish
A look at the amenities of the premier hotel and watering hole serving the burgeoning Snohomish river community in the late 19th century.
- The Temperance Experiment: A Dry Billiard Parlor in La Conner
An 1878 advertisement for a local business offers a look at the unconventional rise of 'temperance billiard halls' that combined community recreation with strict abstinence.
- The Temperance Hotel of La Conner
An 1880s hotel proprietor promises a clean, quiet, and liquor-free establishment for the weary traveler.
- The Price of Credit in Territorial Snohomish
A legal notice from 1878 reveals the steep cost of debt and the cold machinery of territorial law for two local men.
- The Great Snohomish Jailbreak: A Bank Robber’s Midnight Escape
While the town slept, a prisoner charged with robbing an Olympia bank picked his way out of the Snohomish jail. He is still at large.
- The Struggle for Dignity in the Logging Camps
A historic appeal from 1880s Snohomish invites laborers to seek fair wages and better conditions amidst the grueling demands of the frontier timber industry.
- The Pioneer Variety Store: A Snapshot of Commerce in Early Seattle
Before the age of big-box retailers, local general stores like T. P. Freeman’s served as the essential hubs for hardware, furniture, and household needs on the frontier.
- The Unsinkable 'Old Settler' of the Olympia Tide-Flats
An enterprising Olympia pioneer launches a custom-built, shallow-draft vessel to dominate the local oyster trade.
- The Pioneer Hub for Snohomish's Rising Professionals
Before the age of online degrees, Snohomish’s ambitious youth crowded into the Puget Sound Business College to master telegraphy, mercantile law, and the ledger.
- The Secular Send-off
When a Snohomish family rejected the fire-and-brimstone dogmas of the 1880s, they hired a friend instead of a priest to speak at a funeral, sparking a radical discourse on death, reason, and kindness.
- The Man Who Set Type at 71: William Lloyd Garrison’s Snohomish Surprise
In a rare moment of local celebrity, the famous abolitionist visited his old printing shop in Washington Territory to celebrate his semi-centennial anniversary as an apprentice.
- The Price of Debt on the Frontier
A legal summons from 1878 reveals the high-stakes reality of credit and collateral in early Snohomish, where a $100 loan could lead to the seizure of one's livelihood.
- The Price of Perfection in 1877 Snohomish
Before the fairground became a modern fixture, a meticulously itemized list of premiums reveals what pioneer families valued most—from the size of a prize turnip to the skill of a young girl's hand-stitched dress.
- Life and Labor at the Carbon Coal Mines
A look inside the 1878 mining boom in Wilkeson, where company-owned land and rugged infrastructure defined the lives of the workers.
- The Tragedy of the Skykomish Logger: A Life Cut Short by a Single Log
In the dangerous world of early 20th-century logging, James Magher’s fatal accident serves as a grim reminder of the perilous conditions faced by workers in Snohomish County's timber camps.
- The Intellectual Promise of Women in the Frontier
A bold 1877 editorial argues that forcing women into 'drudgery' and loveless marriages serves only to limit society, calling for full access to higher education and the professions.