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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1891 | 5 |
| 1892 | 11 |
16 stories matching argument
- The Tunnel Under Seventh Street: Two Property Owners Take On the Railroad
Captain Hatch seeks $10,000 and J. A. Silsby $5,000, blaming the Northern Pacific's new tunnel for damage to their buildings — while the railroad insists the city, not the company, should pay.
- The Governor's $50,000 Bond
A defaulting King County treasurer's case reaches the U.S. Supreme Court, leaving Governor Ferry and other bondsmen on the hook for $34,000.
- 130 Waterfront Owners, and Nobody Knows Where Their Land Is
A boom-era plat, a harbor replatted by the state without regard to it, and a tide land commission trying to untangle the mess at Whatcom before the courts get it.
- Olympia’s Fight for a Deep-Water Harbor
Citizens tell the harbor-line commissioners to claim Budd Inlet’s tide flats for public wharves—not a narrow waterway that would hand the waterfront to private owners.
- The Judge, the County, and the $2,000 Court Record
A Yakima County land case with 128 parties reaches Olympia's Supreme Court over who must pay for a transcript that could decide the value of every farm acre.
- Olympia's High School Bond Fight, Priced at 25 Cents
The Tribune urges voters to approve a $40,000 school bond, rebutting claims of contractor influence and calculating the cost to a $7,000 homeowner at about a quarter.
- A Downtown Church Outgrows Its 1856 Home
Olympia's Methodists are quietly preparing to raise a new church at Fifth and Adams, honoring the pioneers who built the old one on Fourth — and the 375 souls who now fill the pews.
- The Governor's Telegram: How the Militia Was Called Out to the King County Coal Fields
Colonel J. C. Haines lays out the paper trail behind the 1891 deployment of National Guard troops to the coal towns of Gilman and Franklin — and the labor war that nearly became a dawn battle.
- Olympia's Republican Bargain: Bring the State Convention Home—and Send a Delegate to Minneapolis
A local editorial pushes Thurston County Republicans to raise $1,500, host the state convention in the capital, and still claim a seat at the national convention—instead of trading one prize for the other.
- Court Opens Salmon Bay to Harbor-Line Rules
The state Supreme Court reverses a lower-court writ and lets harbor line commissioners regulate Salmon Bay—even though the bay nearly drains at low tide—because Puget Sound freight boats still use it at high water.
- The Last-Minute Fight Over Olympia's First Real High School
On the very morning of the school-bond election, board member J. C. Rathbun fires back at the district clerk's eleventh-hour argument against building — insisting a proper high school would make Olympia the educational capital of Washington.
- The Court Let Harbor Lines Reach Beyond the City Limits
Washington’s Supreme Court reversed a lower court and held that harbor-line commissioners had jurisdiction in front of incorporated towns like Ballard, not just cities—then sent the case back to be dismissed.
- The Taxpayer Who Couldn’t Sue the State
Washington’s Supreme Court dismisses the Agricultural College case, ruling that a private resident cannot halt state spending in equity—only the attorney general can.
- The City Can Tear It Down: The Supreme Court Backs Seattle's Fire Limits
Daniel K. Baxter put up a twenty-foot shell of wooden posts wrapped in corrugated iron inside Seattle's fire limits. The state Supreme Court said the city could knock it down without ever going to court — and municipal building codes came out of it stronger than before.
- The $275,000 Plan to Dredge Olympia Into a Deep-Water Port
In 1892, a federal engineer proposed cutting a 12-foot channel through two miles of tide flats so ocean steamers could reach Fourth Street. The price tag was $275,000—and a bet on Olympia’s future.
- The Lease a Husband Had No Right to Sign
A Tacoma mercantile firm stopped paying $500-a-month rent, arguing the leased property was community property and the wives had never signed. Washington’s Supreme Court said the lease was not absolutely void—but the tenants had rights too.