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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1891 | 8 |
| 1892 | 6 |
14 stories matching date
- A Schoolteacher Vanishes Between Fargo and Puget Sound
A letter to Washington's school superintendent asks after Minnie Cooper, last heard from in Tacoma and bound for a country school west of the city.
- Sheriff Rescues Abducted Child in Mud Bay Custody Dispute
A father steals his child; a sheriff's late-night ride ends in recovery and a court date.
- A Tramp's Alibi: Thirty Tumwater Witnesses and a Murder Conviction Undone
A poor itinerant tinker was jailed for a Tacoma murder until residents of a small Thurston County hotel town swore he was miles away. The state Supreme Court ordered a new trial.
- The Mountain Tacoma Tried to Take
A railroad president's marketing decree put 'Tacoma' on maps of the great peak across the East — while Seattle refused to surrender the name of a British admiral who never saw it.
- The Railroad Promises a New Line to Willapa Harbor
A Northern Pacific official says the Chehalis-to-South Bend line will be finished by July 1, opening timber and farm country to the coast.
- Four Years, Then a Federal Appeal: Lybarger Ordered to Walla Walla
Convicted in Thurston County of a sexual offense against 13-year-old Elsie Patnude, John G. Lybarger loses his state appeal; his wife and father-in-law had posted $3,500 bail while the case dragged on.
- A Local Bank Closes Its Doors as Its Officers Head to Seattle
The State Bank of Olympia winds down after its president and cashier leave for Seattle, transferring accounts to the First National Bank.
- Her Wages Bought the House at Fourth and Plum. The Sheriff’s Deed Was Canceled.
Elizabeth Burkett turned a $700 gift into a hotel and a home. When a Pierce County judgment against her husband threatened it, a Thurston County judge traced the property back to her own labor.
- The Engineer Who Says Olympia Stiffed Him for Sewer Plans
A civil engineer hired to draft Olympia’s sewers says the city accepted his $700 bid, starved him of data, then canceled his contract and paid another man $1,500 for plans he calls a public nuisance.
- The Streetcar Company That Asked Olympia for Land—and Promised the Moon by July 4
In 1892, the Olympia Light & Power Company pitched an electric railway to Tumwater as a bargain for landowners: donate a strip or an acre, and watch city-limit land double in value. The trust deed gave them until Independence Day to make it real.
- The Healing Lake That Hid a Walking Fish
On the Columbia plateau near Spokane lies a strange saline lake with no inlet and no outlet — credited with curing rheumatism, foaming like soap in the wind, and home to an axolotl that fooled the naturalists.
- The Case for Naming an Olympia Street After Judge Hewitt
A memorial sermon for a territorial judge becomes a plea to carve his name into Olympia's street map—and a meditation on what makes a public life worth remembering.
- A City on the Brink: Olympia’s 1891 Debt Crisis and the Fight Over Jobs
Facing a constitutional debt limit, Olympia’s city council considers firing the deputy clerk, assistant city attorney, and city engineer—while a motion to revoke the street railway franchise fails by a tie.
- The Judge, the Stenographer, and the $2,000 Bill the County Refused to Pay
A Yakima County water-rights trial dragged on for weeks. When the judge tried to stick taxpayers with the stenographer's tab, the state Supreme Court stepped in and said no.