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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1891 | 31 |
| 1892 | 22 |
53 stories matching direct
- The Boss and the Franklin Street Fix
Olympia’s public-works fight spills into council: a contractor says the job is done, Boss Sickles says otherwise, and the city engineer is caught in the middle.
- Gate City’s Bridge to Nowhere—and the Heavyweight Who Saw a Future
A missing approach leaves a new Black River bridge unusable, diverting trade to Centralia—but John L. Sullivan thinks the town could host his next fight.
- The Settler Who Watched Olympia Get Claimed
R. C. Smith, who crossed the plains in 1848, recalls the canoe landing where Edmund Sylvester took the claim that became Olympia.
- An Italian Fruit Dealer Beaten to Death in His Tacoma Cabin
Conchilla Siverdore, 32, was found dead in his bed at Nineteenth and D streets, his skull crushed and three stiletto wounds over his heart. Two of his neighbors were arrested on suspicion.
- Rainier’s Shingle Boom and the Road Olympia Forgot
A Rainier correspondent reports new shingle mills and warns that Olympia merchants are losing rural trade to Tacoma by ignoring the roads that feed the city.
- A Road Along the Water — and a Pitch to Merge Olympia and Tumwater
A Tumwater booster argues a beach road is the only sensible link between the two towns, and floats consolidating them into one city to build it.
- The Trolley That Had to Buy a Gulch
A streetcar line blocked by a ravine gets its way to Harrison Avenue — for the price of a $1,630 strip of C. M. Moore's block 48.
- The Prune Booster's Return: 140 Acres Sold to Twenty Michigan Families
J. R. Chaplin came home from Michigan with buyers for Westside land and a plan to sell Olympia to the East.
- City Attorney Blocks Olympia’s Columbia Street Assessment
A legal opinion found that street grading and planking done without contracts could not be charged to abutting owners beyond $500—putting more than $2,000 in assessments in doubt.
- The $10 Million Dream to Turn Olympia Into the Hub of the Northwest
J. R. Chaplin pitched a grand Olympia Improvement Company and a ship canal from Black Lake through the Chehalis to Grays Harbor—enough, he promised, to leave Seattle, Tacoma and Portland behind.
- The Keeley Cure Comes to Olympia
Olympia's Keeley Institute promises release from drink, and the Tribune opens a discreet charity fund for patients who cannot pay.
- Ten Strangers at the Tunnel: Is the Union Pacific Coming Back to Olympia?
A corps of engineers has been quietly pacing the unfinished Tumwater tunnel, refusing to say who sent them or what they want — while heavy rain eats away at the abandoned work.
- A Four-Term Mayor Dies, and Tumwater Shuts Its Doors
Clark Biles — pioneer tanner, founder of a public life in Tumwater, and its mayor four years running — succumbs to typhoid at 43, and the town suspends all business for his funeral.
- A Tinker's Alibi: How Tumwater Witnesses Overturned a Tacoma Murder Conviction
George Stowe was serving twenty years for shooting Enoch Crosby on a Tacoma street. Then residents of Tumwater swore they had watched him mend tinware miles away on the day of the murder.
- Six Hours Stranded in Gate City: When the Railroad Made Portland Closer Than Tacoma
A new Northern Pacific timetable leaves Grays Harbor travelers — and Olympians — fuming, forcing a six-hour wait at Gate City and making far-off Portland a faster trip than nearby Tacoma.
- A Sunday Earthquake Rattles Olympia, Stopping Clocks and Startling Diners
At 3:15 p.m. on Nov. 29, 1891, a sharp tremor shook the city, rattled windows, swayed chandeliers, and sent one hotel guest diving for the stairs.
- The Road That Would Remake the Des Chutes Shore
Tumwater landowners and boosters want a new beach road to Olympia, promising easier travel, new homes, and higher property values.
- A Father Snatches His Baby on Main Street, and a Judge Orders the Child Returned
A Saturday afternoon chase in Olympia ended in court when a logger grabbed his infant son from his estranged wife, prompting a habeas corpus writ.
- The Westside Railway Deal and the Councilman Who Didn't Read It
Olympia's council weighed a cheaper route through C. M. Moore's block to reach the Westside Railway—until one committeeman admitted he had signed the report blind.
- Sheriff Seizes Olympia's 'Bob-Tail' Streetcars Over a $250 Note
A small debt owed by the North Olympia Land Company brought the Main Street line to a halt, while its manager blamed grading, weather, and stalled power negotiations for the delay.
- Benefit Concert to Build Schoolhouse for Sherman Valley Settlers
Olympia's musical talent rallies to fund a school for rural children in Sherman Valley.
- A Fire Started in a Brothel. It Took Centralia's Opera House and Newspaper.
A blaze behind a Tower Avenue saloon jumped to the Binkley opera house and the Daily News office, gutting a commercial block despite heavy rain and a fierce firefight.
- Thirty Men Want One City Job as Olympia’s New Council Takes Over
A patronage scramble greets Olympia’s incoming administration, with a crowd of applicants for street commissioner and a proposal to cut the police force while adding more streetlights.
- The Ox-Yoke Judge Who Kept Olympia the Capital
O. C. Hewitt, Lincoln’s chief justice of Washington Territory and the father of Odd Fellowship in the state, died at 82 in East Tumwater after a frontier life that included burying massacre victims, winning a Supreme Court case, and saving Olympia’s capital status.
- 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.