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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1891 | 20 |
| 1892 | 12 |
32 stories matching either
- Smuggling Ring Uncovered in Olympia
Inspectors capture six men allegedly smuggled into the city via a Canadian steamer, highlighting the ongoing enforcement of the Chinese Exclusion Act.
- A Deal to Fix Maple Park—If the City Does Its Part
Maple Park's property owners offer to grade their streets if the city fixes the central park—and a plan surfaces to remake the square in front of the new courthouse.
- 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 Railroad vs. the Harbor Line
A federal court steps in as Northern Pacific claims a 200-foot right-of-way along Tacoma’s waterfront, blocking harbor commissioners from fixing new lines.
- The Silver Question and the Workingman's Wage
A political maneuver in the House of Representatives forces a debate on whether wages and savings should be paid in gold or silver.
- The Fifteen-Year Flood That Cut Puget Sound Apart
A massive storm inundates Puget Sound lowlands, blocks the Northern Pacific, washes out county bridges, and sends Tacoma developers scrambling to control the Puyallup River.
- Thirteen Carloads of Rail and Four Miles of Track: Olympia Gets Its Electric Streetcar
Delayed by a blizzard back East, the rails are finally in Tacoma and due tonight — and a crew will start laying them down the middle of Fourth Street tomorrow morning.
- The Governor, the Corporations, and the Session He Wouldn't Call
A leaked cabinet meeting shows Governor Ferry weighing an extra legislative session against the wrath of corporations—and his own officials split over whether the state can wait.
- Tacoma's Fire Chief and Driver Crash on Their Way to a Blaze
A small house fire on Hood Street led to a collision at Pacific Avenue that cost driver H. M. Packenham his arm and left Chief Lillis with a possible brain injury.
- The Westside Streetcar Line Starts Grading Toward Harrison Avenue
Olympia's new Westside Railway begins cutting a street approach and prepares to lay rails across the Port Townsend Southern tracks.
- A Civil War Veteran Vanishes Between Saloon and Lodging
Charles Honige, a 71-year-old Olympia character known for selling hot weinerwurst after dark, left Hosneider's saloon at 10 p.m. and was never seen again.
- Bankers May Take Over Washington’s Republican Convention
On the eve of the state convention in Seattle, a Tribune correspondent warns that a “ring” of bankers could choose the delegates—and leave farmers and Grand Army veterans out in the cold.
- Edison's Noiseless Motor and the Race to Put Olympia on Rails
Two Edison men pitch a single-reduction streetcar motor to Olympia's electric company, promising rails by the Fourth of July—if property holders cooperate on subsidies.
- The Jail Was Out of Level
Fred Neuffer was due in court for embezzlement. Instead, Olympia’s county jail became the scene of a strange one-man investigation into whether the floor itself was crooked.
- Grays Harbor's Deadly Bar — and the Lighthouse It Still Lacks
Army engineers say a light at Gray's Harbor would only be "desirable," not "indispensable." The Tribune answers with a catalogue of wrecks, lost crews and a harbor the board apparently cannot locate on a map.
- Who Should Keep Olympia's Money?
On the eve of the 1891 municipal election, a dozen anonymous Olympians argued over the city treasurer's race, a regular nominee, a new brick block, and a saloonkeeper's ten-dollar joke.
- Tacoma Tries to Sell Itself to a Visiting New Yorker
A New York Tribune interview with Charles S. Smith set off a Tacoma-Seattle inferiority complex: real railroads versus prospective ones, wheat and coal versus new blocks and fine homes.
- The School Law That Existed Only in the Enrolled Bill
A $3,700 school-fund dispute in Spokane exposed a legislative clerk's error—and left Washington's superintendent asking whether the enrolled bill or the journals were law.
- The Doctor Wasn't Who He Said He Was
Found dead along the Northern Pacific tracks near Olympia, Dr. C. S. Smith was unmasked by his own will as S. C. Thompson, an Iowa county treasurer who had fled a defalcation in 1872.
- A Packed House Watches a Dying Cardinal Bring Down the Curse of Rome
Touring tragedian Keene fills the Olympia Theater with Bulwer's 'Richelieu' — and promises Shakespeare's Richard III for tonight, with 'but a few seats left.'
- 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 Governor's White Elephant and a Newspaper Deal
A proposed $2,500 purchase of the Daily Olympian sets off talk of a King County power play, a governor's relief, and a political machine in the making.
- The Brick Blocks That Told Olympia It Had Arrived
In 1891, three pressed-brick buildings rose along Olympia’s business streets—and boosters read them as proof the wooden capital was becoming a real city.
- The Blind Doctor’s Lethal Prescription
Dr. William Campbell, a blind pioneer and one of Olympia’s oldest residents, was charged with manslaughter after a 14-year-old epileptic girl died under his lobelia-and-capsicum treatment. A justice set bail at $2,000 and sent the case to the January superior court term.
- The Judge Who Refused to Step Aside
In Thurston County court, Judge Robinson denies a change of venue in the Minkler case, rejecting claims that county prejudice or a newspaper feud had compromised him.