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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1891 | 10 |
| 1892 | 13 |
23 stories matching origin
- The Women Who Packed Washington Into a World's Fair
At the Olympia Hotel, local women joined two state commissioners to plan wood carvings, wildflowers, art and industry for Chicago's 1893 Columbian Exposition.
- The Church That Was Built by Hand
A pioneer minister recalls the grit and community labor required to build Olympia's first Unitarian church during the city's early boom and bust cycles.
- 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.
- The Letter That Asked: Is Olympia's Street-Tax Ordinance Even Legal?
A citizen signing himself 'Marius' argues that the city's method of charging property owners for street paving and grading violates due process — and warns that if the assessments collapse in court, every taxpayer in town will pay for it.
- A Rail-and-Timber Empire Offers Its Workers a Cut
A new corporation tied to former governor Elisha P. Ferry acquires the Mason County Central railroad and Shelton sawmill, plans a Grays Harbor line, and sets aside $50,000 in stock for employees.
- 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.
- A Mountain Fell Into the Columbia
Twin earthquakes rattle Oregon and the Yakima agency — and old settlers recall 1874, when sixty-four shocks tore a mountainside into the great river and buried Chief Wapato John's ranch.
- The $25,000 Schoolhouse and the Competition That Smelled
A letter writer asks the school board a sharp question: if the winning architect was allowed to redraw his plans after the price came in too high, what exactly was the competition for?
- When Olympia Readers Argued About Inequality and the Machine
At a Unitarian class in 1891 Olympia, seventeen adults debated Henry George, concentrated wealth, and whether machines were turning workers into automatons.
- The Apple Trees That Sailed From England in a Sea Captain's Cabin
Seeds saved from a farewell dinner in 1833 were planted at Fort Nisqually and grew into the finest apple trees north of the Columbia. Now an editor wants Tacoma to move them to a park before the squirrels of Rosston are their only company.
- 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 Editor Who Fled to Seattle: An Olympia Newspaper War Turns Personal
The Tribune accuses Col. Thomas Henderson Boyd and a 'political combination' of running a second-hand press to purge anybody — Republican or Democrat — who won't think their way, and gleefully reprints the Skagit Valley insult that called him a cowslip in trousers.
- The Night Fourth Street Lit Up: Ellis's Furniture Warehouse Burns
A fire breaks out above a frame warehouse after ten o'clock, the east side of the city glows, and firemen haul chairs and mattresses into the street until the heat drives them back.
- 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 Hay Thief, the Bathtub, and the Shotgun Out of Repair
A Westside barn alarm turns into a comic opera of nightshirts, a borrowed shotgun and one stolen bale of hay.
- A Night of Dolls, Knives, and Highland Flings
Olympia’s 'Little Helpers' sewing society hosts a lively children's party at the Unitarian church, complete with fancy dancing and a contest for the oldest, ugliest, and most historic toys.
- 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.
- Olympia to Boston: 'The Athens of the Northwest' Makes Its Case
A Unitarian minister's letter to Eastern readers insists that the capital city, older than Seattle or Tacoma, is no backwater — and that the whole Sound country is bound to Boston by blood and history.
- The Court-Martial That Laughed Up Its Sleeve
In closed sessions at Olympia, Col. J. C. Haines faces charges of foul and abusive language—but his supporters say the fix is already in.
- "My Idol Is Broken": A Governor Denounces a Senator to His Face
Miles C. Moore accuses John B. Allen of selling out an old friend to climb into the Senate, and prints the speech he says he delivered at Allen's headquarters.
- The Eastern Oregon Burned at Percival’s Wharf
A repair crew’s paint store caught fire aboard the steamship Eastern Oregon, forcing men to jump forty feet to the mudflats and killing one cook; the blaze threatened Percival’s Wharf before rain helped firefighters.
- 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.
- The Town Where Horses Wore Wooden Shoes
La Conner grew slowly on a rocky knoll in the Skagit delta, diked its tidal flats, and shipped out hay by the ton—while its horses clumped through spring mud in wooden moccasins.