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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1891 | 14 |
| 1892 | 15 |
29 stories matching owing
- The Paper War That Split Thurston County
A rival weekly, a political machine, and a defiant editor: Olympia’s Tribune accuses the Owings-Murphy ring of spending thousands to “down” it.
- A Forged Delegate Ticket at the Second Ward Meeting
A letter to the Tribune accuses Boss Sickels and sewer contractor Gillie of slipping a printed delegate ticket into a Second Ward meeting, using names without permission.
- Olympia City Council Rejects New Sewer System
City officials pivot away from the 'Camp' or 'Warring' system after consulting with sanitary engineers, opting instead to hire local expertise.
- Deserters on the Cow Paths: Three British Sailors Slip Into Blaine
Three sailors flee the British warships at Esquimalt, stealing down the east coast of Vancouver Island by night to cross into American soil at Blaine.
- The Sheriff Was Coming for Olympia’s Hotel. A New Company Rode In.
On the eve of a foreclosure auction, local investors incorporated a $130,000 company to buy the Hotel Olympia property and keep it out of the sheriff’s hands.
- 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.
- A Quack, a $125 Bill, and a Prosecution That Cost the County More Than It Recovered
A Thurston County letter-writer asks why commissioners and the county attorney spent the public's money to convict an irregular doctor over a small bill — and got nothing back.
- Fair Play for the Bandstand Builders
When businessmen whispered that the contractors erecting Olympia’s bandstand were outsiders, a letter to the editor insisted that a family man who had spent $600 waiting for work deserved a fighting chance.
- Olympia Puts Its Bond Mess on Ice—and the Mayor Objects
A council committee recommends leaving the 1891 bond tangle to the next administration; the mayor warns the city is “in a mud hole” and wants the courts to force a decision.
- Settlers Beat the State to the Best School Lands
Washington's land commissioners say squatters are claiming the best parcels before the state can select them for schools, putting millions at risk.
- The Railroad Comes Collecting: Olympia's Subsidy Fight Heads to Court
Northern Pacific's own attorney admits the line into Olympia cost the company $40,000 more than it took in — and announces he will sue every citizen who signed the bond anyway.
- 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.
- A Brick Barn or a University? Olympia Presses Seattle on Its Grand Campus
A newspaper duel over the University of Washington's costly new buildings asks who pays for civic grandeur—and whether Seattle's generosity comes with unpaid debts.
- 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.
- The Newspaper Owner Who Disavowed His Own Editorial
Francis Murphy reads L.S.J. Hunt’s letter to a Seattle crowd, disowning the Post-Intelligencer’s anti-temperance editorial and sending $200 for the cause.
- The Legislature’s Unfinished Business—and the Case for a Special Session
An anonymous Olympia lawmaker told The Tribune that defective appropriation laws, unpaid citizens and stalled state business demanded a special session by December.
- One Coal-Oil Dealer Is Holding Olympia's New Electric Railway Hostage for $10,000
The streetcar line is contracted, the rails are shipped and the crews are ready — but George Marvin Savage's outfit sits squarely in the middle of Main Street, and he will not budge for less than ten thousand dollars.
- 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 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.
- The Railroad Came for the Tenant Farmers
A Washington Supreme Court ruling in Seattle said a railroad owed a tenant for the leasehold, crops and buildings its tracks destroyed—not just the landlord for the dirt.
- There's "Dough" in Every Street Contract: A Preacher Takes On City Hall
Rev. Napoleon Hoagland reads the nation's municipal record aloud — reeking streets, a million-dollar franchise given away, councilmen who elsewhere would count themselves lucky to stay out of prison — and asks why democratic America breeds more thieves than the Tsar's Europe.
- A Sawmill Owner's Terrible Day: The Buzz Saw That Took a Leg and Nearly Two
James P. Allison was cutting logs at Clear Lake when a cant hook threw him into the teeth of an immense saw. Doctors were summoned from Olympia, Centralia and Bucoda, but the injured man waited hours for relief.
- The Town That Grew in Ninety Days—and Then Waited for the Railroad
In 1890, promoters carved Anacortes out of the Fidalgo Island forest, sold lots at galloping prices, and promised a transcontinental rail terminal. Two years later, the trains still stopped short and the company wharf was closed to the public.
- The $70,000 Rebellion: Olympia Refuses to Pay Its Railroad Bill
Northern Pacific missed its promised deadlines, so the citizens who pledged land and cash to bring the line to town decided the contract was void—and headed to court.
- The Worst Storm on the Sound: A Train Wreck, a Drifting Ship, and Dead Wires
A landslide derails a Northern Pacific freight near Castle Rock, a British ship is blown across Tacoma bay, and the telegraph goes dead from Seattle south.
Also about this, in other words
- A Defaulting Treasurer’s Debt Finally Comes Due—for a Governor and His Bondsmen
A Seattle judge orders E. P. Ferry and other sureties to pay King County $29,143.60 plus years of interest for George D. Hill’s vanished public funds.