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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1891 | 17 |
| 1892 | 7 |
24 stories matching pretti
- 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.
- A Variety Troupe Rolls Into Olympia, Log-Jam Scene and All
The Swedish-American comedy 'Yon Yonson' wins the house — and the paper can't stop describing its loudest, beefiest actress with a mixture of delight and disbelief.
- Where Is D. P. Ballard? The Lawyer Who Vanished With the G.A.R. Fund
A well-known Olympia attorney disappears leaving debts, a destitute family, and a fraternal post asking what happened to its money.
- Olympia's Streetcar Franchise Shell Game
A franchise extension granted on a promise of negotiations turns out to be empty—and the editor wants electric cars for the capital.
- Jim Hill Finally Names Everett as the Sound Terminus
A contract to build the Great Northern from Everett to Stevens Pass promises 3,000 jobs and a transcontinental line — if the tunnel and the promises hold.
- 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 Newspaper Owner Who Was Supposed to Run Seattle
A New York interview made real-estate investor Hunt sound like a political kingmaker; Olympia's Tribune said the boast was mostly hot air.
- Close Washington Street to Wagons: Olympia's 1891 Dream for the Public Square
As the new county courthouse nears completion, the superintendent in charge proposes grading the square level with Seventh Street, banishing heavy teams, and laying winding, shrub-lined walks with a pavilion for evening concerts.
- Four Shirts, Soft Hands, and Ten Years: Olympia Sends a Window-Smasher to the Penitentiary
A burglar who broke into two downtown jewelry stores and made off with a watch and some plated ware gets the maximum from Judge Robinson — and nearly faints when he hears it.
- The Railroad President Who Said No to Olympia
A Great Northern snub prompts the Olympia Tribune to rally the capital city behind its railroad ambitions.
- 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 Court-Martial That Dismissed Itself
Colonel Haines walks free after a military court decides it had no authority to try him—leaving Governor Ferry to answer for the expense.
- 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.
- Orting’s New Soldiers’ Home Is Running on 47 Cents a Day
Forty-six veterans—including a father who lost three sons at Antietam—are already living at the state’s new home, which needs a federal per-resident allowance and a library.
- Surveyors Find a Rich Country Behind a Brutal Trail
A government surveying party returns from Chehalis County with tales of an impassable road, a hotel meal that required a salmon spear, and soil and timber worth the misery.
- 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.
- Olympia Votes Out the Old Council — and Inherits a Financial Mess
A day after the city election, the Tribune calls on the lame-duck mayor and council to resign so the city can untangle a debt larger than the law allows — and demands streetcars, street work and honest handling of the public's money.
- 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.
- A Fortune in Strawberries: The Grower Who Says Thurston County Is Sleeping on Its Own Soil
Olympia closed the fruit season with its biggest shipments yet, but veteran orchardman George B. Hartman says the county's trees are thriving on forty years of neglect — and that proper cultivation could out-earn Oregon and California combined.
- 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.
- A Polish Rancher in Muddy Boots Sits Down at the Piano and Steals the Show
Two hundred people in fancy dress fill the Olympia Theater to raise $83.75 for a Sherman Valley schoolhouse — with the lieutenant governor on fiddle, the mayor managing, and the sage of the valley in blue overalls at the keyboard.
- 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.