Research the archive
Narrow 27,002 newspaper stories by words, years, place, newspaper and subject. See when and where they ran, then download what you find.
Put a phrase in quotes ("rent strike") or leave a word out with a minus (strike -baseball). Old scans misspell names, so when little is found, near-spellings are offered.
Refine1 on
Show the numbers
| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1891 | 16 |
| 1892 | 8 |
24 stories matching unless
- A Taxpayer Tries to Stop the City From Writing Checks It Can’t Cover
Francis Hoffman and the Olympia Hardware Company ask a judge to block further city warrants, arguing Olympia has blown past its debt limit.
- Olympia’s ‘Miserable’ Street Railway Is Holding the City Back
An 1891 editorial demands that the city cancel the Olympia Street Railway’s charter and clear Main and Fourth streets for electric cars, arguing the two rickety horse cars are a disgrace and a drag on growth.
- The sheriff seizes Olympia's streetcars, mid-block, over a bond
A lawyer's objection leaves a Main Street horse car standing stock still at Sixth for hours while the company's backers scramble for a new bond.
- The Governor's Cabinet Meets as Washington's Bills Go Unpaid
With public servants holding $103,000 in IOUs, Olympia officials debate whether to call the legislature back for an emergency session.
- The Streetcar Builder Who Refused to Buy His Own Right of Way
J. R. Chaplin tells Olympia's council that asking his Westside Railway to purchase Block 48 would insult the enterprise promising the city its first mile of track.
- Rapid Transit to Eternity: Olympia's Kerosene Trolley, Minus the Matches
George Marvin Savage's homemade coal-oil motor car is about to carry paying passengers down to the Fourth Street track — if it doesn't explode first. Riders get accident insurance, and their obituary verses have already been written.
- A Saloon Debt, a Partnership, and a Judge’s Ruling on Fraud
A Tacoma liquor wholesaler tried to attach Olympia and Tenino saloons over $700; the court said the property shuffle wasn’t enough to prove fraudulent intent.
- The Judge, the County, and the $2,000 Court Record
A Yakima County land case with 128 parties reaches Olympia's Supreme Court over who must pay for a transcript that could decide the value of every farm acre.
- 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.
- A Freethinker Takes On the Pulpit in Olympia
At Liberal Hall, P. D. Moore answers a minister’s sermon on law with a call for a religion of nature, reason, and good conduct rather than wrath and dogma.
- 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 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.
- The Supreme Court Stops a Judge From Sending Yakima County the Stenographer’s Bill
A superior court judge tried to force the county treasury to pay for trial transcripts. The state Supreme Court said no—and used a rare writ to stop the warrants before they became county debt.
- 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 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.
- The Last Chapter at 1344 C Street
After her abusive husband hanged himself in the Tacoma city jail, a Swedish-born woman shot herself—and the policeman who had tried to save her stayed at her bedside until the end.
- 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.
- Free Mail Delivery Is Coming to Olympia—If the City Numbers Its Houses
Postmaster V. A. Milroy says carriers, boxes and three new routes will be ready by New Year’s Day, but two-thirds of the city’s houses still lack numbers and property owners must pay to add them.
- The City Can Tear It Down: The Supreme Court Backs Seattle's Fire Limits
Daniel K. Baxter put up a twenty-foot shell of wooden posts wrapped in corrugated iron inside Seattle's fire limits. The state Supreme Court said the city could knock it down without ever going to court — and municipal building codes came out of it stronger than before.
- Olympia's Ward Caucus Turns on Who Counts as a Citizen
A Second Ward meeting nominates C. H. Springer for council, but a delegate's citizenship and a sitting councilman's legal status throw the city ticket into question before the convention at Columbia Hall.
- A City on the Brink: Olympia’s 1891 Debt Crisis and the Fight Over Jobs
Facing a constitutional debt limit, Olympia’s city council considers firing the deputy clerk, assistant city attorney, and city engineer—while a motion to revoke the street railway franchise fails by a tie.
- 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 Train That Didn't Whistle
A Seattle teamster loses a leg at a blind railroad crossing, and the Washington Supreme Court weighs whether his failure to stop and listen bars his claim against the Northern Pacific.
- The Lease a Husband Had No Right to Sign
A Tacoma mercantile firm stopped paying $500-a-month rent, arguing the leased property was community property and the wives had never signed. Washington’s Supreme Court said the lease was not absolutely void—but the tenants had rights too.