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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1858 | 9 |
| 1859 | 10 |
| 1860 | 5 |
| 1861 | 3 |
27 stories matching much
- Judge Chambers’s New Mill Turns New Dungeness Wheat Into ‘Superb’ Flour
A newspaper tour of the just-finished grist mill found machinery ‘complete in every particular’ and a cleaning apparatus that astonished the visitors.
- A Rumor of War on the Snake River
The Puget Sound Herald casts doubt on its own report of a battle between Col. Steptoe and Indigenous fighters, noting that no reliable account has arrived.
- The Hudson's Bay Company Puts a Price on Washington Territory
A proposed £500,000 sale of the company's Puget Sound land claims alarmed settlers and left Congress uncertain about who really owned the ground.
- The Mystery of the 'Sea-Monster' in Pierce County
A strange creature from the 'animal kingdom' is brought to Steilacoom, sparking local debate over its true nature.
- The Farmer and the Unruly Ox
A cautionary tale of how cruelty toward livestock backfires on the master.
- The Trail That Wasn't: How Bellingham Bay Boosters Sold a Gold-Rush Route
A Steilacoom editor accuses Whatcom land speculators of luring miners and immigrants with false reports that the Bellingham Bay trail to the gold fields was nearly finished.
- The Schooner That Never Came Back
A Steilacoom resident and a captain vanish after leaving Port Townsend; a rumor from Vancouver Island speaks of a wreck and murder.
- A Brutal Murder on the Trail to Fort Steilacoom
A soldier is found dead after a violent altercation involving multiple men, leaving the community in shock.
- The Steamer That Never Came: Steilacoom's Broken Promise of a Pleasure Trip
A hundred neighbors set aside their work for a promised steamboat excursion to Olympia — but the boat failed to show, the crowd simmered, and the day ended in a dance hall instead of on deck.
- The Sewing Machine Tragedy
A neighborly loan of money for a sewing machine leads to a fatal confrontation on a Steilacoom road.
- The Priest Writes Back: A Territorial Feud Over 'Romanism'
A Methodist minister's warning in Olympia draws a sharp reply from the Catholic missionary he accused.
- The Vultures on Steilacoom's Streets
A furious 1858 editorial accuses local authorities of letting California gamblers plunder the town in plain sight.
- Six Hours, Sixteen Thousand Feet: Puget Sound's Lumber Boom
A correspondent touring the Sound in 1860 marvels at new sawmills at Utsalady and Port Gamble, where wild country is being turned into lumber camps and the Territory is already boasting of a manufacturing future to rival the older states.
- Gold Fever Empties the Army Posts—and Leaves Steilacoom’s Mail in a Canoe
A steamer from the north brings word of rich surface diggings on the Fraser and Thompson rivers, soldiers deserting lower Puget Sound posts, and Steilacoom cut off from its mail.
- Olympia Loses the Capitol: A Letter Writer Predicts the Seat of Government Will Move to Vancouver
A Steilacoom correspondent gloats that Olympia's 'mandarins' overplayed their hand in the territorial legislature — and that the $30,000 Congress set aside for a capitol building will sit unspent while the prize drifts south.
- The Governor’s Printing Office Grab
A territorial appointment turns into a public feud over who gets to choose Washington’s public printer—and whether the governor overstepped the legislature’s authority.
- The Territory’s Muskets Were ‘About as Dangerous at One End as the Other’
A Pierce County taxpayer audits the 1859 Legislature: condemned arms, a new enrolling clerk, and the old habit of hoping Congress will pay.
- The Wagon Road That Would Bind Puget Sound to the Columbia
Vancouver residents petition Congress for $50,000 to build a military road to Steilacoom, arguing it would open trade and settle the country between the Columbia River and Puget Sound.
- The Steamer Traveler Goes Down Off Foulweather Bluff
A sudden leak in a winter gale drowned Captain Slater and several others on a routine Puget Sound run from Port Townsend to Port Gamble.
- The Boiler Bursts at Five Twenty
A mill boiler at Port Madison exploded before the morning shift was fully at work, killing five men and scalding a sixth. A witness wrote that ten minutes later would have killed more.
- The Land Company That Claimed Puget Sound — and the Settlers Who Fought Back
A federal surveyor's report from Olympia questioned the sprawling British land claims around Steilacoom and Fort Steilacoom, siding with American settlers who had built farms inside the company's alleged grant.
- A Yakama Chief Falls as the Territory's Indian War Ends
Col. Wright's campaign is declared over; Owhi is shot near the Snake River, and the Herald celebrates executions and hostages as peace.
- A Territory Mourns: Olympia Buries Charles H. Mason
When Washington Territory's secretary and frequent acting governor died in 1859, Chief Justice McFadden and Olympia's leading men gathered at the capitol to call him a public servant 'of both soul and nerve.'
- The Night Seattle Danced Until Two: A Steamer Excursion from Steilacoom
In July 1859, the steamer Julia carried Olympia and Steilacoom society across the Sound to Seattle, where three supper tables and a hall full of dancers made territorial news.
- The Fur Company’s Land Empire Is Declared Public Domain
A letter from Washington City reports that the Hudson’s Bay and Puget Sound Agricultural companies’ territorial claims have been ruled forfeit, opening their Nisqually and Fort Vancouver lands to American survey and settlement.