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 |
|---|---|
| 1899 | 22 |
22 stories matching bad
- The Mobbing of the Moralizers
When four prominent temperance leaders and a local businessman tried to close down a suspected illegal saloon, they were met on the street and pelted with rotten eggs.
- The City's 'Pest House' Under Siege
A Seattie facility for contagious diseases is damaged by wayward debris from local riverfront construction.
- The Tragedy of an Unnamed Soul
A body found in Elliott Bay prompts a swift, quiet burial, leaving no clues behind.
- The Black Cat Hoodoo: How a Rodent and a Number Stopped Seattle’s Streetcars
When a black cat crossed the tracks and a streetcar number matched a fatal prophecy, Seattleites stopped riding—not because of safety, but because of superstition.
- The Hot Linseed Poultice: A Seattle Marriage Ends in Burns and Bankruptcy
When Mrs. Water’s anger boiled over, she didn’t just yell—she slapped a steaming poultice of linseed mush onto her husband’s head. The Superior Court had to decide if this was cruelty or just a bad day.
- Streetcar Collision Narrowly Missed Tragedy
A dangerous accident on Pike Street sparks local concern as a crowded Queen Anne hill car crashes into a depot line carriage.
- The Boy Who Played with Fire: A Seattle Tragedy on Hart Avenue
A young boy’s fatal experiment with powder and a lit candle has left his family in mourning and the neighborhood in shock.
- The Match That Killed: A Seattle Woman’s Desperate End
Maggie Borchers, 30, died in agony after ingesting sulfur matches because her family had locked away all other means of suicide.
- A Precarious Bicycle Ride Ends in Tragedy for a Tacoma Musician
A member of the Tacoma military band is recovering from a gunshot wound after a tumble from his bicycle caused his concealed revolver to discharge.
- The Queen City’s Reputation Problem
A visiting soap manufacturer discovers that while rival cities like Portland and San Francisco love to trash-talk Seattle, the reality on the ground is far more impressive.
- The Unchecked 'Firewater' Trail
A rash of bootlegging and theft at the Lakeside saloon forces a local reckoning with the lack of law enforcement near Chelan.
- Tragedy on Pioneer Square: A Young Woman’s Brush with Death
While visitors from Victoria watched the fireworks display on Pioneer Square, a stray firecracker ignited a young woman's clothing, leading to a harrowing struggle for survival.
- The Bridge That Saved a Life: A Near-Miss on the Seattle-Maplewood Line
Engineer Harry Bingham’s split-second brake application stopped a speeding passenger train just feet from a fallen horse and rider on a trestle bridge, averting a catastrophe that would have shaken the city.
- The Gold Rush That Wasn't: Copper River’s Scurvy Epidemic and the Ghosts of the Valdez Glacier
As Seattleites debated housing and labor, a grim report arrived from the interior: men dying of scurvy in the Copper River country, and the recovered bodies of seven explorers who froze to death on the Valdez glacier.
- The Man Who Hated the Number 13
A Seattle resident petitions city commissioners to change his house number because he believes the digit brings bad luck to his family.
- Death Reared Its Horrid Head: Steam Heater Explosion Kills Two Men in Downtown Seattle
A careless Japanese fireman left a boiler unattended at Second and Washington, causing a catastrophic explosion that killed one man instantly and mortally wounded another.
- The Great Timber Truce: Tacoma Mills Shut Down for a Week to Save Prices
In a rare display of unity, Tacoma’s logging camps and sawmills have agreed to a seven-day shutdown. While workers face temporary unemployment, the industry claims this 'paradoxical' move is the only way to prevent lumber prices from collapsing.
- The Whistle That Broke a Marriage: A Trainer’s Flight from His Own Scheme
When Alfred Nickella’s wife bought a police whistle to protect herself from his threats, the device backfired spectacularly, sending the horse trainer fleeing Seattle in haste.
- The Deaf-Mute’s Heartbreak: A Love Letter Written in Silence
When his fiancée left him for another man, a silent young man from Memphis found his voice through ink, delivering a scathing indictment of his rival to a Seattle city editor.
- The Gold Rush That Never Was: How Canadian Laws Stifled Seattle’s Northern Dream
A Victoria contractor tells the Star that new British Columbia legislation has turned away American miners, leaving Alaska's gold fields dark and local businesses in ruins.
- The Chambermaid’s Lock: A Seattle Hotel Guest’s Brutal Mistake
When a wealthy Chicago businessman accidentally locked himself in his hotel room and then roughed up the maid who tried to help him, he found himself facing a $10,000 lawsuit for assault.
- Telescoped at the Crossing: A Grant Street Horror
When a Northern Pacific freight train plowed into an electric streetcar on May 20, 1909, one man died and dozens were mangled in the icy water below. The crash exposed dangerous speeds and negligent watchmen at a city intersection that remains vital today.