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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1899 | 24 |
24 stories matching concern
- The Horseless City
Seattle businessmen begin the race to bring the 'new motor machines' to the city's steep streets.
- 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 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 Sawmill Strike That Never Happened
When mill workers in Seattle banded together for a small wage increase, they didn't need to walk out to get it.
- The Only Safe Trust: Chauncy M. Depew’s Warning to Seattle Investors
Railroad magnate and former Senator Chauncy Depew tells a Seattle audience that the government must regulate trusts, predicting that 'rotten' companies will fail while others are placed on a proper basis.
- 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.
- The Odd Fellows' Tug-of-War Over Permanence
Members of the Odd Fellows gather in Tacoma to debate moving their Grand Lodge headquarters to Seattle, highlighting a long-standing regional rivalry.
- The Million-Dollar Divorce: How a Seattle Man’s Secret Fortune Changed a Woman’s Fate
In 1899, the divorce of Cordell McKee and his first wife didn't just end a marriage—it triggered a legal battle over $100,000 that exposed the hidden wealth of one of Seattle's most prominent businessmen.
- Domestic Feud in Fremont Turns Police Matter
A laborer from the Fremont neighborhood faces accusations of threatening his wife, but local authorities point to the interference of a lodger as the true source of the discord.
- The Seattle Police 'Missing Persons' Bulletin
In an era before global telecommunications, a desperate column in the Seattle press served as a human switchboard for families separated by the Alaska gold rush, the Klondike fever, and the transience of a booming frontier town.
- The Council’s Hammer: Snoqualmie Falls Power Company Faces Ouster
Seattle city councilors move to annul the electrical franchise of the Snoqualmie Falls Power Company, citing failure to appear before an investigation committee regarding the Tracy Rapids injunction suit.
- The Battle for the Homecoming: Tacoma vs. Seattle Over the First Washington
As Secretary of War Alger hints that troops may bypass Seattle to land in Tacoma, a civic war erupts over who gets to welcome the returning volunteers from Manila.
- The Lumber Barons’ Ultimatum: 'No Treaty Without Tariff Protection'
In a packed Tacoma hall in June 1904, Seattle’s top timber executives drew a hard line with Senator Fairbanks: if the U.S. wants a trade deal with Canada, it must keep lumber tariffs high—or lose the Pacific Northwest’s economic backbone.
- Seattle Citizens Plot to Block Monopoly: Injunction Threatened Over 40-Year Streetcar Franchise
A coalition of concerned citizens is mobilizing against the city council's potential grant of a forty-year monopoly to the Seattle Railway Company, warning that legal action will follow if the charter is violated.
- The Captain Who Died for His Flag
A Seattle lawyer’s final wish—to be killed in battle while holding the American flag—was tragically fulfilled in Manila, casting a storm over the local community.
- The Quarantine of Tacoma: When a Hotel Became a Prison for Railroad Workers
In April 1898, a single case of smallpox in a Tacoma hotel triggered a massive quarantine that stranded dozens of railroad employees and paralyzed the city's transit network.
- The Council Strikes Back: Seattle Turns on Its Own Power Company
Mayor Humes vetoes saloon restrictions, but the City Council is far more concerned with a corporate power grab. They launch an investigation into the Snoqualmie Falls Power Co., accusing it of using legal injunctions to block the city’s water supply contracts and protect its private interests.
- The Treasurer Who Vanished: A Seattle Fraud Case
John Dougherty, treasurer of the Pacific Coast Steamers' Association, was arrested in San Francisco after a four-day flight from Seattle. The case highlights early 20th-century corporate accountability and the reach of cross-border law enforcement.
- The Great Wire War: How Seattle’s Electric Giants Tried to Buy Their Way Out of the Underground
When the City Council threatened to bury power lines underground, Union Electric and Consumers’ Electric screamed ruin. But the real drama wasn't the wires—it was the council dodging a crowd of gamblers and churchgoers demanding saloon closures.
- The Weatherman’s Excuse: 'We Have No Stations on the Ocean'
Seattle's official meteorologist defends his inaccurate forecasts by blaming the lack of coastal observation posts and the unpredictable nature of Pacific storms.
- The Iron Fist of Labor: Seattle’s Unions Unite to Control the City
A comprehensive look at the Western Central Labor Union and its affiliated trades—bricklayers, carpenters, and iron workers—who have effectively monopolized construction in Seattle.
- The Haunted Cabin That Killed Twice
A Texas rancher’s murder mystery travels north to Washington, where a cowboy finds himself accused of killing his partner in the exact spot—and with the same knife—that vanished from a prosecutor's safe.
- The Pit and the Claw: A Tacoma Man’s Terrifying Tale of Surviving a Bear Attack
Larsen describes the agony of being pinned in a bear trap, his arm crushed by the beast's jaws, and his desperate fight for survival in the woods near Schomaker.
- The University’s War Debt: Professors Demand a Hero’s Welcome for Seattle’s Own
As the First Washington Volunteers prepare to return from the Philippines, faculty and civic leaders unite to plan a massive reception, highlighting the deep ties between the university and the regiment.