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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1899 | 37 |
37 stories matching four
- A Tragedy at the Duwamish River
A four-year-old child loses his life in a tragic accident along the banks of the Duwamish River.
- The Great Oil Puzzle: How Three Men Solved an Impossible Measure
A local grocer and two farmers spent a long afternoon cracking a mathematical riddle to split eight gallons of oil evenly using only three uneven containers.
- 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 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 Porcupine Rush: How an Indian Map Led Seattle Men to Gold
A group of home seekers departed Seattle for the Yukon, armed with a hand-drawn map provided by an Indigenous guide who claimed the region was rich in gold.
- 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 Glass Blower’s Death Sentence: How Machinery Turned a Skilled Trade into a Fast Track to the Grave
In Washington state, glass blowers are earning less and dying younger as machines replace men. A union president tells an industrial commission that the 'pace that kills' has turned a once-respectable craft into a brutal struggle for survival.
- The Mayor’s Gambit: Humes Defers to Council as Seattle Sweeps Away Its Gambling dens
In a rare moment of unified reform, the City Council has ordered the closure of all gambling houses and restricted saloons in the business district. Mayor Humes, citing legal ambiguity over the saloon ordinance but promising strict enforcement against lotteries, leaves the fate of Seattle’s vice industry to the police chief.
- 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 Eight-Day Juror Walkout
After eight days on a murder trial, a group of Tacoma jurors refused their meager $1-a-day pay, protesting the economic injustice of the state's compensation laws.
- The Hello Girls of Seattle: Inside the City’s First Telephone Exchange
A rare architectural tour reveals the inner workings of the new Bell Building on Third Avenue, where thirty young women manage the city's voice network through a complex web of wires and switchboards.
- The Dock That Swallowed Five: A Narrow Escape on Madison Street
In a sudden collapse that sent debris crashing into the Sound, five people survived by inches when a poorly constructed lunchroom and menagerie annex gave way beneath them.
- The Klondike Gold Rush Rumor That Sent Seattle Into a Frenzy
A false tip regarding a 'treasure boat' arriving from the Yukon triggered a frantic, early-morning scramble among the Seattle Press Club—all for a story that never arrived.
- The Man Who Vanished: A Railroad Agent’s Embezzlement and Flight
Charles Dickson, former freight agent for the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company in Tacoma, absconded with company funds after gambling them away in local saloons, leaving a massive debt and a warrant for his arrest.
- The Fight for a Living Wage on Seattle's Streetcars
Facing a massive consolidation of rail companies, Seattle transit workers organize to demand a guaranteed minimum wage.
- The Empire Builders Eye the Sound
While Seattle citizens dream of a municipal mint and public halls, the Vanderbilt railroad syndicate plots a massive consolidation to dominate Pacific Northwest transit.
- Seattle’s Fourth of July: A City Adorned in Light and Iron
As the nation celebrates its birthday, Seattle’s business leaders have transformed downtown into a spectacle of gas jets, electric lamps, and iron arches, proving that the young city is ready for its moment on the national stage.
- The Seattle Star’s Local Beat: A Robber’s $20, a Funeral, and the Yellow Peril Panic
While New York burns in wire copy, Seattle deals with petty theft, local funerals, and a debunked rumor of an Alaskan battle.
- The Gold Brick Gang: How Seattle’s Smugglers Were Caught Red-Handed
A trio of young men ran a sophisticated counterfeiting ring out of their rooming house, selling fake gold bricks to unsuspecting merchants and bankers before being busted by detectives.
- The Doctor Who Vanished: A Seattle Physician’s Fearful Disappearance Sparks Murder Theories
Dr. H.P. Harrington of Oakdale left his patients and his town in mid-April, leaving behind a trail of illness, a warning from a lynching victim, and friends who fear he was silenced.
- The Cougar Who Saved a Cyclist’s Life
A Tacoma engineer recounts his miraculous escape after a mountain lion knocked him upright on his bicycle during a terrifying encounter.
- The Vanishing of Ida Peak: A Seattle Restaurant Girl’s Disappearance Sparks a Search
Ida Peak, a waitress at the New York Wafer House on Cherry Street, vanished after claiming she was visiting her sister in Bellevue. Her family is left with only rumors and a missing person's description.
- Seattle Braces for the T.P.S.C.V. Convention: A City of 150,000 Guests
As delegates from across the West begin to arrive, local committees scramble to house and feed a massive influx of visitors for the upcoming Temperance convention.
- The Convention City: Seattle Hosts Five Major Organizations in One Week
From the Women's Club Federation to the Sons of Veterans, the capital of Washington Territory is buzzing with civic energy as delegates flood downtown hotels and halls.
- The City Buried Its Own Mistake: Coroner’s Verdict Blames Seattle for Deadly Boiler Explosion
A coroner’s jury has issued a scathing indictment against the city of Seattle, its building inspectors, and a plumber for the negligence that led to a Tuesday night explosion. The verdict fixes blame on the municipality for allowing a dangerous steam heater beneath a public sidewalk without proper oversight.