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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1899 | 33 |
33 stories matching train
- 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 Woman Who Stopped the Express
A quick-thinking resident of Ballard prevented a catastrophic train wreck by spotting danger from her bedroom window.
- The Great Northern Snow Plow: President Hill’s Battle with the Cascades
While Seattle slept, railroad magnate James J. Hill fought a war against the elements, his train delayed by drifts and snowplows in a dramatic struggle that highlights the fragility of early 20th-century transit.
- The Night Watchman’s Leap: A Seattle Police Officer’s Brutal Fall
William Wyatt, the city's night watchman at the Union Station mail depot, suffered broken ribs and internal injuries after falling from a moving train while chasing a thief.
- The Monster on the Tracks: Klondike Gold Seeker Crushed by Great Northern Freight
Peter McDonald, a wealthy prospector from the Yukon, lost his leg after attempting to walk between coupling train cars at Seattle’s White River dock.
- 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.
- The Klondike Millionaire Who Proposed to a Stranger
Bill Liell, president of the Yukon Order of Pioneers and one of Alaska's richest men, survived a train wreck on his honeymoon after a chance letter from his past led him to find love in Virginia.
- The Last Stand of Denny’s Old Home: A Seattle Landmark Consumed by Fire
One of the city's oldest structures, a cedar-built house on Second Avenue, was reduced to ashes early this morning. The blaze, sparked by a fallen lamp in the room of a shoe company employee, claimed the home of Mrs. Kali Palmer and her children, who barely escaped through the roof.
- The Grant Street Crash: Who Killed the Passenger?
A deadly collision between a streetcar and a Northern Pacific train at Grant Street has sparked outrage. The Seattle Star argues that 'homebody' passengers are to blame for ignoring safety, while demanding accountability from the railway companies.
- The Pugilist and the Hercules: Seattle’s ‘Denver Ed’ Sets Sights on Giant Tom Costello
Local fighter 'Denver Ed' Smith prepares to step into the ring with a massive gunner from the USS Iowa, promising a fifteen-round bout that has the city buzzing.
- The Arlon Society's Grand Seattle Welcome
A band-led arrival and lakeshore luncheon mark the visit of the New York-based German society as they transit through the city toward California.
- The Circus Comes to Town: Seattle’s First Big Top Spectacle
As the Hingling Bros. circus unloads its menagerie and performers in the Northern Pacific yards, locals gather for a parade and show that promises 'everything advertised.'
- Love vs. Father: The Seattle Elopation That Defied a Kentucky Patriarch
When her fiancé’s train was late and her father sent a telegram to stop the wedding, a spirited young woman from Louisville chose love over obedience in downtown Seattle.
- The 'Perryville' Scam: How a Fake Marriage Left Two Women Broke and Broken
In a tale of deception spanning Los Angeles, Washington, and Canada, two women fall victim to the same con artist who used false matrimonial ads to extract money before fleeing with their savings.
- The Day the River Rose: Asotin’s Fear of a Washout
As floodwaters threaten to cut off the town from the mainland, residents brace for isolation and potential disaster along the Snake River.
- The Price of a Commuter's Collision
After a devastating streetcar accident in downtown Seattle, a victim sues the transit company for $10,000 in damages.
- The Wild West World's Fair That Never Was
Before the 1909 A-Y-P Exposition defined Seattle's rise, city boosters were already jockeying to turn the town into a national stage for regional agriculture and industry.
- The Pugilist and the Player: A Seattle Clash of Champions
A local boxing favorite and a Philadelphia fencing master prepare for a high-stakes showdown at the Jefferson Street Theater.
- The Great Washington Women’s Convention: A Sea of Green and White
Delegates from across the state gather in Tacoma to debate education, manual training, and the power of organized female civic life.
- The Gold Rush That Never Was: Seattle’s First Wave of Klondike Dreamers
As the first steamers arrive from the Yukon with empty hands and full cargo holds, Seattleites prepare to follow them north, unaware that the gold rush is already over.
- The Forgotten Addicts of Seattle's Skid Road
A railroad man's harrowing story of dependency reveals the hidden suffering behind the headlines in the turn-of-the-century city.
- 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 Klondike Gold Rush Comes Home
A staggering $500,000 in gold dust arrives in Seattle aboard the steamer Queen, marking a record-breaking speed for the journey from Dawson.
- The Banker Who Built a City: The Death of Joseph R. Hughes
A pioneer hardware merchant and federal land officer dies in Republic, leaving behind a legacy of civic leadership and the founding of the town's first bank.
- The Great Tacoma Brake-Man Mystery: Was It a Brutal Assault or a Tragic Accident?
Railroad officials and witnesses in Tacoma are debunking the claim that brakeman Cook was beaten by a robber, pointing to a bridge strike as the likely cause of his skull fracture.