Research the archive
Narrow 25,688 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.
Refine2 on
Show the numbers
| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1902 | 6 |
| 1903 | 22 |
| 1904 | 7 |
35 stories
- The Great Butterine Debate
A Seattle agricultural journal takes a hard stance against the 'fraud' of oleomargarine, arguing that the industry's decline is a moral victory for farmers.
- The 'Specialists' of First Avenue
A predatory medical institute promises secret cures for 'youthful indiscretions' and 'lost vitality' from their downtown Seattle office.
- The $2,000 Apple Lesson: A Walk Down Seattle's Produce Row
A farm columnist tours Seattle's commission houses on Western Avenue, where a single packing mistake cost one grower a season's profit — and offers a cautionary tale for every farmer shipping to the city.
- Seattle's Farm Paper Says No to Paying for Portland's World's Fair
As The Oregonian promised a $100,000 state appropriation for the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial, a Seattle agricultural journal argued the money would be better spent on roads and irrigation — and doubted the crowds would ever show up.
- The Great Horticultural Graft
A scathing editorial from The Ranch magazine accuses the state legislature of creating a bloated, ineffective bureaucracy under the guise of agricultural protection.
- Seattle's Milk Supply Caught in a Secret Trust
A quiet combination of milk dealers and a new condensed milk company threatens to control prices, squeeze out independents, and lock Skagit farmers into low-paying contracts.
- The Legal Trap of Unsurveyed Land
A legal clarification reveals that heirs of homesteaders on unsurveyed land in Washington may lose their claims entirely upon the settler's death.
- The Milk Shed Built Over the Sewage
A Seattle weekly prints a photograph of the city's largest dairy depot — a ramshackle shed on pilings over the tide flats — and dares the health inspectors to explain why nothing is being done.
- The Five-Gallon Pickle Jar That Held Three, and Other Cheats of 1907
Washington's pure food commissioner reports that the milk of Seattle, Tacoma and Spokane is clean — but the packages on the shelf are not what they claim, and he wants the legislature to make him inspector of weights and measures too.
- The Business of the Orchard
A Yakima Valley fruit grower shares his pragmatic, profit-driven approach to orchard management, from battling codling moths to the economics of the Ben Davis apple.
- Formaldehyde in the Milk: Seattle's Pure Food Prosecutions
State Dairy and Pure Food Commissioner E. A. McDonald reports eight Seattle milk sellers fined for adulteration, including formaldehyde and low butterfat, as part of a statewide crackdown.
- Samuel Hill Warns Seattle Would 'Die Like Rats in a Trap' Without Highways
As Congress weighs the Latimer and Brownlow road-funding bills, the Seattle utility magnate and son-in-law of James J. Hill makes the case that paved highways out of the city are a matter of survival, not comfort.
- Formaldehyde in the Milk
The Fashion Cafe sues the Royal Dairy and Dairy Commissioner McDonald for $7,500, claiming the milk it was served was laced with embalming fluid — and that the official paid to police the dairies knew all about it.
- A Pioneer Stove Merchant Survives Fire, Panic, and a Receivership
Z.C. Miles arrived in 1870, rebuilt after the Great Seattle Fire, and joined forces with a young executive to create a coast-wide jobbing giant in stoves and electric supplies.
- The One-Armed Commission Man Who Took Yakima Farmers for $4,000
A Selah farmer travels to Seattle's federal grand jury to haul a smooth-talking produce swindler back from California — and the stationery he left behind may be the evidence that hangs him.
- The Alfalfa Controversy
A Kansas farmer warns that the popular forage crop may be causing health issues in work horses, sparking a debate among Pacific Northwest agriculturalists.
- The Produce Hustlers of Western Avenue
A newspaperman walks Seattle's commission district and finds winter vegetables, Yakima potatoes and shipments bound for Alaska, Asia and the East.
- Railroads vs. The Ranchers
An editorial warning that railroad companies are risking their own future by cutting off travel perks for livestock shippers.
- Klondike Hero's Company Folds, Creditors Left Short
A Seattle commission firm fails, and its famous president T.S. Lippy claims no moral obligation to creditors who trusted his name.
- The $4-a-Day Officials Who Fought With Typewriters
King County's horticultural inspectors and the state commissioner turn a bug-control feud into a public spectacle — on the taxpayers' dime.
- Before Pike Place: Seattle's Push for a Public City Market
An 1904 farm-paper editorial argued that Seattle lagged behind smaller eastern cities by lacking a daily public market where rural producers could sell directly to consumers — a proposal that anticipated Pike Place Market by three years.
- Seattle's Fruit Inspection Racket: Dumping California Produce to Protect Local Markets
A dispute over British Columbia's fruit inspection leads The Ranch to admit that Puget Sound inspectors have used the law to condemn California and Oregon fruit, easing market congestion and raising questions about regulatory abuse.
- A Creameryman Confesses: 'Our Business Conditions Are Rotten'
In an unusually candid letter to The Ranch, the manager of the Rockwood Creamery Co. says reckless price-cutting and smooth-talking rivals are cheating Washington dairy farmers and quietly ruining the state's butter.
- Seattle's Fruit Brokers Declared War on the Shrinking Apple Box
In a market where every Puget Sound mill cut its own crate, Seattle commission men pushed a uniform standard—and growers demanded $5,000 bonds to keep the middlemen honest.
- The Farmer Who Said the Colleges Were Failing Rural Washington
Addressing the state dairymen, farmer Wm. F. Izett argues that the land-grant colleges move too slowly and cost too much to save the farm — and pitches a cheaper, faster kind of agricultural school as the 'machine gun' the countryside needs.