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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1909 | 16 |
16 stories matching opt
- Newport Votes on Whether the Saloons Stay
With 254 voters registered and temperance workers canvassing the streets, Newport prepares for a close local-option election that could shut down licensed saloons.
- Clark County's Country Districts Will Vote the Saloon Up or Down
A local-option petition puts license-or-no-license on the November ballot outside the incorporated towns—where only Battle Ground has a saloon.
- The Saloon Fight Moves to Court: Petition Signatures Challenged
A Valley saloonkeeper tries to block Pend Oreille County’s local-option election, claiming the petition lacks enough valid voters and that many signatures are not genuine.
- The Drys Won Newport. Then They Built a Machine to Keep It.
A new Municipal League aims to protect the local-option victory—and the city hires counsel as opponents challenge the election in court.
- Temperance Forces Move to Vote Stevens County Dry
Local-option workers in Colville petition for a September election that could close saloons across the county and set off a dry campaign across Eastern Washington.
- The Ministers' Quarrel That Split Colville's Temperance Fight
A local-option campaign turned personal when the Rev. W. A. Diggins claimed all the town's ministers were behind temperance—and the Rev. G. H. Wilbur publicly called that a lie.
- Newport Would Vote Itself Wet or Dry
A local-option petition with 80 signatures forced a September 7 election to decide whether saloons could operate in Newport—and Idaho's border loomed over the fight.
- Stevens County Sets a Date to Vote the Saloons Out
With the petition deadlines cleared, the county auditor orders a Nov. 9 local-option election — and the dry forces, organized out of Colville, are predicting the small-town saloons are finished.
- The Dry Vote Is Blocked by 74 Missing Signatures
A Stevens County judge sides with a saloonkeeper and halts a countywide local-option election—but Newport and three other towns still vote Sept. 7.
- Stevens County Votes on the Saloon
A countywide local-option election on Nov. 9 will decide whether saloons can operate outside incorporated towns—and Newport voters must register at the I.W.N. station to be counted.
- Stevens County Votes the Saloons Dry — Then Newport's Saloon Men Go to Court
A low-turnout local-option election shut down thirty rural saloons, with Newport precinct voting 18 to 5 dry while Ione held out wet and the legal fight moved to the next court term.
- Newport Saloons Lose the First Round in the Dry Fight
A Spokane judge upheld the town's local-option election, forcing saloon owners to amend their challenge—while the anti-saloon league plotted a dry Washington.
- The Dries Sweep Stevens County—and 39 Saloons Get Their Notice
A local-option election gives the dries a 677-vote majority, closes 39 saloons, and leaves Newport's saloonkeepers pinning their hopes on a court challenge.
- The 1909 Legislature Went Home With a $10 Million Tab and an Unfinished Scandal
Washington's eleventh session adjourned with record spending, a sweeping new criminal code, a local-option liquor law, an equal-suffrage referendum — and an insurance investigation the House only agreed to after the acting governor threatened to drag them back.
- Newport Votes Itself Dry by Sixteen Votes
A local-option election on Sept. 7, 1909, ended licensed liquor sales in Newport, 110 to 94, after challenged voters, an illegal-registration arrest and a hard-fought badge campaign. The saloons were set to close Dec. 6, with a countywide vote still to come.
- 651 Bills, 13 Laws: Inside Olympia's Frantic Last Two Weeks
A deadlocked local-option fight, a women's eight-hour bill that ended in fisticuffs, and a marriage law barring 'drunkards' and the 'feeble-minded' — the 1909 legislature's chaotic home stretch.