Research the archive
Narrow 22,457 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.
Refine1 on
Show the numbers
| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1888 | 31 |
| 1889 | 34 |
| 1891 | 22 |
| 1892 | 132 |
| 1893 | 131 |
| 1894 | 127 |
| 1895 | 15 |
492 stories matching boy
- The Beating of Henry Brown: A Runaway Elevator Boy and a Family's Violent Secret
A 14-year-old black elevator operator flees his home after a savage whipping by his father, revealing a tangled story of poverty, pride, and punishment in 1894 Seattle.
- The Dead Horses That Taught Tacoma How to Raise Sunken Ships
A Tacoma patent company says its collapsible air bags can lift wrecks from the sea floor—a trick supposedly inspired by a bloated boatload of horses in the Ohio River. Investors are already fighting over the fortune.
- Seattle Newsboys Take Tacoma by Storm
A pack of Seattle newsboys descends on the Interstate Fair, jeers a non-union print shop, climbs the roofs, and eats Chilberg’s restaurant out of house and home.
- The Tiny Republic of Anacortes: Boys, Shells, and Self-Government
In 1893, a group of Anacortes boys turned beachcombing into a natural-history club with a constitution, dues, and an exhibition that drew the whole town.
- The Boy Who Stole a Horse to Earn His Keep
A 17-year-old’s desperate attempt to fund his future ends in jail, sparking a local debate on juvenile justice and the harsh realities of poverty in early Seattle.
- A Child Lost to the Woods
A tragic accident occurs near Snohomish as a young boy, out with his rifle, fails to return home.
- A Boy’s Close Encounter on the Mountainside
A thirteen-year-old boy faced a black bear on a mountain path, leading to a harrowing struggle that left a young rescuer wounded but on the mend.
- The Pastor, the Circular, and the Hung Jury
For three days a Seattle courtroom heard accusations of adultery, an illegitimate son, and a pastor’s libelous circular. At 12:35 a.m., the jury was still deadlocked.
- The Telegraph Strike That Wasn't
When Western Union messenger boys in Seattle attempted to organize for better pay, management crushed the effort in a single afternoon.
- The Hidden Alleys of Pacific Street
A look into the segregated and overlooked corners of Seattle's 1889 Chinatown, where children and passersby mingled with the isolated lives of Chinese women.
- Two Young Waifs and a Plea for Reform
A concerned citizen recounts the success of a Maryland reform school as a potential model for Seattle's juvenile justice system.
- A Nurse, Three Drafts, and a Mother's Outburst in Court
Nat Young Jr. is bound over for trial on charges he drained a sick man's bank drafts — but the star of the preliminary hearing is his mother, who leapt up in Justice Caldwell's courtroom and shouted, 'That is a lie.'
- Exposing the Opium Dens of Opera Alley
A local expose reveals that teenage messenger boys are being drawn into the city's opium dens and disreputable houses, triggering a promised police crackdown.
- The Newsboys' War Against the Ledger
Tacoma’s newspaper war turns street-level as organized newsboys mobilize to block the sale of a scab publication.
- The Strange Odyssey of the Boy and the Stolen Buggy
When a 17-year-old was caught stealing a horse and buggy, his strange behavior revealed not a criminal mind, but a tragic descent into mental illness.
- The Child Who Danced for Pennies
A twelve-year-old runaway is arrested in a Seattle saloon while performing a wing dance to escape his father's abusive vaudeville routines.
- Tragedy on the Twenty-Fifth Street Bridge
A young Tacoma boy is killed by an electric streetcar after being blinded by locomotive smoke.
- Starvation Wages and a Broken Light Contract: Seattle's Lower House Erupts
Delegates demand answers on Pike Street paving, city jobs parceled out by foremen, Kilbourne Avenue subcontracting, and the gas-electric company's failure to light the city.
- The Boy Who Tried to Derail a Train
A Snohomish County jury acquits two young boys who tampered with railroad switches to watch a crash, sparking a furious editorial on the failings of the justice system.
- The Boy Who Only Wanted Ice Cream
A young boy's petty theft from a grocery store reveals a stark reality of neglected children in the city.
- The Neglected Youth of Seattle
Rev. Thomas Baldwin speaks to sixty-six local newsboys, challenging the congregation to integrate young people into civic and religious life.
- The Forgetful Pioneer: A Seattle Character Remembered
Before he became a fixture of the city's early business history, Isaiah Waddell was known for his generous spirit, his roller-boy antics at the local press, and a legendary inability to find his own place of business.
- The Great University Runaway
Two schoolboys, terrified by their principal's stern warning about broken windows, decided to flee campus entirely.
- A Close Call with a Cub in the Woods
A young boy's attempt to capture a bear cub nearly ends in disaster when the mother bear returns to defend her offspring.
- A Six-Year-Old's Night in Jail: The Abandoned Boy of Railroad Avenue
Eddie Jackans, found half-starved and sleeping in a wagon, was taken to police headquarters—and his parents wished to be rid of him.