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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1888 | 1 |
| 1889 | 6 |
| 1891 | 1 |
| 1892 | 3 |
| 1893 | 4 |
| 1894 | 8 |
| 1895 | 5 |
28 stories matching doom
- Senator Squire Speaks Out Against 'The Day of Doom'
Washington State’s Senator Watson Squire takes to the Senate floor to argue that the pending Democratic tariff reform will destroy the state's lumber and mining industries.
- The Waterfront Flood That Never Was
Hundreds of Seattleites gathered at the waterfront, expecting a disastrous high tide prediction that failed to materialize.
- Spokane Falls Wiped Out by Catastrophic Blaze
A massive fire destroys the heart of Spokane, leveling banks and landmarks while the city's future hangs in the balance.
- Delayed Water Pressure Dooms Ballard Buildings
A fire in Ballard destroyed local businesses after the department struggled with water delivery, injuring a family of three.
- Condemned at Home, Detained in Port Townsend: Three Men Offer to Buy Their Way Out of the Axe
Three Chinese men held by the collector of customs for being in the United States illegally were to be shipped home, where desertion from the imperial army is punished by beheading. Local Chinese merchants said a substitute could be hired to die in a man's place.
- The Execution of Robert Day
After a failed suicide attempt and legal appeals reaching the State Supreme Court, the murderer of Thomas Clinton Beebe faces the scaffold in Kalama.
- 1889 Spokane Falls Fire Destroys Nearly Forty Blocks
A catastrophic fire destroys thirty blocks of Spokane's business district, echoing the recent destruction in Seattle.
- The Political Spoils System at Work
Speculation mounts in Washington Territory as the appointment for a new Internal Revenue Collector highlights the fierce, often petty nature of regional political influence.
- The Town of Oakesdale Is Reduced to Smoldering Ruins
A three-story hotel blaze consumes the city's business district in just two hours, leaving merchants devastated and the community reeling.
- The Woodin Mill Burns Down
A fire sparked by a friction belt destroys a major Fairhaven lumber mill, leaving forty-seven men jobless in an already struggling economy.
- The Desperate Foraging of the Waterfront Four
When four men living in an abandoned Seattle shack ran out of supplies, they launched a clumsy, doomed heist—leading to a quick sentence and a warm bed behind bars.
- The Jailhouse Performance of an Insanity Faker
A man accused of horse theft attempts a desperate, bumbling ruse to avoid trial by feigning madness, only to be caught plotting his escape with stolen keys.
- The Day Ellensburg Burned
A devastating fire leaves 12 city blocks in ruins, highlighting the catastrophic failure of the local water system.
- The Strange Afterlife of a Murdered Man
Letters from disgruntled ex-wives and rivals surface after a Waterville man is murdered, revealing a long, chaotic trail of failed marriages.
- The Tinderbox of the Waterfront: Fire Chief Warns of Seattle’s Oil-Fueled Doom
Chief Collins warns that Standard Oil’s wooden warehouses along the waterfront are a 'match away' from destroying the city, while overcrowded lodging houses threaten the poor with similar fates.
- The Pullman Strike Collapses — and Seattle Quietly Comes Out Clean
As the great railroad strike of 1894 sputters to defeat nationwide, the Post-Intelligencer pauses to credit Seattle's police and strike leaders for keeping the city free of the violence that scarred the rest of the country.
- The Night Ballard Almost Burned
A kerosene lamp in a candy store touched off a blaze that leapt across Ballard Avenue—then the town’s water gave out just as the business district caught.
- The Last Breath in Walla Walla: A Mother’s Collapse as Her Son Faces the Gallows
In May 1888, John Ham was sentenced to death for murder in Washington Territory. His mother, Mrs. Pyle, broke down in court, while their co-conspirator fled the state, leaving the family to face the ultimate penalty.
- A Captain at Eighteen, a Pioneer at the End
John A. Steeves survived a Cape Horn shipwreck, mined in Butte, and became one of Squak Valley’s most trusted settlers. He died at his Sixth Street home after a three-week illness.
- County Money Drained Into a Doomed Bank — and an Effigy on Dock Street
A Whatcom banker stands accused of steering $50,000 in county funds into a failing institution, while angry citizens string up a stuffed likeness of him on a telegraph pole.
- The Library Was Not a Luxury
An 1895 editorial made the case that a free public library was civic infrastructure, not charity—and that starving it of funds betrayed the city's future.
- A Saloon Killing, a 42-Hour Jury, and a Second Conviction
James Murphy is convicted again of shooting Fritz Dawe in the old Copper Chief saloon — but his lawyers vow the verdict will not stand.
- The Brick Crisis: Why Seattle’s Boom Is Stalling Because of Empty Lots
An editorial warns that the city's rapid growth is being choked by a lack of commercial infrastructure, urging property owners to build or lease for development before capital flees to rival towns.
- A Judge Refuses to Wait: William Holmes Sentenced to Hang
Convicted of murdering a fellow Newcastle miner, a Black defendant hears the death sentence after his lawyer's eleventh-hour challenge to the judge's authority is thrown out.
- A Seattle Family Keeps Vigil for a Son Lost on the Elbe
Kurt Kleinschmidt, a brilliant young mining engineer bound for home and his father's coal ventures in the Skagit country, was aboard the doomed North German Lloyd steamer — leaving his parents at Madison and Fourteenth to hope against hope that he simply missed the boat.