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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1888 | 15 |
| 1889 | 43 |
| 1891 | 14 |
| 1892 | 86 |
| 1893 | 86 |
| 1894 | 100 |
| 1895 | 113 |
457 stories matching help
- Seattle Rallies for the Franklin Mine's Widows and Orphans
A newspaper fund drive, a Madison Park benefit and Black community organizers push relief past $275 for the families of miners killed in the Franklin disaster.
- She Fought a Sailor in the Dark—and Helped Police Find Him by Morning
Mary Kriser, who ran a lodging house at South Second and Weller streets, was robbed and sexually assaulted in September 1894. A neighbor broke down a door, and police identified a suspect within ninety minutes.
- The Jealousy That Shut Down a Shop: A Seattle Woman’s Fight for Livelihood
In 1888, a Seattle lumber shop owner saw her business destroyed not by market forces, but by the petty sabotage of her customers' wives. Her story reveals the fragile economic existence of women in the frontier city.
- The Employment Agents Who Sold Phantom Jobs
Seattle's labor commissioner wants City Hall to crack down on agents who charge workers for jobs that don't exist—or pay them in worthless due bills.
- The Restaurant Labor War
A local restaurant owner’s political ambitions are challenged by the White Cooks and Waiters' Union over allegations of wage-slashing and exploitation.
- Inside the 'Hell Hole': Life for the Unemployed in 1893
An anonymous laborer provides a harrowing account of the brutal conditions and daily struggle for survival in Seattle's winter saloons.
- A Montana Millionaire's Secret Seattle Wedding
Hugh F. Galen, a wealthy Helena mine owner and politician, secretly married schoolteacher Laura B. Tague at a Seattle church, then slipped away to California—leaving friends in Montana to plan a reception.
- Seattle's $100,000 Night: The Armory Meeting That Sold the Ship Canal
Boosters packed the Armory in 1895 and pledged a fortune for locks and bridges on a Lake Washington canal—payable only after a ship made the passage from Elliott Bay.
- Seattle Gives New York Millionaires Another Year to Fix Yesler Avenue
A council committee lets the cable road off the hook while riders wade through mud—and a stockholder accuses City Hall of standing in with railroads.
- A Mother Jumped Into a Well to Save Her Baby
Near Green Lake, a toddler fell sixteen feet into a well. Her mother lowered a too-short ladder, dropped in after her, and revived the child before help arrived.
- The Courtroom Scream
A witness in a railroad injury trial lets out a blood-curdling set of shrieks from a locked room, sending the entire Federal Court into a panic.
- Seven-Cent Meals: Seattle's City Mission Fed Thousands in 1893
In November 1893, the Seattle City Mission served 3,049 free meals, provided 1,071 lodgings, and begged the city for underclothing as the depression deepened.
- A Bluff Democrat Tells the State Committee to Hold Its Convention in Hell
Samuel Bass, a Whatcom Democrat, answers a request for advice with a scalding letter about party hacks, shyster judges and tin-horn gamblers.
- The Bridge That Broke a Boiler Maker
William Murray was never a soldier, but helping Union troops hold a West Virginia bridge cost him a leg — and, thirty years later, his life in Seattle.
- An Umbrella Lesson on Pike Street
A mother tracks her son to a saloon to force him home, wielding her umbrella in a public display of motherly discipline.
- The Canal That Would Invent South Seattle
At meetings in Georgetown and River Park, property owners pledged land, cash, and labor to a waterway scheme they promised would drain the Duwamish and turn tide flats into gold.
- The Final Tribute to a Pioneer Missionary
Seattle mourns Rev. Cushing Eells, the missionary and educator who helped secure the Washington Territory for America, as he is laid to rest at Lake View Cemetery.
- The 'Charitable' Boycott of Seattle's Chinese Laundries
A Seattle letter writer wants customers to register with charity officials so their washing can be steered to white women—an economic boycott wrapped in the language of neighborly aid.
- The Professional Tailoress Wanted in 1891
A job advertisement from a ladies' intelligence bureau signals a high demand for skilled female labor in early Seattle.
- Thirty-Seven Miners Died 150 Feet From Safety
An 1894 coroner's jury in Franklin, Washington, heard how a small fire in the Oregon Improvement Company's coal mine became a wall of smoke — and why the men who could have escaped stayed to fight it.
- Sheriff Solves 1892 Mercer Island Cabin Murder
After the mutilated body of George Richards washed ashore, a confession from an accomplice revealed a desperate struggle and a grisly disposal in Lake Washington.
- Armed Guards, a Locked Forecastle, and One Sailor Who Swam for It
Seattle's Sailors' Union accused a British ship of shanghaiing five men at Port Blakely; one escaped by jumping overboard, while the Shipowners' Association called the charges 'all bosh.'
- Fifty Turns on the Shaft: A Foundry Apprentice's Miraculous Escape
Nineteen-year-old Charles Meydenbauer was caught in the shafting at Moran's foundry, spun fifty times twenty feet above the floor—and lived to describe it.
- The Day Washington Was Born: A City Holds Its Breath
As the nation celebrates statehood, Seattle gathers in a packed hall to hear speeches on liberty, land fraud, and the future of the 'Queen City.'
- The Wig and the Wire: How a Tacoma Newspaper Owner Tried to Destroy a Judge
In the sensational Wickersham trial of 1889, prosecutor R.P. Radebaugh’s own past and his alleged conspiracy to frame Judge Wickersham for 'immorality' were laid bare in court.
Also about this, in other words
- The Domestic Help Crisis of 1891
As the Pacific Northwest boomed, the P-I warned that a 'growing distaste' for housework among the working class threatened to turn the domestic service shortage into a bigger issue than currency reform.
- An Unusual Act of Honesty
A struggling immigrant who received public assistance returns every penny, plus a donation for others in need.
- The Need for Mutual Aid on the Streetcars
As Seattle's transit lines expand, workers form a relief association to protect themselves against the high-risk reality of the job.