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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1889 | 1 |
| 1891 | 2 |
| 1892 | 2 |
| 1893 | 2 |
| 1894 | 6 |
| 1895 | 11 |
24 stories matching lessen
- The Republican Rally for John McGraw
A boisterous night of cheering and song at the First Regiment Armory as Republicans ratify their gubernatorial ticket.
- The Bank Clerk's 'Accident' Settled
A shooting at the Washington National Bank, previously rumored to involve a mysterious woman, is dismissed as a careless accident by the victim himself.
- Washington's Insane Asylums Need Nearly Half a Million Dollars
A legislative committee reports that the state's two insane asylums require $459,757.55 for maintenance, new buildings, and deficiencies — a staggering sum for 1893.
- The Sewer Dispute on Front Street
A citizen protests the city's plan to shut down the Front Street cable line for sewer construction, fearing it will kill business for retail shops in the north end.
- Forty Tons of Seattle Iron: Moran Brothers' Giant Pumps Head for the Dry Dock
The biggest centrifugal pumps ever cast on the Pacific Coast leave Moran Brothers' foundry for the government dry dock, three machines able to empty it in two hours.
- The Lonely Vigil of the Weather Man
Before satellite arrays and supercomputers, the Seattle Weather Bureau relied on the tireless, midnight labor of trained observers and a secret telegraphic cipher to predict the Pacific Northwest's volatile storms.
- The Mayor's Veto: A Battle Over City Bonds
Mayor J. T. Ronald blocks a city council ordinance requiring a bond from a waterworks cashier, citing legal advice from the city's corporation counsel.
- A Depression Year Didn’t Stop Seattle’s Builders
The state university rose toward three stories and Senator Squire’s four-story block went up at Main and South Second—part of $466,077 in construction logged in 1894.
- The Unstoppable Surge: Washington Territory on the Eve of Statehood
A wide-eyed 1889 editorial captures a frontier territory on the brink of a population explosion, detailing the frantic expansion of railroads, coal mines, and lumber mills that turned a 'wilderness' into a commercial powerhouse.
- Third Street’s Sidewalk Standoff—and the Railings That Made It Worse
A street cut left storefronts stranded above grade. When the city tried to fix the sidewalks, property owners sued; when it put up railings, the block looked worse.
- The Anti-Ring Republicans Meet—and One Calls Them 'Suckers'
A Fifth Ward reform club gathers at the Masonic Temple to denounce the city machine, but a member warns the 'ring' has a big sack and is well organized.
- Tacoma's Suspicious Fires—and a Fire Department That Couldn't Get Water
A wave of blazes on E Street and beyond leaves homes in ashes, a hose driver suspended, an alarm delayed, and the fire chief convinced tramps set the occupied houses alight.
- Two Seattle Justices Fight a Move to the County Courthouse
The county commissioners want the justice courts in the courthouse; the justices say the basement rooms are cramped, the trip burdens litigants, and the change will cost more than it saves.
- Seattle’s 'Reform' Government Promised Clean Streets and Low Taxes. Two Years Later, the Bill Came Due.
A furious 1894 editorial accuses the Democratic city administration of breaking every campaign promise—keeping Whitechapel open, protecting gambling, and cutting day laborers while salaried officials kept their pay.
- Tacoma's 1894: Falling Lumber, Rising Flour, and a New Rolling Mill
The Ledger's year-end review found reasons for optimism in shipping, smelting, meat packing, and new rail connections—even as low prices cut into the lumber trade.
- The Board of Health Weighed Closing Every School in Seattle
Scarlet fever was moving through the city's classrooms in May 1895, and the men who ran public health argued over whether to send thousands of children home for six weeks — and whether parents could be trusted to report the sickness at all.
- Two Frozen Men Drowned Within Twenty Feet of a Rescue Line
The new Ballard schooner Lily and Maud broke up off Deception Island, and the crews of the Utopia and Justine could only watch.
- Three Bickering Land Departments, Millions in Tide Lands, and a Demand for Answers
A state land commissioner admits the tide-land situation is 'chaotic in the extreme' and calls for a no-whitewash legislative probe — warning that divided authority is an open door to corruption.
- The Potato Patch That Fed 387 People: Seattle's Pingree Plan
In the hard year of 1895, a committee of Seattle citizens handed out seeds and tools to 141 unemployed families — and the city's charity rolls fell. The organizer wanted City Hall to run it.
- The Telephone Franchise Fight: A Speculator's Bid Rejected
Aldermen refused S. H. Piles a phone franchise because he wouldn't name his backers or put up a bond — and the competitor they did trust never built a line.
- One Judge for Two Counties: Seattle's Judge Osborn Wants the Bench Trimmed
A King County jurist tells the legislature that twenty-four superior judges for thirty-four counties is money badly spent — and that a judge handling Seattle's docket earns no more than one deciding farm boundary lines.
- A Revolver at Her Ear: Mary Steel's Third Fight for a Divorce
Mary Steel's third divorce suit against David H. Steel laid bare a bitter fight over $49,000 in Seattle and Montana property—and allegations of violence, control and intimidation.
- A Mountain of Coffins: Franklin Buries Its Miners
After a mine fire killed 37 men, the coal town of Franklin held a day of funerals—five graves at Black Diamond, three Italian miners on a hillside, and widows whose grief doctors feared would kill them.
- Seattle's Bid to Be the Liverpool of America
In 1895, boosters imagined a Lake Washington ship canal turning Puget Sound into a freshwater harbor for world commerce, coal trade, and naval power.