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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1889 | 2 |
| 1891 | 1 |
| 1892 | 5 |
| 1893 | 3 |
| 1894 | 7 |
| 1895 | 5 |
23 stories matching lit
- A Burglary and Arson on Tenth Street
A homeowner discovers her house filled with smoke after burglars ransack her residence and leave a lit match on the mantel.
- The Democracy of Seattle Lights Up Pioneer Place
Torches, bonfires, and fiery rhetoric define a raucous political rally for Grover Cleveland.
- Power Struggle: Rebuilding the City's Light
Following a devastating fire, the city's electric light plant scrambles to rebuild its capacity while equipment remains delayed in transit.
- Rising from the Ashes: The Great Seattle Fire of 1888
While the downtown core smoldered, Seattle citizens gathered in the courthouse—lit by tallow dips—to demand a modern city of brick and stone, rejecting makeshift wooden shacks and dreaming of a reconstructed metropolis.
- The Senate Deadlock and the 'Powder Boat' of Political Defamation
As the legislative stalemate over the U.S. Senate seat continues, candidates trade accusations of corporate puppetry and corrupt influence.
- The Waterfront's First Industry Ends in Smoke
An abandoned barrel factory, once a symbol of Seattle's early industrial ambition, was destroyed by a fire lit by local children looking to warm up after a swim.
- The Bloody Battle of Washington Street
A federal opium sting operation devolved into a chaotic, axe-wielding melee in a dark room in Pioneer Square.
- Apple Butter and Giant Powder: A Smokehouse Stove Explodes Near Spokane
A woman and a little girl lit a fire to make preserves — not knowing the stove was packed with sticks of blasting powder.
- The Blame Game on the Sound
A schooner and a steamer collided in the dark of Puget Sound; the court’s decision offers a rare look at the chaos of maritime navigation in 1893.
- The Senator Who Stood on the Train
In the dead of night, a torch-lit mob marched through Spokane to greet U.S. Senator Warren G. Squire. But as he stepped onto the platform to deliver his victory speech, the rails betrayed him: the train pulled away before he could finish, leaving only his voice echoing into the dark.
- A Brother's Bullet: Deputy Marshal Dies, and the Accused Killer Asks Only for a Match
Shot by his own brother at Pioneer Place and James Street, Deputy U.S. Marshal Edward Minsch lingers a day and dies at Providence Hospital — while Frank Minsch, cool and indifferent in the city jail, shows no grief and admits only that he is 'subject to epileptic fits.'
- The Anna M. Pence Burns to the Waterline; Her Cook Jumps and Drowns
A hay-laden steamer caught fire near Lowell Point before dawn. The crew escaped onto a scow, but cook Thomas Sullivan — just days on the job, with a daughter married the week before — went overboard and was lost.
- The Bankrupt Streetcar Company Ordered to Keep a Mansion Lit
A Seattle court rules that a receiver must honor a close corporation's strange side deal to power G. E. M. Pratt's home.
- A Lake Union Mill Went Up in Flames—Then Neighbors Saved the Lumber
A sash-and-door factory leased by George E. Dow & Co. was destroyed late Sunday night. The fire department could not save the building, but quick action kept a $3,000 lumber stock and the wharf from burning.
- Carried Out of Church, Then Found Reading Luke
Already expelled for 'lack of moral rectitude,' Dr. Everett O. Johnson returns to a revival service at First M.E. Church and is removed by police and ushers. His open Bible offers the episode's strangest coda.
- Caught Between Floors: A Fatal Elevator Ride in the Pioneer Building
A former Kitsap postmaster tried to run an elevator he did not know how to operate. His neck caught in the door, and a terrified young witness had to release the car.
- A Fourth of July Armada: Seattle's Yacht Clubs Race and Light Up the Harbor
The Northwestern Yachting Association gathers at West Seattle to set the rules for the holiday regatta, as local clubs ready their fleets and a fireworks-lit naval parade is planned for the evening of the Fourth.
- Bellingham Bay Burned While Puget Sound Choked on Smoke
Forest fires from the British border to the Olympic Mountains sent a pall over Seattle, slowed steamers and trains, and destroyed homes, a bridge and a thirty-room mansion near Whatcom.
- The Night a Gilded Age Mansion Lit the Road to Its Own Party
In 1894, Horace and Susan Henry welcomed nearly 200 guests to their new showpiece house above Lake Union—then sent them home by special streetcar under a private line of electric lights.
- The Wooden Revolver That Sprung Tom Blanck
A murderer awaiting appeal in the King County jail used a hand-carved fake gun to force his way past the night jailer, then vanished into the Black River woods as a sheriff's posse rushed south by special train.
- A House of Prayer for All the Nations
In 1892, Seattle's Congregation Ohaveth Sholom dedicated the first Jewish synagogue in Washington, filling the new sanctuary at Seventh and Seneca with Jews and Gentiles and with sermons that insisted the building must be more than stone and gold.
- The Warden Fights Back: Prison Labor, Jute Sacks and a Seattle Newspaper Scandal
Accused of selling prison-made sacks to middlemen and brutalizing convicts, Walla Walla’s warden answers his critics with a detailed defense—and a challenge to inspect the prison.
- 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.