Research the archive
Narrow 27,002 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 |
|---|---|
| 1889 | 3 |
| 1891 | 1 |
| 1892 | 3 |
| 1893 | 2 |
| 1894 | 5 |
| 1895 | 9 |
23 stories matching needless
- The Streetcar Superintendent Who Made a Hard Job Less Arduous
When Superintendent Clark resigned from Seattle’s Consolidated street car lines, employees remembered him as the man who averted a strike by treating car men like people.
- Delirium and Chaos at the Pest House
Patients suffering from smallpox break into a violent frenzy, forcing the Health Officer to intervene.
- Seattle's 'Respectable' Citizens Attempt to Reform City Hall
A gathering of elite businessmen and professionals met at the Chamber of Commerce to form a non-partisan Municipal League, aiming to oust incumbent politicians and rewrite the city charter.
- Officer Censured for Beating a Citizen
A police commissioner’s inquiry reveals that an officer brutally beat an innocent Black man at Second and Union, raising questions about police conduct in early Seattle.
- A County Pay Raise in the Middle of a Depression
Wahkiakum County officers got an extra $895 a year from the legislature. The Cathlamet Gazette asked who would pay for it.
- The Great Rat War of the Seattle Waterfront
A local commission merchant argues that poor box design is turning Seattle apple shipments into a banquet for waterfront vermin.
- The Struggle for a Streamlined Seattle
Mayor Phelps calls for a total overhaul of the city charter, arguing that the existing system is far too expensive and cumbersome for Seattle’s rapid growth.
- The Man Who Exposed the Bribe: Metcalfe’s Stand Against Olympia’s ‘Boodle’ Gang
In a rare display of moral courage in Washington's early political history, Representative Metcalfe turned a bribe into evidence, sparking a war with corruptionists that the paper defends as necessary for good government.
- The Fight for Washington’s Capital City
A Seattle writer argues that moving the seat of government east of the Cascades would cripple maritime commerce.
- A Terrifying Case of Mass Hysteria on the Ballard Line
A motorman and conductor abandoned their moving streetcar in fear, triggering a chaotic panic among passengers that led to multiple injuries.
- The Mayor's War on 'Black Chapel'
Mayor J. T. Ronald vetoes a saloon license in a notorious district, decrying the density of vice in a three-hundred-foot square.
- Two Dollars a Head: Seattle's Labor Commissioner Takes On the Employment Agencies
Charged with running the city's free employment office as a union errand boy, Commissioner John Lamb answers that the private agencies have been selling men jobs that do not exist.
- The Garbage Crisis: Seattle’s ‘Primitive’ Streets Demand a Permanent Solution
As the City Council debates the fate of the city's waste, officials warn that makeshift disposal methods are turning neighborhoods into health hazards and driving down property values.
- A Citizen Asks: Is the Government Canal Being Sidetracked?
A letter to the editor warns that the private company filling Seattle's tide flats may be quietly killing the Lake Union–Salmon Bay canal — and notes the government engineer is on that company's payroll.
- The Railroads Wanted a Senator, and They Worked Olympia to Get Him
A Republican paper accuses John L. Wilson of backing a railroad-friendly bill while transcontinental lines quietly lobby the legislature to send him to the U.S. Senate — and Tacoma's A.P.A. splits over the fight.
- A Delegate, a Street Scuffle, and a Party at War With Itself
On Second Street, Lewis men rough up a Walla Walla delegate; at Sunday's caucus, Mayor Ronald and Junius Rochester trade barbs over the Lake Washington canal.
- 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 Mob Hanged Two Men at the Courthouse. Then the State Argued Over the Bill.
After Hill and Parker were lynched in Colfax, Attorney General W. C. Jones ruled that the county need not pay for a coroner's inquest—and said the real hunt for the mob belonged to a grand jury.
- Two Weeks In, Still No Senator: Olympia's Republicans Tire of the Ankeny Fight
The legislature has been in session a fortnight and Washington still has no United States senator. A colleague's insulting letter blows up, the Wilson and Allen camps fold, and a caucus is called to force the thing to an end.
- A Damning Report on Seattle's Water Works
A Chamber of Commerce committee found a hastily built municipal water system, political patronage and missing maps—and urged Seattle to hire a professional engineer at $5,000 a year.
- A Million-Dollar Land Grab and the Wife Left Behind
Abandoned for ten years in Pennsylvania, Mrs. J. E. Jordan comes to Seattle's superior court to stop her husband from deeding away the community's real estate to a medicine company — and names the men who helped him do it.
- Seattle’s First Basketball Craze Was a Bruising, Nine-Man Battle
In 1899, the Y.M.C.A. and Seattle Athletic Club prepared for a rough indoor championship match at the Armory—played with nine men a side and almost no mercy.
- 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.