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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1891 | 1 |
| 1892 | 6 |
| 1893 | 3 |
| 1894 | 4 |
| 1895 | 6 |
20 stories matching rake
- The 10 Percent Rake-Off That Put Tacoma's Water Board on Trial
A job printer's testimony blows open an inquiry into the Tacoma Board of Public Works, where the president admits he knows little about running the city's water and electric plants—and a councilman asks if he has any shame.
- The Rake-Off on the Scales
A Puget Sound shingle maker said the new freight-weighing law would expose a quiet racket: shippers pocketing the difference while mills were charged for phantom overweights.
- A Mastodon Discovery in the Washington Countryside
A young boy scraping at the bottom of a spring unearths a relic from a lost era, shedding light on the ancient history buried beneath the ranch lands of Washington.
- Corruption Allegations Rock Snohomish County
The prosecuting attorney has filed suit to remove all three county commissioners, alleging drunkenness, waste, and kickbacks from construction contracts.
- The Informant of Tacoma’s Underworld
After testifying against the city’s corrupt police chief, a key witness finds himself in the crosshairs of a retaliatory robbery charge.
- The Desperate Struggle for Winter Heat
Two destitute women caught raking coal from railroad cars were brought before a local justice, who faced a hard choice between the law and the reality of poverty.
- The Snohomish Bond Scheme: How Outsiders Tried to Rig City Finances
When Eastern and California financiers tried to orchestrate a 'little combine' to depress the value of city bonds, Snohomish officials fought back.
- The Great Columbia Fish Rush
When an electric railway culvert at Columbia flooded the flats, local residents turned the disaster into a spontaneous community harvest of salmon and trout.
- The Trial of Ursula Juanita Unfug
A sensational murder trial in Seattle has become a lightning rod for social scandal, with rumors of political corruption and witness tampering swirling around the case.
- The Iron Road Reaches Seattle
How James J. Hill bypassed government land grants to connect the Pacific Coast to the interior, permanently altering Seattle’s future.
- The Tragedy of a Log in Lake Washington
After a day of fruitless searching, a grappling hook snagged a log that held a secret—the body of a missing 11-year-old boy.
- Tacoma’s Whitewash That Wasn’t
A public-works president accuses a newly appointed superintendent of dishonesty—then refuses to put the charges in writing.
- When Seattle Won the Transcontinental Sweepstakes
In 1890, the Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and Union Pacific converged on Seattle, transforming the city from a remote settlement into a global Pacific terminus.
- The Burglar and the Midnight Yell
An Edgewater resident uses his voice to thwart a home intruder.
- The Anti-Catholic Crusade Comes to Rake's Hall
A Seattle crowd packed a nativist A.P.A. rally to hear a Baptist pastor demand that immigrants prove their patriotism—or take the first train home.
- The Saloon Under Siege in Gilman
While the rest of Seattle was preoccupied with the celebrity visit of John L. Sullivan, a proprietor in the coal-mining town of Gilman was fighting a nightly war to keep his doors open.
- They Would Rather Grow Than Beg: Seattle’s Unemployed Turned Vacant Lots Into Potato Patches
In the depression year of 1893, nearly 200 Seattle men—most with families—were given free seed, tools and borrowed city lots through the Pingree plan and the Co-operative Industrial Society.
- The Roadhouse in the Woods That Kept Its Women in Debt
A raid between the coal towns of Wilkeson and Carbonado exposed a liquor-and-gambling dive where miners were fleeced and women said their clothes were held hostage for debts.
- The Union Veteran Who Sued the Railroad for a Million-Dollar Tacoma
Anthony P. Carr says Northern Pacific agents helped a claim-jumper steal his homestead. More than a thousand Tacoma lots—and the people living on them—depend on what the Supreme Court decides.
- 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.