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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1862 | 2 |
| 1864 | 1 |
| 1871 | 1 |
| 1876 | 3 |
| 1877 | 3 |
| 1878 | 5 |
| 1883 | 2 |
| 1884 | 3 |
| 1886 | 2 |
| 1887 | 2 |
| 1888 | 3 |
| 1889 | 2 |
| 1890 | 1 |
| 1891 | 8 |
| 1892 | 12 |
| 1893 | 18 |
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| 1910 | 1 |
| 1914 | 1 |
| 1915 | 1 |
| 1916 | 2 |
| 1917 | 2 |
| 1925 | 1 |
| 1928 | 1 |
116 stories matching altern
- The Wharf King’s Victory: Yesler Wins Millions in Land Battle
Judge Lichtenberg rules that the state cannot seize waterfront property without paying just compensation, halting the Harbor Line Commission and protecting H.L. Yesler’s empire.
- Judge Hanford Draws the Line: Sheep Can't Graze on Railroad Land Without Consent
A federal court ruling in Yakima County upholds the Northern Pacific Railway's right to protect its unenclosed lands from sheep, setting a precedent for property rights and land use in the West.
- The Blind Doctor’s Lethal Prescription
Dr. William Campbell, a blind pioneer and one of Olympia’s oldest residents, was charged with manslaughter after a 14-year-old epileptic girl died under his lobelia-and-capsicum treatment. A justice set bail at $2,000 and sent the case to the January superior court term.
- The Water Famine on Kenton Hill
Residents get water only about three hours a day while Seattle’s two council houses argue over pumps, sprinkling schedules and fire hose.
- Before the Railroads Cut Through Seattle, One Man Proposed a Saner Street Grid
A letter to the editor calls for wider avenues, a logical naming and numbering system, and railroad tracks that follow the platted streets—not slice across them at will.
- A Seattle Utopia Sold in One-Cent Shares
A society of unemployed men pools its wages and plots a Bellamy-style commonwealth of railroads, coal mines and common tables — starting from $5 of capital and 500 one-cent shares.
- The Last Spike for the Great Northern
Without fanfare, the transcontinental link is finished in the Cascades, promising a new era for Seattle.
- Hanged on a Doubt: Washington Territory's First White Execution
When John Thompson was hanged in Seattle in 1877, many believed he was guilty of manslaughter, not murder. The Dispatch made the case that the law had taken a life it should have spared.
- The Trial of Ursula Boyd: A Labyrinth of Coercion
A woman stands trial for the murder of the man who, according to her testimony and a cache of intimate letters, forced her into prostitution and systematic blackmail.
- Tacoma’s Water Crisis and the Million-Dollar 'Steal'
A court injunction cuts off the city's primary water source, prompting fears of pestilence and highlighting a suspicious, debt-laden municipal purchase.
- Debs Comes to Seattle, Fresh From Jail, and Tells the Crowd How He Got Six Months
A thousand workingmen meet the Pullman strike leader at the boat landing, march him through town, and pack the Seattle theater to hear him name the real conspirators.
- The Jailbreaker’s Bold Escort
After escaping Walla Walla’s jail, George H. Porter and a mysterious posse held up a farmhouse at gunpoint for a fresh horse and supper.
- Tacoma's Labor Boycott: Business Men Forced to Meet in a Basement as Tensions Escalate
A planned meeting of business men to address the Trades Council's boycott of the Ledger newspaper is postponed after the Commercial Club refuses its rooms. Undeterred, a group meets in a basement, but the Trades Council dismisses it as meaningless. The city remains on edge as labor and business collide.
- The Salvation Army’s Radical Winter Shelter
Facing rising unemployment and poverty, the Salvation Army transforms a Jackson Street basement into a 24-hour haven of food, warmth, and labor advocacy.
- The Valley the Kalispel Never Ceded
A federal allotting agent explains how the Kalispel Valley was divided into individual parcels—after much of it had already been treated as public domain and claimed by white homesteaders.
- Seattle Citizens Plot to Block Monopoly: Injunction Threatened Over 40-Year Streetcar Franchise
A coalition of concerned citizens is mobilizing against the city council's potential grant of a forty-year monopoly to the Seattle Railway Company, warning that legal action will follow if the charter is violated.
- The Steamboat Strike That Tied Up the Sound
Officers of the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company refuse to accept wage cuts, halting ferry service between Seattle and Tacoma in a rare display of maritime labor solidarity.
- The Struggle for Statehood and a New Name
Thomas H. Brents advocates for Washington statehood while grappling with the inconvenient identity of the 'Washington' namesake.
- The Judge, the Revolver, and the Impeachment Petition
A former judge tells Olympia that Judge W. W. Langhorne drinks on the bench, bullies lawyers, and has threatened to shoot him — and asks the House to remove him.
- The Paid Informer of Seattle
Seattle Police Chief Sullivan faces scrutiny after admitting to employing a convicted career burglar as a paid police informant.
- A Scandal of Abduction at the U.S. Commissioner’s Office
United States Commissioner J.W. Spriggs is ordered to resign or face investigation for his role in the illegal removal of a Chinese woman from Portland.
- Buy Our Waterworks, or We'll Sell You to a Syndicate
Tacoma's Light and Water Company files its inventory for a $1.75 million city buyout — and a critic notes that the company has always known how to win a Tacoma election.
- Olympia’s Fight for a Deep-Water Harbor
Citizens tell the harbor-line commissioners to claim Budd Inlet’s tide flats for public wharves—not a narrow waterway that would hand the waterfront to private owners.
- The Checkerboard Conflict
A federal judge rules that sheep ranchers can cross Northern Pacific Railway land to reach public grazing grounds, challenging the railroad's control over the landscape.
- The Great Hose Heist: How a Seattle Fire Department Was Almost Scammed by a New York Manufacturer
A peculiar dispute over fire equipment reveals the cutthroat world of late-19th-century municipal procurement, where agents played cities against manufacturers and warrants were used as currency.