Research the archive

• “alway” ×

1. A Steamboat Inspector on Trial, and the Men Who Kicked

   A Seattle courtroom hears masters and pilots defend Capt. Bryant against charges of favoritism—and admit that the men who complain are often the incompetent ones.

   Mar 2, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyWork & Pay

2. The Devil's Ledger: A Local Poet Exposes the Hypocrisy of Pullman’s Elite

   In a rare moment of social commentary for Whitman County, an anonymous writer publishes a scathing series of rhetorical questions challenging the moral double standards of wealth, gender, and justice in 1889.

   Nov 10, 1888Pullman HeraldPullman, Whitman County

3. The Oldest Settler in Washington Dies—and He Left a Peace Between Two Worlds

   Thomas Stensgar came with the Hudson Bay Company, married into Chief Tomcomly’s family, and was called on to mediate between settlers and Indians.

   Aug 25, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerAddy, Stevens CountyExclusion & Resistance · Local Legends

4. The Engineer’s Ash-Box Ghost: A Tale of New Year’s Eve Peril

   In a column dated October 1870, the Seattle Daily Intelligencer reprints a harrowing tale from an old engineer about surviving a wreck by hiding under his locomotive's ash pan during a blizzard.

   Oct 2, 1876The Daily IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyWork & Pay · Disasters

5. Eighty Couples and a Brass Band: Aberdeen's Firemen Throw a Third-Anniversary Dance

   The volunteer department celebrates three years with a free dance at Koehler's hall, drawing guests from across Grays Harbor.

   Oct 26, 1893Aberdeen HeraldAberdeen, Grays Harbor CountyNightlife

6. A Judge Takes Aim at Seattle's Charter Reformers

   Judge Orange Jacobs mocks the men who promised a new city charter would cure every municipal ill — and doubts any document can make people honest.

   Mar 18, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyCity Hall

7. Anything to Beat Stretch: The Whole County Ticket, Man by Man

   The Sun walks Snohomish County's 1876 ballot from sheriff to coroner, and finds a whaling skipper turned pile-driver, a college-trained logger, and a sheriff whose enemies have a slogan of their own.

   Nov 4, 1876The Northern StarSnohomish, Snohomish CountyCity Hall

8. The Asylum Ward’s Unseen Hunger

   A patient describes the grueling conditions inside a Seattle insane asylum, where the sick are fed wormy prunes and bread meant for the refuse pile, while robust workers with influence dine on fresh milk.

   May 17, 1889The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyCity Hall

9. The Miner Who Went Back to Warn Them

   In the Franklin mine disaster, young Joseph Dawson chose to save his fellows and lost his own life—an editorial page's portrait of ordinary courage.

   Aug 26, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerBlack Diamond, King CountyWork & Pay · Disasters

10. Ida May Love Went to Sea as 'Dan McArdle'

    A Whatcom newlywed walked out on her husband, her skirts and her name to serve seven weeks aboard the warship Monterey — and the Post-Intelligencer tracked her to a Leavenworth dance hall, where she was still talking about 'us boys.'

    Mar 10, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerLeavenworth, Chelan CountyLGBTQ+ Lives · Nightlife

11. The Unseen Crime Wave in Early Seattle

    A local report exposes how the Seattle police force in the late 1880s suppressed news of burglaries to keep them out of the papers, hoping to solve the crimes quietly—with disastrous, ineffective results.

    Dec 13, 1887Seattle Daily Post-Intelligencer2nd Street & 3rd Street, Seattle, King CountyCity Hall · True Crime

12. The Fatal Dance of Washington's Ground Squirrels

    Scientists at the state agricultural college tried to wipe out crop-destroying rodents with bacteria—and found a native plague that sent infected squirrels spinning until they dropped.

    Sep 15, 1898Ranche and RangeWashington State University, Pullman, Whitman CountyStrange But True

13. The Ten-Hour Day That Split Seattle’s Streetcar Men

    A new state law barred Seattle’s streetcar companies from forcing motormen and conductors to work more than ten hours a day. But some workers petitioned to keep the old schedules, because they were paid by the hour.

    Apr 10, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyWork & Pay · City Hall

14. The Steamboat Inspector's Reckoning

    Capt. Bryant admits free rides, denies bribery, and trades accusations with the pilots and captains who want him removed from the Seattle inspection office.

    Mar 5, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyCity Hall

15. The Scandal of Character: Defending John McGraw

    Prominent Seattle figures, including rivals and old neighbors, rally to defend gubernatorial candidate John H. McGraw against rumors of a shady past as a hotel proprietor.

    Oct 28, 1892The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyCity Hall · Scandal

16. A Five-Cent Lunchroom Where Men Are Barred

    In the Shorey building, Mrs. Flora D. Brown runs a noonday refuge for Seattle’s shop and factory women, serving soup, coffee and a welcome for a few pennies—and keeping the men firmly outside.

    Apr 16, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyWork & Pay

17. The Six-Story Mill Built on a Rock in the Spokane River

    In 1883, S. G. Havermale and B. F. Davis began raising a flour mill and elevator on Little Island, betting that water power and wheat would make Spokane Falls a grain capital.

    Aug 25, 1883Spokane Falls ReviewSpokane, Spokane CountyFollow the Money · Boom & Bust

18. The Railroad Man Who Gave Seattle Its First Real Baseball Team — Then Lost Everything

    W. R. Thornell organized the Pacific Northwest League and the 'Seattle Reds,' then lost his bank job over a forged note. Bright's disease took him at Paddock Memorial Hospital in Tacoma; he was buried in the city that once cheered him.

    Apr 28, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyBoom & Bust · Nightlife

19. She Rode 2,000 Miles from Wisconsin to Seattle — Alone, in a Dress

    Emma Larson, a 31-year-old Seattle woman, crossed the continent on horseback with only her mare Kitty for company, sleeping under the stars and going days at a stretch on nothing but water.

    Nov 25, 1883Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyLocal Legends · Strange But True

20. Wild Goose Bill: The Frontier Ferryman Who Kept a Free Boat for the Poor

    A Washington paper remembers W. H. Condon, a 68-year-old pioneer whose free Columbia River ferry, homemade roads and violent past made him a local legend.

    Feb 1, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilbur, Lincoln CountyLocal Legends

21. The Senator Who Came to Bless the Canal

    Illinois senator Shelby Cullom tours Seattle's proposed Lake Washington ship canal, flirts with a presidential run, and tells boosters their city needs 'a little Chicago push.'

    May 17, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyBoom & Bust · City Hall

22. A City Fed Up: Seattle Demands an End to the Fire Department Follies

    Six years after the Great Fire, an exasperated editor says the wrangling over the fire department has become a farce — and warns the mayor, council and commission to settle it or step aside.

    Jun 17, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyCity Hall

23. Murphy Forever: A Rival Editor Skewers Olympia's Perpetual Councilman

    Days before the First Ward election, the Tribune turns its sarcasm on Councilman John Miller Murphy — newspaper editor, theater proprietor, professed temperance man, and, by this account, a fixture in the council chamber and at the bar he once voted to close.

    Dec 5, 1891The Olympia TribuneOlympia, Thurston CountyCity Hall

24. When a Railroad Pass Was a Bribe in a Pocket

    A Tacoma editor demands Washington's lawmakers enforce the constitutional ban on free train passes, arguing the 'courtesy' bought influence one legislator at a time.

    Jan 3, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerTacoma, Pierce CountyCity Hall

25. Two Farmers Who Started With Nothing and Built Dairy Fortunes

    A Scandinavian immigrant with no money and an Ilwaco homesteader who once lacked even winter underclothing became models of dairy success through testing, breeding, and relentless work.

    Oct 1, 1903The RanchIlwaco, Pacific County

Download all 881 as a spreadsheet (CSV)