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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1861 | 1 |
| 1872 | 2 |
| 1876 | 10 |
| 1877 | 16 |
| 1878 | 4 |
| 1880 | 2 |
| 1882 | 2 |
| 1883 | 5 |
| 1884 | 2 |
| 1885 | 5 |
| 1886 | 3 |
| 1887 | 5 |
| 1888 | 3 |
| 1889 | 11 |
| 1890 | 2 |
| 1891 | 14 |
| 1892 | 22 |
| 1893 | 15 |
| 1894 | 7 |
| 1895 | 11 |
| 1899 | 3 |
| 1903 | 5 |
| 1904 | 6 |
| 1905 | 1 |
| 1909 | 6 |
| 1911 | 1 |
| 1914 | 1 |
| 1916 | 3 |
| 1917 | 1 |
| 1923 | 4 |
| 1924 | 1 |
174 stories matching ambit
- A Magnate's Despair: The Suicide of Paul Schulze
A Tacoma streetcar president and irrigation promoter, ruined by debt and the loss of Northern Pacific confidence, takes his own life with a chilling note about ambition.
- The Man Who Told James J. Hill There Would Be Two Railroads
F. A. Blackwell came west from Pennsylvania with cash, timber sense and nerve — now his Pend Oreille line is racing the Great Northern to the Canadian border.
- The Railroad Land Agent Who Chose Death Over Ruin
Paul Schulze, the Northern Pacific’s former land agent and a promoter of Tacoma streetcars and Yakima irrigation, shot himself as receivers took over his enterprises.
- From a Blacksmith Shop to a Million Members: Seattle's AME Centenary
Rev. Allen W. Whaley traced 100 years of African Methodism from a Philadelphia blacksmith shop to a global church—and named the race prejudice that forced its founders out.
- A Legislature Deadlocks Over a U.S. Senate Seat
A joint-session vote fails to choose a senator, and the Post-Intelligencer demands that the Republican majority settle the contest in caucus before the session is consumed.
- The Muddy Road to Greatness
As Seattle rapidly expanded in 1877, its editors lamented that the city’s commercial ambitions were literally stuck in the mud, demanding urgent infrastructure for a growing population.
- The Romantic Ruin of a Seattle Dreamer
A young woman in 1878 Seattle finds her intellectual ambitions derailed by a fleeting, unequal affair with a local 'villain.'
- The Night Olympia Went to War — and Nobody Shed a Drop of Blood
A touring tragedian closes his engagement with six acts of Shakespearean murder, and the army court-martial in town turns out in force to watch.
- A Seattle Preacher Tells Society Women They Are Marching Their Children to the Gallows
Preaching to women only on "Dying Mothers and Starving Children," Rev. M. A. Matthews calls society "the emptiness of emptiness" — and blames card parties, prizes and maternal neglect for juvenile crime.
- The Railroad Contractor Who Thought He Could Boss the Republican Party
Nelson Bennett's Tacoma Ledger refused to back John H. McGraw and the state Republican ticket after a canal fight. A Pierce County senator told the party to stand by the convention—and warned that one wealthy man was not bigger than the party.
- A County Divided: Newport’s Bid for the County Seat
A Colville editor mocks the east-west county division scheme, but dry-vote fallout and Newport’s county-seat ambitions expose real fault lines across Stevens County.
- The High Price of Marrying Into Nobility
A cautionary editorial from 1877 warns of the 'matrimonial maelstroms' facing stage stars who traded their hard-earned success for aristocratic titles.
- The Tragedy of Ursula Unfag
In a sensational murder trial, defense attorneys reveal a harrowing cycle of abuse and exploitation behind the death of a local editor.
- The Missing Will That Would Have Given Seattle a Library
Henry Yesler's widow and two doctors are arrested, accused of burning a will that left the pioneer's fortune—and his mansion—to the city.
- The Brutal Logic of Dispossession
Governor Newell’s biennial message advocates for the total dismantling of reservations in Washington Territory to prioritize white settlers' agricultural ambitions.
- The Great Seattle Saw-Mill Lottery
A frontier town turns to state-sanctioned gambling as a desperate economic strategy to boost local development.
- Democratic Convention Splits Over Ship Canal
A bitter political brawl at the state convention in Olympia ends in a stinging defeat for Seattle’s most ambitious infrastructure dream.
- The Man Who Thought He Owned Seattle Died Chasing a Ghost Fortune
Henry Zechow spent nine years and a small army of lawyers trying to claim an uncle's imaginary empire—including a block of downtown Seattle—before his body turned up in the Fraser River.
- The Stone That Crushed: A Fatal Day at Seattle’s City Hall
Two men are killed and another left for dead when a scaffold collapses during the construction of the new municipal building, exposing the deadly risks of civic ambition in 1877.
- The Secretive Life of a Wealthy Pioneer
A ventriloquist who became a wealthy Seattle landlord dies with no family to claim his riches.
- The Fight Over the Hawaiian Islands
As Washington politicians and chambers of commerce clamor for annexation, locals weigh in on the imperial ambitions of the United States.
- A Young Pioneer’s Tragic End
A promising life in the Seattle real estate trade is cut short by a workplace accident at the Vulcan Iron Works.
- The Collapse of a Great Western Land Empire
A Minneapolis financier’s ambitious plan to build a 'manufacturing town' north of Seattle implodes, revealing a labyrinth of fake mortgages and hollow companies.
- Seattle Packs a Theater to Mourn Frederick Douglass
A month after the great abolitionist's death, the city's Black community fills the Seattle Theater with music, prayer and eulogy — and hears him compared to Washington and Lincoln.
- The Political Trading Floor in Mission
A backroom bargain in Chelan County pits local ambition against the governor's power, revealing the high-stakes chess game behind early 20th-century endorsements.
Also about this, in other words
- Hanford’s Bank Closes Doors
Consolidation of banking institutions reflects the changing economic landscape of the mid-Columbia river region.
- The Cashier Who Fled to Canada
A defaulting cashier, retrieved from British Columbia to face seventeen counts of embezzlement, finally enters the city prison.
- A Bank President’s Arrest Leads to a Habeas Corpus Fight
Dr. W. P. Book, former president of the failed Aberdeen bank, is arrested in Seattle and released on $2,000 bond while his lawyers challenge the case.