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|---|---|
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76 stories matching avert
- A Local Cable Car Strike Averted
Workers on the Madison Street line negotiate a contract to avoid a walkout as the company faces financial instability.
- The Iron Workers’ Truce
After months of tense negotiations and the threat of a prolonged shutdown, iron manufacturers and workmen in Seattle reach a compromise to avert a general strike.
- A Courtroom Brawl Narrowly Averted
Tempers flared between attorneys John F. Dore and Will E. Humphrey outside the courthouse following a heated trial.
- The Eight-Hour Law Comes to the Depot — One Operator Hired, One Clerk Cut
The railroad averts a telegraphers' strike by yielding to the new federal hours law, assigning a second operator to Newport — then quietly trimming its clerical payroll to pay for him.
- The Seattle Baker Who Stopped a Midnight Inferno
A quick-thinking baker at the Queen City Bakery spotted smoke rising from the Denny Block, narrowly averting a major downtown catastrophe.
- Fire Narrowly Averted at Highlands Home
A superheated fireplace tile ignites the floorboards of the Lehnhard residence, sparking a mid-winter emergency.
- The Bridge That Saved a Life: A Near-Miss on the Seattle-Maplewood Line
Engineer Harry Bingham’s split-second brake application stopped a speeding passenger train just feet from a fallen horse and rider on a trestle bridge, averting a catastrophe that would have shaken the city.
- Vigilante Justice Narrowly Averted in Roslyn
A mob of men attempted to lynch a laborer near Roslyn before word arrived that the alleged crime had not been completed.
- Fire Ravages Miller Farmstead
A devastating blaze wipes out essential equipment and stores at the Miller residence, narrowly averted from total loss by neighborly aid.
- Schoolhouse Fire Averted by Students
Swift action by pupils and Principal Kirkpatrick saves the White Bluffs grade school from an accidental chimney fire.
- Disaster Averted at the Franklin Mines
A broken cable sends an empty coal car plunging into the depths of a flooded mine, barely missing a catastrophic accident for the workers.
- Fire Narrowly Averted at Taylor Orchard
A quick-thinking bucket brigade saves a residence after an attic electrical fire ignites.
- Typhoid Fears in the West End
Tacoma health officials move to contain a potential outbreak linked to a local milk provider.
- Midland Residents Demand Fire Safety
Neighbors petition the county fire warden to stop a local mill from burning refuse in open air, fearing forest destruction.
- The Mayor vs. The Board of Health
Mayor Ronald demands the resignation of Seattle's health board in a bitter clash over political control and professional autonomy.
- A Saloon Shootout Averted
A Montana man faces justice after drawing a pistol in a Mill Street saloon over a gambling dispute.
- The Great Stuck River Jam: A Battle Over Water and Land
In a tense standoff on the White River, Pierce County cattlemen illegally dammed the waterway to protect their pastures, forcing King County officials to ride out with Winchester rifles to avert a violent conflict.
- The Day the Railroad Stopped: How Two Boys Nearly Derailed a Train in Seattle
In October 1876, a group of mischievous youths removed the brake from a freight train at the Northern Pacific terminus. A lucky passerby noticed the danger just in time, averting a potential catastrophe that could have turned Seattle’s early rail history into a tragedy.
- The Janitor Who Foiled a Ten-Man Jailbreak in Ellensburg
Prisoners had almost tunneled out of the county jail when a janitor sleeping in the sheriff's office heard the scraping—and made a promise they believed.
- A Runaway Horse Crashes Into a Tacoma Shop
A spooked horse hitched to a cutter careened down St. Helens Avenue before smashing through a storefront, meeting a tragic end.
- Trolley Car Disaster Narrowly Averted
A construction car derails near Lake Washington, trapping a man in the mud.
- The Nation on the Brink: Rail Workers Push for Eight-Hour Day
As contract negotiations fail, two million workers threaten a total shutdown of the nation's rail system, prompting intervention from President Wilson.
- 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.
- Tensions Boil Over at Milk Shippers' Meeting
While the Seattle Milk Shippers’ Association reports financial success, personal conflicts and competitive pressures nearly ignite a brawl among members.
- Federal Troops Sent to Seattle to Quell Anti-Chinese Violence
President Grover Cleveland’s 1885 message to Congress highlights the deployment of federal troops to Seattle and Wyoming to protect Chinese laborers from mob violence.
Also about this, in other words
- The Hidden Menace in the Valley
After a surge in rabid animal attacks in Benton County, local Grange members issue an urgent guide on how to survive a bite.
- A Captain Tries Twice to Die—and Walks Home
Capt. Alfred Garton took morphine, then a bullet, in an Occidental Hotel room. Both failed, and his letter blamed a fortune in real estate that no one would buy.