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87 stories matching beef
- The Dairy Wars: Small Farmers Fight for Survival
Kennewick farmers push back against federal dairy regulations they claim are a Trojan horse for the 'Beef Trust.'
- The Meat Cartel and the Working Man’s Supper
When local butchers formed a monopoly to inflate the price of beef, Seattle’s working class turned to fish and bacon—and the local press took notice.
- The Bear That Wasn't: Seattle’s War Department Scandal
A federal court of inquiry clears the city of corruption but exposes a bizarre military blunder involving refrigerated beef and embalmed meat during the Spanish-American War.
- A Dead Man’s Name on the Payroll
A Walla Walla ex-employee files twenty charges against L. T. Erwin, accusing the Yakima Indian agent of fraud, perjury, and turning the agency into a private larder.
- An Ambush in the White River Valley
A local store owner and his daughter narrowly escape a violent attack by three assailants.
- The Harbor's Salmon Season: 40,000 Cases, 200 Jobs—and a Case for the Lowly Dog Salmon
A Grays Harbor cannery packed nearly two million cans and paid fishermen more than $50,000 in three months, while a correspondent argued the maligned dog salmon was as good as dried beef.
- The Cattle Boom That Was Selling Off Its Own Future
A Northern Pacific land examiner warns that Nebraska buyers are sweeping up Washington breeding stock, prices are surging in Yakima County, and an Adams County artesian well could open a new grazing frontier.
- Columbia County Ate Its Last Local Steak
After three years of trainloads shipped out, Dayton's butcher shops ran dry and the town had to import beef from the East.
- The Great Meat Safe: How Seattle’s Fishermen Could Have Rivalled London’s Beef Trade
A July 1876 dispatch from the Agricultural Gazette reveals that fresh American beef was successfully shipped to London in refrigerated holds. The Daily Intelligencer editor sees a parallel opportunity for Puget Sound halibut, which currently spoils before reaching San Francisco markets.
- The Great Butterine Debate
A Seattle agricultural journal takes a hard stance against the 'fraud' of oleomargarine, arguing that the industry's decline is a moral victory for farmers.
- The Snohomish Cattle Scam
A local farmer gets more than he bargained for when he unknowingly buys his own stolen livestock back from a neighbor.
- The Great Beef Price Drop of 1893
Wholesale cuts fall to record lows, making meat affordable for the city's working poor during the lean winter.
- A Meat Delivery Ends Beneath a Freight Train in Old Town
John Flynn, a 51-year-old sailor working odd jobs, was carrying beef to a barkentine when a Northern Pacific train backed over him at the foot of McCarver Street.
- The Wild Cow That Ran Amok: Seattle’s First Public Menace
A runaway bovine terrorized the streets of Pioneer Square before being shot dead, sparking a bizarre legal battle over who owned the carcass and whether rotten beef could be sold to unsuspecting diners.
- The Quartermaster’s Arithmetic: Scrip, Pork, and Profiteering in Washington Territory
A detailed audit of Quartermaster General W. W. Miller’s books exposed inflated prices, unexplained payments, and scrip issued for vouchers the commissioners had already disallowed.
- Blood and Beef: A Fatal Dispute in Oakesdale
A cattleman's refusal to accept payment for tainted meat leads to a cold-blooded killing in a quiet Washington town.
- The Rotten Beef Scandal of 1872
When a local market was accused of selling diseased meat, the ensuing war of words revealed the thin line between journalism and extortion in early Seattle.
- The High Cost of Isolation
A local editor argues that the lack of direct transport routes creates an artificial tax on basic goods like beef, coal, and timber.
- The Public Caught in the Meat Strike's Crossfire
As packinghouse workers and beef trusts battle for profit and wages, the Tacoma Times laments the rising cost of living for everyday families.
- The Lumber Barons Are Starving Themselves: Why Puget Sound Should Be Feeding Its Own Cows
A local editorial argues that Washington’s reliance on imported dairy is an economic absurdity, urging farmers to switch from beef to Devon and Jersey cattle to capitalize on our unique climate.
- The Waterfront Fugitives of Milton
When two men were caught butchering stolen beef, a routine arrest at the water's edge turned into a desperate aquatic brawl.
- The Christmas Dinner That Filled a Seattle Hall With 275 Children
At the Salvation Army barracks, donated roast beef, candy bags and two tinsel trees gave waterfront and hillside children a holiday feast in 1893.
- The Great Cattle Stampede on Wharf Street
Eight head of prize beef from Puget Sound ignored the slaughterhouse route and raided a grain store instead.
- The Price-Fixing Meat Trust
Seattle's wholesale meat dealers move in lockstep to drive up prices on beef, pork, and mutton.
- Seattle's 1889 Fire Destroys 64 Acres of Downtown
A glue pot disaster in a paint shop levels sixty-four acres of Seattle’s business district, triggering a massive regional relief effort.
Also about this, in other words
- Steaks, Monopoly and a Puget Sound Meat War
Seattle and Tacoma wholesalers are cutting prices and opening shops, while a Tacoma meat man blames a slump in demand and a fight to control the trade.
- The Goat Meat Grift
A Seattle housewife takes matters into her own hands after a local butcher tries to swindle her.
- The Price of Meat and the Cost of Labor
An 1889 market report reveals how a massive influx of laborers into Seattle was driving up the local meat market and straining supply chains.
- The State Chemist Finds Formaldehyde in Canned Meats
Washington's State Food Commissioner moves to curb the use of dangerous preservatives in industrial food production.
- A Whole Ox on a 30-Foot Trench: The Butchers' Free Feed for Ten Thousand
Six beeves, sixteen sheep, one ox and 45 boiled hams — roasted overnight over open coals at Madison Street Park and handed out free on pasteboard plates, with a greased pig, a greased pole and dancing until daybreak.
- The Great Snohomish Meat Drain: A Local Market Opens to Stop the Flow of Imported Beef
While most towns relied on outside suppliers, Mr. Hilton’s new meat market aims to keep capital in Snohomish by supplying loggers locally.
- The Meat Market Feud
A bitter business dispute between partners of the Frye-Bruhn Company spills into the streets and the courtroom.
- A Butcher’s Betrayal Cleared the Packing House
Tacoma’s Carstens Packing Company wins exoneration after a rogue employee bought diseased cattle behind their back, shipping them into the city.