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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 1 |
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| 1876 | 3 |
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| 1884 | 1 |
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51 stories matching benefici
- Hard Times Are Over, but Striking Railroad Men Need Not Apply
Northern Pacific managers touring the coast said the depression had turned, but they refused to rehire workers who had walked off the job.
- The $12.50 Gold Rush: How a Railroad Rate War Flooded Seattle with Hope and Skepticism
As Canadian Pacific slashes fares to half the price of American lines, local merchants debate whether the coming wave of homeseekers will build the city or break it.
- The Great Mountain Road Debate of 1877
As Seattle dreamed of a transcontinental railroad, settlers in the Kittitas Valley argued that a simple wagon road was the true key to their economic survival.
- The Schoolteacher vs. The Coal Baron
An outspoken Newcastle teacher risks his career to confront the Oregon Improvement Company over its brutal labor practices and the displacement of local widows.
- Fort Walla Walla's Long Fight Against Abandonment
A historical look at the community's desperate efforts to preserve the military reservation as a public asset.
- The Fight for Public Power
Seattle municipal power superintendent J. D. Ross defends the controversial Bone Bill in White Bluffs, arguing for cheaper rates through public competition.
- The Water Rights Dispute That Reshaped Kittitas County
A landmark court decision in Kittitas County clarifies the complex laws of water appropriation for arid Washington lands.
- The 'Lazy' Reservation: A White Settler's Rant Against Indian Farming
In May 1877, a Seattle correspondent published a vitriolic letter in the *Intelligencer* challenging claims of Native agricultural success on the Suckley Reservation, arguing that federal land policies encouraged 'idleness' and demanding the lands be opened to white settlers.
- The Fortress of Timber: How Mill Barons Bought the Land to Buy the Town
In 1877, a local editorial warned that Port Blakely’s massive timber companies were cornering the market on real estate, creating an economic monopoly that would stifle independent growth and keep workers dependent on their employers.
- The Weight of the Mill: A Logger’s Victory on Puget Sound
For years, loggers were cheated by mill-owned scales that rigged the weight to keep pay low—until the Papal Mill Company broke the cycle.
- The Railroad's Land Grab: How Northern Pacific Hoarded Snohomish’s Future
A local resident exposes the legal loopholes allowing the railroad to retain millions of acres in Western Washington, arguing that this concentrated ownership is strangling settlement and keeping land prices artificially high.
- The Political Bazaar of 1891: How the Calkins Faction Tried to Buy the Senate
In a frantic scramble to seize power, legislative 'strikers' in Olympia flooded the capital with promises of patronage and political favors, mirroring the high-stakes, behind-the-scenes maneuvering that still defines state politics.
- The Railway Stakes: Great Northern Picks Seattle
A massive land-buying spree signals that Seattle is set to become the Pacific terminus for a new transcontinental rail giant.
- The Desert Awakens in Kittitas
A massive engineering feat to bring water to 15,000 acres, bankrolled by local Ellensburg businessmen.
- The Waterfront Right-of-Way Battle
The Supreme Court rules in favor of the railroads, allowing them to rebuild the controversial 'Ram's Horn' track along the waterfront.
- The Ledger of Grief After Franklin
Roslyn miners pledged their September pay while Franklin’s relief committee set monthly sums for widows and orphans—and the veteran mine superintendent broke down.
- The Great One Thing: Seattle’s First Bid to Stop Strangers from Leaving Empty-Handed
In 1876, a group of local citizens proposed an 'Immigration and Labor Bureau' to help newcomers find work and land, recognizing that Seattle was losing potential residents because they didn't know where to start.
- The Strange Case of the 'Boy Burglar' and His Well-Connected Father
A young man charged with several local burglaries is released after his father, a Chicago official, settles all claims and promises to take him home.
- The $5.5 Million Bet That Would Reshape Seattle's Waterfront
St. Louis investors sign on to fill the tide flats and dig a canal linking Lake Washington to Puget Sound, betting Seattle will become the Pacific coast's leading city.
- Deadlock in Olympia: A Governor Says No and the Senate Seat Stays Empty
Governor McGraw refuses a U.S. Senate seat, George Turner is pushed forward, and Ankeny's backers dig in as Populists threaten to break the deadlock.
- Labor's Fight Against the Injunction
A stirring call to action from the American Federation of Labor regarding the use of courts to suppress workers' free speech.
- The River That Wasn't: Kennewick’s Lonely Fight to Open the Snake
While Portland looked the other way, Kennewick businessmen pooled their own money to dredge rapids and build docks, betting the town's future on a water route that never came.
- Bridging the Divide: The Quest to Unite Washington Territory
In 1882, residents and leaders were grappling with the geographic and cultural chasm between the rugged, booming Puget Sound and the burgeoning Eastern Washington region.
- The Death of the American Shipyard
In an 1873 speech, Congressman Alexander Mitchell argued that excessive taxation and protectionist tariffs were systematically destroying the American shipping industry, forcing once-prosperous shipbuilders into obsolescence.
- The Temple of Thought: Snohomish Builds Its Own Athenaeum
A visiting orator declares the new Snohomish Athenaeum a 'temple of science, literature, and art,' rising from the wilderness to preserve the intellectual legacy of the Pacific Northwest.