Research the archive
Narrow 22,457 newspaper stories by words, years, place, newspaper and subject. See when and where they ran, then download what you find.
Put a phrase in quotes ("rent strike") or leave a word out with a minus (strike -baseball). Old scans misspell names, so when little is found, near-spellings are offered.
Refine
Show the numbers
| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 5 |
| 1877 | 4 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1883 | 2 |
| 1884 | 2 |
| 1885 | 1 |
| 1886 | 2 |
| 1887 | 1 |
| 1888 | 3 |
| 1889 | 11 |
| 1891 | 3 |
| 1892 | 8 |
| 1893 | 6 |
| 1894 | 6 |
| 1895 | 1 |
| 1903 | 5 |
| 1904 | 5 |
| 1905 | 1 |
| 1909 | 4 |
| 1912 | 1 |
| 1915 | 1 |
| 1923 | 1 |
74 stories matching bent
- Railroad War Erupts on the Seattle Waterfront
The Great Northern and Lake Shore railroads face off in a midnight standoff over coal bunker right-of-way.
- The Man Who Walked With a Bolt Through His Foot
John Moore, Seattle's most noted diver, recounts the harrowing moment he was impaled by a railroad bolt in the Mississippi River—and how his tender saved him.
- The Fishhook Baited With Human Flesh
In a Port Townsend hotel, a sailor displays the improvised wire hook that kept survivors of the wrecked whaler James Allen alive after the disaster in Bering Sea.
- Sold at Fifteen, Then Shut Out: A Walla Walla Nurseryman's Daughter Ends Up in the County Poor Farm
Sixty-five, penniless and 'bent and weary,' Alice Hess writes from the Spokane County poor farm asking whether the law can force her wealthy Whitney relatives — a nurseryman, a Big Bend doctor, a sitting legislator — to keep her alive.
- The Great Whatcom Railroad Brawl
Construction crews for two rival railroads face off in a pitched battle over a trestle crossing, turning a civil dispute into a physical struggle on the tracks.
- The Mother in the Front Pew
A sermon on appearances and the judgment of the wealthy, as observed in a Seattle church.
- The Neighborhood Vigilance of 1886
When a Chinese-run laundry was established in a Seattle neighborhood, residents didn't petition the city—they took matters into their own hands.
- The Coal Creek Massacre: A Coroner’s Inquest into the Battle Between Knights of Labor and Mine Owners
In January 1890, Seattle Sheriff Cochrane deployed militia to Newcastle to suppress a miners' strike. When a riot erupted at Coal Creek, one man was killed and ten arrested. The subsequent coroner's inquest revealed a chaotic scene where union men claimed self-defense against armed mine owners, while the sheriff dismissed the Knights of Labor as 'too excitable.'
- A Chaotic Day on the Seattle Waterfront
Multiple steamship collisions, a warehouse fire, and a capsized picnic boat turned the Seattle harbor into a disaster zone on a single August day.
- The Ghost of Washington Street
A retired detective recalls a haunting murder investigation in 1870s Seattle, where a father’s vengeance and a daughter’s grief ended in the deep waters of the bay.
- The Tragedy on Trestle No. 4
A father's desperate attempt to walk his children to safety during a heavy snowstorm ends in a devastating train accident on the outskirts of Tacoma.
- The Bridge Swung, and Fifteen Loaded Cars Went Down
A bridge collapse near Walla Walla sent a tender, fifteen freight cars and a caboose into a ravine, leaving three railroad men badly injured and one likely to lose an arm.
- A Kenton Picnic Speech and the Justification of Native Displacement
At a Kenton picnic, Judge Orange Jacobs cast pioneer survival as historical necessity and used dehumanizing rhetoric to defend the displacement of Native Americans.
- The Great Political Tickling: How Daniel Bugley Outwitted Seattle’s Beriah Brown
A fiery editorial in the *Snohomish Sun* exposes a political alliance between two rival editors, accusing them of using religious fervor as a cover for partisan maneuvering.
- The Seattle Water-Hose Rail War of 1888
When two rival railroads fought over a contested stretch of waterfront track, the dispute escalated from legal threats to a chaotic brawl involving barricades, hired detectives, and a fire hose.
- The Battle for the Tide-Flats
A group of enterprising squatters use the cover of darkness to plant cabins on disputed Seattle waterfront land, challenging a prominent businessman's claim.
- The Soapbox Fury of Pioneer Place
On a shivering evening in 1892, disgruntled citizens and Populist agitators took to the streets of Seattle to decry 'subsidized editors,' crooked bond issues, and the 'damnable state of things.'
- The Waterfront Collapse
McNaught's wharf at the foot of Virginia Street crumbles into the bay, destroying a warehouse and a local fish packer's livelihood.
- The Electrocution of a Lineman
A routine day for a Seattle Electric company worker ended in a harrowing, public death that left his body suspended over the city's Sixth Avenue for fifteen minutes.
- A Narrow Escape on the Reservation
A father thwarts a violent assault on his daughter after the assailant is discovered hiding in their home.
- Bushwhackers in the Puyallup Woods: How the Pullman Strike Became a Criminal Manhunt
A federal grand jury indicts a Northern Pacific clerk for threatening to draw locomotive fires, while Sheriff Matthews finds rifles and a shotgun used to ambush passenger trains near the Puyallup reservation.
- A Saloon Brawl, a Broken Back, and a Witness Who Fled Winlock
F. M. Frost's death was ruled accidental, but a missing witness's story says Henry Dabrainer bent him backward like a jackknife and snapped his spine.
- The Steamboat That Dared the Rapids
Captain James W. Troup pilots the steamer *Hasalo* through the treacherous Cascades of the Columbia River in a feat of navigation that thrilled onlookers and defied death.
- The Ghost on the Forest Trail
A lone rider’s remains, discovered near Enumclaw, spark a haunting reflection on the anonymous lives lost in the rush to settle the wild West.
- The Jailbreak of 'Philadelphia Kid'
A daring prisoner slips through a forgotten gate, sparking a city-wide manhunt across Seattle's central district.