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134 stories matching boot
- The Shoe That Could Save Seattle: Why We Must Stop Exporting Our Hides to San Francisco
An editorial in the Puget Sound Dispatch argues that Seattle’s economic survival depends on manufacturing its own boots and shoes locally, rather than shipping raw hides south for a 10% premium.
- The Prickly Pear That Changed a Life: How a Boy’s Prank in Iowa Sent Him to Seattle
A local resident reveals the bizarre chain of events that led him from an Iowa farm to the Pacific Northwest, starting with a screwdriver and a pair of boots.
- The Clue in the Rubber Boots
A fire in a barn on White River leads to an arrest after a trail of distinct boot prints is discovered.
- The Fight for Quality Boots: A Snohomish Shopping Tale
Before e-commerce, Snohomish loggers relied on local merchants like Billy Edwards to bypass 'cheap California' imports in favor of high-quality, handmade footwear.
- The Unbeatable Guarantee of Elliott M. Best
In 1876, a Seattle shoemaker promised that if his hand-sewn boots broke, he’d replace them for free.
- Seattle Investors Plan a Boot Factory and Tannery
Before tech and aerospace, Seattle’s business elite plotted to stop shipping raw hides to San Francisco and instead build a city of tanneries and shoe factories.
- The Old Publican’s Monopoly: A 1885 Labor Dispute Over Where You Drink
An 1885 editorial muses on the history of spirits and accidentally reveals how local employers used the 'company store' model to control where workers spent their wages.
- The Boot That Didn't Fit: A Murder Trial at the Turn of the Century
In a dramatic courtroom scene, an accused man attempts to clear his name by proving his feet were simply too large for the evidence that supposedly convicted him.
- The Anti-Catholic Crusade Comes to Rake's Hall
A Seattle crowd packed a nativist A.P.A. rally to hear a Baptist pastor demand that immigrants prove their patriotism—or take the first train home.
- The Agony of Fashionable Feet
A traveler reflects on the misery of tight-fitting boots, finding in them a metaphor for the 'tight shoes of the soul' that burden our daily lives.
- 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 Seattle Wife Sued Her Husband for Beating Her. The Court Said She Couldn't.
Judge Osborne ruled that a married woman could not maintain a damages action against her husband for assault—even after testimony of a fist to the eye and kicks with heavy boots—sending the case to the state Supreme Court.
- Officer Shoots Bystander During Foot Chase
A logger is wounded in the arm by a stray bullet when a policeman fires at a fleeing shoplifter in the South Third Street district.
- Chief Butterfield's Night Raids on Two Gaming Houses
After weeks of public defiance, Seattle’s police chief launched a series of high-stakes raids on the city's most prominent gaming houses, leading to dramatic foot-booted entries and stacks of confiscated faro layouts.
- The Shadow at the Window: A Frontier Murder Trial
A Swedish laborer stands accused of a cold-blooded killing at Cedar Mountain, as prosecutors weave a circumstantial web of muddy boot prints and stolen rifles.
- The Smooth Talker of Tacoma
A persuasive con man leaves a trail of bamboozled businessmen and empty wallets.
- A Polish Rancher in Muddy Boots Sits Down at the Piano and Steals the Show
Two hundred people in fancy dress fill the Olympia Theater to raise $83.75 for a Sherman Valley schoolhouse — with the lieutenant governor on fiddle, the mayor managing, and the sage of the valley in blue overalls at the keyboard.
- A Red-Ink Grudge in Tacoma
A minor mail-tampering incident leads to a brutal cane and boot assault at a Tacoma boarding house.
- The Rainy Weather Club’s Practical Revolution
Aberdeen women unite to reject impractical Victorian fashion in favor of functional, mackintosh-based rainy day gear.
- 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.
- Midnight Elopement: Judge Canned Saves the Day for King County Lovers
When Mary Hayes' father forbade her union with Gilbert McKinley, the couple didn't run away to Canada—they ran to Justice of the Peace Cannon at midnight. A local romance that proves love conquers all, even paternal disapproval.
- Arson Suspected in Yakima Hay Fire
A thousand-dollar loss leaves authorities tracing boot prints from the ashes.
- The Silent Men of the Powder Mill
Working in the volatile shadow of Seattle's 1872 gunpowder industry, men labored in constant, hushed fear of an accidental explosion that could erase their existence in an instant.
- The House Rules of the 'Magic' Boarding House
A cantankerous landlord lists a set of bizarre, strict, and contradictory regulations for his boarders, from 'pulling off their boots' to a mysterious policy on nightmares.
- Ice Breaks: Two Young Men Drown in Snohomish River Tragedy
Horace Low and Arthur Butt, employees of the local newspaper office, lost their lives after ice gave way beneath them while skating on the river.
Also about this, in other words
- The Bootblack Ban: City Cracks Down on Alley Hustlers
Chief of Police ordered to serve notices to all bootblacks occupying city alleys; merchants and workers clash over public space.
- A Community Rallies After a Railway Tragedy
When a young brakeman loses his foot in a rail accident near the Cedar River, local citizens organize to secure his future.
- The High Cost of Calf-Busting
Two young boys in the Highlands learn the hard way that bronco-busting isn't quite as easy when the bronco is a farm calf.
- The Axe Slip That May Have Cost a Newport Boy His Foot
Will Scott, 15, was helping his father at a Jackson wood camp near Penrith when the axe glanced from a log, severing cords and crushing bone in his foot. Dr. Phillips dressed the wound.
- Broken Leg on the Offner Ranch
A routine day of breaking horses turns painful when a bookkeeper is struck by an iron-shod hoof.
- A Sudden End in the Woods
A young immigrant worker killed by a falling limb near Seattle highlights the perils of early logging.
- The Boom That Refuses To Bust
While critics predicted the collapse of the Washington boom, the territory points to its literal bedrock—coal, iron, timber, and grain—as proof of its enduring prosperity.
- A Scantling Scuffle at the Boom
A simmering dispute over local timber booms erupts in violence at Chenoise Creek.