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| Year | Stories |
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| 1871 | 1 |
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17 stories matching boren
- The Divorce Dozen: Olympia’s Council Clears a Path for Broken Marriages
In December 1860, the Washington Territory Council processed a flurry of divorce petitions, including one from prominent local figure Carson D. Boren, revealing the fragile nature of domestic life in the frontier.
- The Counterfeiters of Boren Avenue
A Secret Service investigation reveals a family-run forgery ring using 'secrets of wise men' and early forensic fingerprinting to manufacture bogus coins in Seattle and Tacoma.
- The Abandoned Wife of Seattle's Founder
Dr. David S. Maynard claimed 640 acres in Seattle, then secretly divorced his wife of 24 years to marry another—a legal battle that exposed the heartless machinations of the city's early days.
- The Frontier Pulse: Seattle in 1871
A look back at the origins of the city, from the arrival of the first families and the Indian War to the rise of coal, sawmills, and the hope for a transcontinental terminus.
- The First Wedding in Seattle, Celebrated Forty-Two Years Later
David and Louisa Denny gather four generations of pioneers at their Temperance Street home, where relics of the 1850s—and the certificate from Seattle’s first marriage—turn an anniversary into a founding story.
- The Strange Odyssey of the Boy and the Stolen Buggy
When a 17-year-old was caught stealing a horse and buggy, his strange behavior revealed not a criminal mind, but a tragic descent into mental illness.
- The Great Moss Panic of 1878
Seattle's early city council once declared war on rooftop greenery to prevent the city from burning down.
- The Great Courthouse Turf War
A boisterous public meeting pits North Seattle against the old guard over where to build the county's new courthouse.
- The Detective Who Sued His Way Back to the Force
After being fired for searching a home without a warrant, a Seattle detective spent over a year battling the police department in court, finally securing his job and back pay.
- The Struggle to Build the First King County Jail
After years of delay, the King County Commissioners finally moved to secure land for a permanent jail—using $3,500 in county warrants to purchase a lot between Jefferson and Mill Streets.
- The Price of a Marital Settlement
A wife files a scathing counter-complaint alleging coercion, threats, and a secret financial pact in a high-stakes divorce suit.
- The 1878 Great Seattle Tax Auction
Before the skyline, there was the spreadsheet: A massive public auction of delinquent Seattle properties reveals the names, debts, and land-holdings of the city's pioneer founders.
- The Struggle for a Seattle World's Fair
Promoters for a Seattle exposition are already hitting walls as they debate locations and worry about the structural integrity of the Armory Hall.
- The Delinquent Tax Rolls of Territorial Seattle
A haunting, granular list of property owners from 1875 and 1876 whose land was seized by the county, documenting the precarious nature of early Seattle ownership.
- The Forgotten Wives of the Front
While the nation cheered the return of soldiers from the Philippines, the women left behind in Seattle organized to secure the future of the volunteers.
- The County Courthouse That Wasn't: King County Sells Its Own Home
In a bizarre twist of civic bureaucracy in January 1891, King County is forced to auction off the very building housing its courts because the new one isn't finished yet.
- The Real Estate Auction That Built Seattle’s First Suburbs
In March 1889, just months after the Great Fire devastated downtown, executors of James Crawford’s estate sold off dozens of city lots in a public auction at Occidental Square. These parcels would become the foundation for neighborhoods like Judkins and Bellevue.