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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 4 |
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| 1882 | 1 |
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| 1887 | 2 |
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| 1889 | 6 |
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64 stories matching button
- Turning Washington's Lakes into a Pearl Button Empire
Professor Trevor Kincaid argues that Washington's fresh water lakes are perfectly suited to revolutionize the American button trade.
- Everett Labor Council Rallies for Iowa Button Workers
Local union leaders send support to striking button workers in Muscatine while pushing federal legislators for an eight-hour workday.
- Turning Lakes into Pearl Factories
A University of Washington professor claims the Pacific Northwest could dominate the global pearl button market by transplanting Mississippi mussels.
- The Day Tacoma Painted Itself Blue, White and Yellow
A mile-long parade, camels, a captive elk and a senator's electric button opened the Interstate Fair in a burst of Northwest boosterism.
- The Electric Gate: An Olympia Father Declares War on Front-Gate Courting
A gadget-minded Eastside householder wires his front gate to deliver a jolt to lally-gagging sweethearts — and proves it first on an unwitting dog and a cabbage-loving cow.
- Pearl Buttons and a Will Deepen Lake Washington Mystery
A missing woman’s will is discovered, while two travelers stumble upon evidence at Lake Washington that deepens the mystery.
- The Disappearance of Miss Nellie Holgate
A young clerk vanishes during a rowing trip on Lake Washington, leaving behind her boat, a bonnet, and a sinister trail of missing pearl buttons.
- The Unsolved Disappearance of Nellie Holgate
After a saleswoman vanished from Lake Washington, a web of suspicious rewards, unidentified buttons, and mysterious boat trips left the city wondering if she had been killed or simply fled.
- The Watches, Pipes and Toothbrushes of the Unclaimed Dead Go Up for Auction
Two years of the coroner's unclaimed effects — purses, cuff buttons, knives and one gold timekeeper — will be sold at the courthouse door on July 7. Their owners died violently, died poor, or were pulled from the bay and written down as 'unknown.'
- The Key-House Raid: Seattle Police Break Up a Gambling Club
Chief Rogers raided the Union Club in the Cobb Block, seizing 1,150 chips and 63 decks of cards—and arresting two men who each claimed to be in charge.
- From the Pulpit, a Pastor Takes Aim at Tacoma's Mayor
Rev. Dr. Dean Richmond Babbitt compares Mayor Orr to a Roman official who looked the other way, jeers at 'brass-buttoned police' and warns the mayor he could be prosecuted for letting the law be broken.
- The Roller-Skating Rink Disaster
A grocery man's customer describes the catastrophic attempt of his father, a self-proclaimed former skating expert, to navigate the local roller rink.
- The Aberdeen Rifles' First Grand Gala
A night of 'brass buttons and bright eyes' as the new local armory on Heron Street hosts its inaugural dance.
- The Mayor’s New Crown: Port Warden’s Gold-Braided Cap Causes a Stir
Seattle's Port Warden E.L. Bonner has adopted a navy blue 'peaked cap' with gold braid to mark his official capacity, but finds the uniform too 'formal' for daily duties.
- The Great Seattle Fire Department Mutiny
Twenty-seven veteran firemen resigned in protest after a political appointment replaced their chief, leaving the city with an untested crew.
- The Hidden Grave at Chatteroy
After months of detective work, three family members were jailed for a murder involving a long-buried body in the woods.
- He Walked Out of the House and Into a Whirlpool of Whispers
A well-liked Spokane County farmer vanishes near Mica, and forty neighbors turn the countryside upside down hunting for him — but the deeper they dig, the stranger the trail becomes.
- The Railroad King's Secret: Kahn Reveals the 'Scoop' Behind Seattle's Next Big Line
In a rare interview on his birthday, Democratic committee member Joe Kahn spills the beans on the Northern Pacific’s expansion plans and hints at a massive political scandal involving President Harrison.
- The Gilded Union: A Chorus Girl and a Chinese Actor Defy Convention in Seattle's Chinatown
In a scandalous departure from social norms, Jessie Kitchie and Ah Bock exchanged vows in the opium-scented apartments of Jackson Alley, marking a rare public union across racial lines in 1889.
- The Deadly Hum of the Electric Current
A routine building fire in downtown Seattle turns into a terrifying, lethal brush with the new technology of electricity.
- The 'Two Percent' Mayoralty: How Tacoma's Populist Boss Won the Ticket
When Alexander Parker, a wealthy lender known for 'only' charging two percent interest, vied for the mayor's office, he didn't just run a campaign—he staged a spectacle of political maneuvering and local theater at Germania Hall.
- Firefighters Battle Freezing Hose at 1893 Blaze
When an arctic blast hit Seattle, firemen responding to a blaze returned to their stations as living statues of ice.
- An Escape From Chinatown
The first wife of a prominent merchant attempts to flee her unhappy marriage, sparking a chaotic confrontation in the alleyways of old Seattle.
- Everett Socialists Rally for Lawrence Strikers
Local unionists and radicals pack Liberty Hall to protest the brutal treatment of striking textile workers in the East and send a formal message to the President.
- An Indigenous Burial Site Exposed by Rains
Heavy winter storms have unearthed a historic burial ground on the Walla Walla River, revealing items from the Hudson Bay era and beyond.
Also about this, in other words
- An Indignant Patron
A Chinese man refuses a segregated ticket policy at a local circus.
- A Musical Interruption in Hover
An account of a brief performance by two Black entertainers at a local schoolhouse, filtered through the era's jarring racial language.
- The Colonel and the Dog Catcher
A Democratic campaign rally ends in chilly indifference, punctuated by a bit of slapstick oratory.
- A Cable Car Gripmans's Violent Run-In
A cable car operator faces legal trouble after a collision with a child results in a serious infection.
- The Emergency Brake of 1892
A clever new mechanism for Seattle's Woodland Park streetcar line promised to stop a runaway trolley car within its own length.
- The Rowing Invention That Changed the River
A Snohomish local debuts a mechanical rowing gear that allowed boaters to steer and power their craft with ease, signaling a shift in daily river navigation.
- The Desperate Plea of a Crippled Sailor
A man smashes a streetcar window to force the city to provide him with basic care.
- Streetcar Smash-up on the Spur
A motorman is seriously injured in a collision at a local woodyard after a switch fails to be reset properly.