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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1861 | 2 |
| 1862 | 2 |
| 1864 | 1 |
| 1872 | 3 |
| 1876 | 24 |
| 1877 | 23 |
| 1878 | 45 |
| 1879 | 6 |
| 1880 | 4 |
| 1882 | 6 |
| 1883 | 15 |
| 1884 | 8 |
| 1885 | 10 |
| 1886 | 5 |
| 1887 | 10 |
| 1888 | 15 |
| 1889 | 47 |
| 1890 | 6 |
| 1891 | 29 |
| 1892 | 72 |
| 1893 | 84 |
| 1894 | 84 |
| 1895 | 79 |
| 1897 | 2 |
| 1898 | 6 |
| 1899 | 12 |
| 1900 | 7 |
| 1902 | 1 |
| 1903 | 37 |
| 1904 | 43 |
| 1905 | 1 |
| 1907 | 3 |
| 1908 | 7 |
| 1909 | 44 |
| 1910 | 6 |
| 1914 | 7 |
| 1915 | 5 |
| 1916 | 14 |
| 1917 | 8 |
| 1918 | 1 |
| 1919 | 1 |
| 1923 | 1 |
| 1924 | 2 |
| 1925 | 1 |
| 1928 | 1 |
790 stories matching cash
- The Case of the County's Vanishing Funds
A local editor questions why county attorneys are pocketing tax collections while leaving the county treasury empty-handed.
- Seattle’s Food and Shelter Depot Served 5,572 Free Meals in December
The charity’s weekly report defended free meals, promised work for the able-bodied, and insisted it served all comers regardless of race or religion.
- The Great Statehood Gamble: How Washington Territory Bet Its Future on a Coin Flip
In February 1889, Congress passed the 'Omnibus Bill' granting statehood to four territories simultaneously. For Seattle and Tacoma, this wasn't just political news—it was a high-stakes gamble that would determine their city limits, tax structures, and place in history.
- The Midnight Cash-Out at the N.P. Bar
A local saloon proprietor vanished with the entire week's payroll just before payday.
- Seattle's Schools Were Running on Borrowed Money—and the Bill Was Due
In 1895, the school board urged voters to ratify a stack of bonds and warrants incurred to build schools, warning that the alternative was a six-month school year—or repudiation.
- Seattle's Schools on the Brink: The 1895 Debt Vote That Could Have Cut the School Year to Six Months
With floating warrants piling up and the tax base shrinking, School District No. 1 asked voters to ratify about $387,000 in debt and refinance it before the school term was cut from ten months to six.
- Seattle Teachers Finally Get Paid in Cash—No More Discounting Warrants
A new state law allows the county treasurer to pay current school expenses from the annual tax levy, ending the practice of teachers discounting their salary warrants for ready cash.
- The Reverend’s Estate: A Seattle Administrator Accused of Paying Himself First
Rev. L. Parker wants the court to approve his accounts, but a special administrator says he spent estate money without permission, inflated legal fees, and sent a mortgage to his brother in Canada.
- The Clerk Who Refused to Leave Office—and the Books That Wouldn't Balance
King County and former clerk W. B. Spencer submit a long-running dispute over fees, continuances and a disputed shortage to Judge Humes for a final ruling.
- Every Cent Accounted For: The New Treasurer Counts Out the County's Gold
J. W. Maple relieves Dr. A. P. Mitten of the King County treasury — $464,905.37, more than eighty per cent of it coin — and hands the plum jobs to fellow Populists while the remaining Republicans start looking for the door.
- Spokane Buys Itself an Army Post
Boosters raise cash and acreage for a new military post on the ground of an 1858 campaign against confederated tribes.
- The Man Who Robbed Seattle's Fire Relief Fund Walked Out of Prison on Friday
Five years after the great fire of 1889 turned Seattle to ash, the secretary trusted to hand out relief money — an inspector who forged checks to invented men — finished his sentence and went free, his full take never known.
- The Bunko Men and the Judge
A Seattle judge is under fire for releasing two known con-men on cash bail—funded, ironically, by the very money they stole from their victims.
- The True Cost of a Store Tab in 1872 Seattle
A young couple's struggle with 'monthly accounts' reveals how merchant credit traps were the predatory debt cycles of the 19th century.
- A Nurse, Three Drafts, and a Mother's Outburst in Court
Nat Young Jr. is bound over for trial on charges he drained a sick man's bank drafts — but the star of the preliminary hearing is his mother, who leapt up in Justice Caldwell's courtroom and shouted, 'That is a lie.'
- The Great Seattle Railroad Swindle
How corporate speculators and land rings bypassed honest stockholders and plundered the future of the city's waterfront.
- The Paper Trail That Went Up in Smoke
A King County tax assessor admitted that sworn property records were routinely burned, sparking a public outcry over local fiscal transparency.
- The Great Telephone Bribery Scandal
Tacoma councilmen testify before an investigative committee regarding allegations that a telephone franchise promoter offered cash and stock to secure their votes.
- The Warden Fights Back: Prison Labor, Jute Sacks and a Seattle Newspaper Scandal
Accused of selling prison-made sacks to middlemen and brutalizing convicts, Walla Walla’s warden answers his critics with a detailed defense—and a challenge to inspect the prison.
- Seattle Tried to Garden Its Way Out of Unemployment
At a Chamber of Commerce meeting, civic leaders pledged vacant land, tools and seed so jobless families could grow vegetables through the winter, borrowing a relief plan from Detroit.
- The Man Who Told James J. Hill There Would Be Two Railroads
F. A. Blackwell came west from Pennsylvania with cash, timber sense and nerve — now his Pend Oreille line is racing the Great Northern to the Canadian border.
- The Price of a Scandalous Settlement
New Whatcom city leaders face backlash over a proposal to accept devalued warrants and bad bank certificates to settle a massive treasurer's embezzlement.
- The Forger Who Fooled Seattle Banks
A clever check-raiser who cut his mustache and fled to Snohomish leaves behind a tangled web of litigation between an Aberdeen bank and Seattle’s financial elite.
- The $70,000 Rebellion: Olympia Refuses to Pay Its Railroad Bill
Northern Pacific missed its promised deadlines, so the citizens who pledged land and cash to bring the line to town decided the contract was void—and headed to court.
- The City Treasurer’s Ultimatum
Seattle’s incoming treasurer refuses to accept bank IOUs as currency, demanding hard coin to back the city’s treasury.
Also about this, in other words
- The Price of Survival: The Rise of the Cash-Only Store
In an era of credit-heavy frontier commerce, a Snohomish general store forces a shift to a 'cash-only' economy.
- The End of the Ledger: Coulee City Merchants Go 'Cash Only'
Local business owners announce a shift away from credit-based commerce to lower prices and eliminate accounting headaches.
- The Tragedy of the Cash Boys
An argument between two teenage workers at a dry goods store turns fatal.
- The Fight for Cash Wages
A proposed Seattle ordinance to force contractors to pay laborers in 'lawful money' rather than time checks was struck down by the City Council.
- The End of the Credit Era in Coulee City
Local merchants announce a shift to a 'cash-only' economy, aiming to eliminate debt and reduce consumer prices.
- The Persistent Promise of Easy Money
A classic 19th-century 'work from home' pitch promises Snohomish laborers a fortune for minimal effort.
- A Debt Paid in Full
A Kennewick church celebrates financial independence by burning their mortgage document in a ceremonial act.
- Guilty Conscience Returns Satchel
A thief in Bellingham experiences a change of heart, leaving a stolen satchel full of cash and checks in the victim's yard.