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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 4 |
| 1877 | 2 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1882 | 5 |
| 1883 | 4 |
| 1885 | 3 |
| 1886 | 1 |
| 1887 | 1 |
| 1888 | 1 |
| 1889 | 3 |
| 1890 | 6 |
| 1891 | 6 |
| 1892 | 8 |
| 1893 | 1 |
| 1895 | 6 |
| 1899 | 1 |
| 1902 | 1 |
| 1903 | 4 |
| 1904 | 2 |
| 1908 | 1 |
| 1910 | 1 |
| 1925 | 1 |
63 stories matching census
- The Invisible Citizens of North Yakima
A local editor complains that federal census rules are failing to count the transient, hardworking men who keep the city growing.
- The Yakima Census Shortfall
A census taker quits early, leaving the city's official population count significantly underrepresented.
- The City That Beat the Fraud: Seattle’s Census Integrity
While Portland faces a third recount for dishonesty and Salem inflates its numbers with transient workers, Seattle and Tacoma emerge from the federal census audit with clean records.
- The Great Population Bluff of 1887
A scathing editorial exposes how local politicians inflated King County’s census data, revealing the long history of 'boosterism' in Seattle's growth.
- The Census as an Intrusion of Privacy
A scathing editorial critique of the 1890 Census, calling government inquiries into property and health a 'meddling' breach of private life.
- The Struggle to Count Seattle
Boosterism and bureaucracy collide as city leaders argue that the recent census failed to capture Seattle’s true, booming population.
- The Great 1890 Headcount
Federal agents prepare to survey Washington's rapidly growing population, bringing new jobs and a complex pay scale to the frontier.
- Seattle's schoolhouses couldn't keep up with the boom
A new census showed Seattle's school-age population far outstripping its two schools, forcing the district to plan a third—and maybe a fourth and fifth—building.
- A Quiet Fourth in Yakima
City authorities ban fireworks, sending residents elsewhere to celebrate while census enumerators scramble to count the town.
- Shelton’s Growing Pains and Booming Timber
A census reveals Mason County is shifting toward a higher population class, sparking a rush of candidates vying for new, higher-paying offices.
- The Industrial War Between Seattle and Tacoma
Fresh census data is weaponized in a heated civic rivalry over wages, manufacturing growth, and economic dominance.
- A Farmer’s Scathing Critique of the Economic Machine
A North Yakima farmer writes a letter to the census bureau expressing his outrage at the plight of the working class versus railroads and trusts.
- The Fight Against the Rotten Boroughs
Legislative critics blast Washington State's failure to reapportion seats, arguing that rural 'cow counties' have kept power by ignoring population shifts.
- The Mortgage Hangover: Seattle’s Post-Fire Reckoning
A federal census agent tallies the heavy toll of reconstruction, revealing how the city’s rapid rebuilding after the Great Fire of 1889 fueled a massive wave of high-interest debt.
- The 1876 Snapshot of a Growing Seattle
A new city directory reveals the frantic pace of 19th-century growth, cataloging the small businesses and shifting population of a frontier town on the cusp of modernization.
- The Shoddy Scandal: How the Tariff Made Our Clothes Garbage
Aberdeen readers are warned that under the McKinley Tariff, the American clothing industry has swapped quality wool for 'shoddy' rags, hair, and cotton.
- The Color Line at the Oberon: Seattle’s First Civil Rights Test
When a prominent Black minister is ejected from a local music hall for his race, he threatens legal action under state law, sparking a public debate on discrimination in early 20th-century Seattle.
- The Senator’s Crusade for Public Education
An 1882 Congressional proposal sought to use whiskey tax revenue to fund the nation's public schools, promising tens of thousands of dollars to Washington Territory.
- The Territory That Demanded Its Right to Grow
When Washington was treated like a 'rotten borough' in Washington D.C., the local press fired back to prove the territory was ready for statehood.
- Seattle's School Census Explodes: One Year Beats Five
Clerk W. H. Taylor counts 2,675 children under 21 in District No. 1—a one-year jump of 798 that the paper calls proof of the Queen City's rapid rise.
- The Great 1910 Census Padding Scandal
Across Washington state, towns are inflating their populations with ghosts, hobos, and unborn children to secure their status.
- Washington Kept Dodging Its Own Congressional Map
After the 1890 census gave Washington a second representative, the state spent years avoiding the required division into two congressional districts.
- The Commissioners’ Power Grab
Aberdeen’s local officials accused of illegal gerrymandering to manipulate the upcoming election.
- The 1877 Guide to Starting Over in Seattle
When settlers from the Midwest wrote to the Seattle Intelligencer asking about the frontier, they got a blunt primer on the local economy, the 'bonanza' of land speculation, and the reality of life in the rainy territory.
- The Secret Census of Incarcerated Aliens
Federal agents conduct a quiet, month-long sweep of Washington’s state institutions to identify non-citizens for deportation.
Also about this, in other words
- The Colville Reservation Is Surveyed for White Settlement
A treaty strips the Colville Indian Reservation down to individual allotments, and surveyors are called to run more than 1,000 miles of lines across northeastern Washington.
- The First Census of a Boomtown: Seattle’s Population Swells to Nearly 4,000
A newly published directory reveals the explosive growth of the Pacific Northwest's frontier city, detailing a population surge driven by logging camps and coal mines, while highlighting the stark racial demographics of 1876.