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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1861 | 2 |
| 1863 | 1 |
| 1876 | 10 |
| 1877 | 8 |
| 1878 | 10 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1880 | 2 |
| 1882 | 2 |
| 1883 | 9 |
| 1884 | 5 |
| 1885 | 4 |
| 1886 | 2 |
| 1887 | 5 |
| 1888 | 8 |
| 1889 | 26 |
| 1890 | 1 |
| 1891 | 15 |
| 1892 | 17 |
| 1893 | 17 |
| 1894 | 17 |
| 1895 | 17 |
| 1898 | 1 |
| 1899 | 4 |
| 1900 | 3 |
| 1903 | 11 |
| 1904 | 7 |
| 1905 | 4 |
| 1908 | 2 |
| 1909 | 8 |
| 1910 | 3 |
| 1911 | 2 |
| 1912 | 1 |
| 1915 | 1 |
| 1916 | 6 |
| 1917 | 7 |
| 1925 | 1 |
240 stories matching chain
- 1878 Sheriff’s Sale Lists King County Land
A 1878 legal notice reveals a forced property sale near the Duwamish River, capturing the raw reality of early Seattle’s land-based economy.
- The Price of Industrial Expansion: A Sheriff's Sale on the Duwamish
In 1878, a court-ordered auction of land near the Duwamish River revealed the high-stakes debt and legal entanglements defining early Seattle development.
- The Price of Panic: Losing the Farm to the Sheriff
After a grueling economic downturn, a King County family faces the auction block as court-ordered sales sweep Seattle.
- Sheriff's Auction: King County Land Sold to Settle a Debt
A 1878 legal notice reveals a grim snapshot of early King County land struggles, as a riverside homestead goes to auction to satisfy a debt.
- The '$11,000 Gold' Sack That Held Only Tire Chains
A suffrage lobbyist carried a bank sack labeled with a fortune through Spokane and Olympia, letting fellow passengers believe she was transporting the campaign fund. It was full of automobile chains.
- The Justice of the Peace Who Sent Men to the Chain Gang Takes His Turn in It
Former Newport Justice of the Peace Warriner, a fugitive after the grand jury and district court got through with him, is caught by a deputy sheriff and hauled off to serve 150 days at hard labor — ball, chain and a smile.
- The Rock-Breaking Return of the Chain Gang
After years of disuse, Walla Walla city officials revived the ball-and-chain labor system as a punitive measure for minor offenders.
- The All-Night Waterfront Watch That Recovered Forty Stolen Boom Chains
Police lay in wait at the foot of Vine Street after a boat loaded with chains appeared in North Seattle. The trail led back to a Port Townsend mill and a second-hand dealer.
- The Chain Gang Strikes: Bread and Water for Seattle’s Labor Rebels
When twelve men on the city's chain gang refused to work, Mayor Moran’s police chief responded with a cold diet of bread and water—and a public shaming that turned the streets into a theater of penal discipline.
- Robbed Under the Nose of Police Headquarters: A Daring Snatch on Yesler Avenue
A visitor from the Snoqualmie hop ranch is relieved of his watch just steps from the jail, leading to a dramatic chase through a vacant lot.
- The Tragedy at the Dog Show
A blue-ribbon collie is found strangled to death in her stall following an accidental slip-noose on her chain.
- The Axe, the Shackles, and the Noon Run
Roy Le May cut himself loose from a Pend Oreille County chain gang and headed for Colburn before Sheriff Merritt brought him back.
- 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.
- The Chain Letter That Worked the Christian Endeavor List
A Seattle post-office box asked for dimes for a 'crippled girl'—and for every recipient to copy the letter to two friends.
- The Dream That Cracked the Theft Case
A jailed boarder's dream led police to a stolen gold watch and chain hidden under foundation blocks.
- A Chain Gang Escapee Captured in North Seattle
Dan McMillan, who made a daring escape from a city chain gang, is finally back in custody after years on the run.
- Burglars Ransack Banquet Hotel, Steal Jewelry and Razor
A thief made off with a gold watch, chains, a cameo ring, and a safety razor from the Banquet Hotel on Monday evening, and police suspect a woman known to them may be involved.
- A 30-Cent Debt Ends in a Water Pitcher, a Watch Chain, and Two Lawsuits
A Newcastle boarding-house keeper and a stage driver turn a petty fare dispute into a grand-larceny trial, a jury, and a follow-up assault charge.
- The Chain Gang Escapee
A petty thief learns the hard way that jumping from the chain gang in Buck's Canyon only results in a much longer stay in the county jail.
- The Hammer in the Woodshed: Henry Creamer's Death Sentence
A Seattle jury convicted a foreign-born laborer of Mrs. Meller's murder on circumstantial evidence, while his lawyer insisted the real killer—or at least a missing witness—was in the room.
- The Colfax Contempt: A Honeymoon on the Chain Gang
In a bizarre twist of justice and timing, D. Franklin Squibb married his new bride just weeks after his divorce was finalized—only to find himself serving hard labor for contempt of court.
- The Day Seattle’s Subscribers Hauled Their Newspaper Office to Safety
When a fire threatened the Seattle Star building in Pioneer Square, loyal patrons didn't just call the fire department—they grabbed chains and ropes to physically tow the structure away from the flames.
- Kennewick Equips for Chain-Gang Labor
The city council implements a new ordinance requiring prisoners to serve their sentences performing hard labor on the streets.
- The Salvage Ship That Came to Raise Puget Sound’s Sunken Wrecks
A new wrecking schooner arrived in Seattle with a rubber-suited diver, hydraulic jacks and a plan to lift the sunken Mississippi and Warhawk from the Sound.
- Third Break in Two Weeks: A Prisoner Simply Walks Off the County Farm
A Newport man jailed for refusing to pay his poll tax slipped his shackles and disappeared into the hills, handing the county's chain-gang overseer his third escape in a fortnight.
Also about this, in other words
- Turning the Chain-Gang Toward Thrift
A city commissioner rejects expensive wood bids for the pumping station, proposing to employ the chain-gang instead.
- The Chain-Gang’s Shovel Symphony
In the heart of Olympia, a group of convicts turned Pacific Avenue into their personal construction site, wielding pickaxes and shovels with obstinate pride.
- The Chain Gang Strike: When Seattle’s Jailers Fed Rebels Bread and Water
Twelve roughs on the city's Commercial Street cleanup crew walked off the job, leaving six loyal workers to finish the job. The police response? Lock them in the darkest cells until their sentences expire.
- The End of the Chain Gang in Seattle
City officials move to retire the practice of using prisoners for manual street labor, shifting to rock-breaking in a bid to deter professional tramps.
- The Day a Prisoner Broke His Chains and the Police Chief Grabbed a Boy's Horse
A robbery suspect makes a mid-day run for the bushes from the chain gang; Seattle's police chief commandeers a horse and trees him just outside town.
- The End of the Chain Gang
Whitman County commissioners vote to abolish the work gang, sparking a rift with the sheriff and frustrated local farmers.
- A Child Lost to the Woods
A tragic accident occurs near Snohomish as a young boy, out with his rifle, fails to return home.
- The Tale of the Mule and the Chain Gang
A tragicomic local account of a man's final, ill-fated encounter with a stubborn mule while attempting to evade the law.