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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1859 | 1 |
| 1861 | 1 |
| 1862 | 1 |
| 1877 | 1 |
| 1883 | 2 |
| 1886 | 1 |
| 1889 | 1 |
| 1892 | 2 |
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21 stories matching colonist
- The Colony Train Bound for Whidbey Island
Eighteen Michigan farm families arrived in Seattle to take land near Oak Harbor, part of a Dutch-led colonization push promising dairies, fruit farms and a thousand new households on Puget Sound.
- Fleeing the Blizzard: Farmers Look to Puget Sound
Colonies of farmers from North Dakota, Minnesota and Michigan—some worth up to $50,000—are selling out and heading west to Whatcom, Skagit and Whidbey Island, drawn by railroad inducements and a milder climate.
- Steilacoom Empties Its Garrison for a Near-War on San Juan Island
On Aug. 9, 1859, soldiers and two brass cannon left Steilacoom aboard the steamer Julia to reinforce Capt. Pickett’s tiny command, as the U.S. and Britain edged toward war over a boundary and a pig.
- The Railroad That Would Make Seattle
A Northern Pacific agent promises the through line from the East will reach Seattle by September 1, bringing freight, passengers, and a flood of settlers to Puget Sound.
- The Last Colony of Snohomish Departs
A mother chooses her family over a religious sect’s move to California, pulling her children from the train at the final moment.
- 200 Families Bound for a New Catholic Colony in the Nooksack Valley
Polish, Swiss, German and Slavonian settlers plan a 20,000-acre farming community near Acme, naming it after the Polish refuge in the Swiss hills.
- The Sailor Who Sold the Editor
A seafaring impostor weaves a tale of tragedy and shipwreck to con a meal out of local journalists, exposing the desperate vulnerability of the early Seattle news beat.
- The Man Who Shook Hands with History
President Roosevelt’s visit to Walla Walla sparked a political firestorm and a rare moment of cross-cultural connection.
- The Tragic Disappearance of a Smuggling Sloop
Twelve people, including ten Chinese laborers and two young girls, are believed to have perished in the treacherous straits separating Victoria from the American side during a high-stakes human smuggling operation.
- The Forced Relocation of the Spokane Tribe
As winter approaches, government agents scramble to move Spokane families to the Coeur d'Alene reservation, offering small frame houses as an incentive.
- The San Juan Island Standoff
Tensions between American settlers and British authorities on San Juan Island flare in the territorial legislature, sparking a debate over sovereignty and the treatment of American interests.
- The Veterans' Colony at Port Angeles
A dedicated movement settles hundreds of Union veterans in a planned colony, promising a new boom for the Olympic Peninsula.
- The Geopolitics of Women’s Clubs
A Seattle speaker breaks down the 'monopoly' of land and power in Latin America, framing the region's instability as a failure of democratic inheritance.
- The Port Townsend Loyalty Meetings
Citizens organize to refute allegations of disloyalty published in regional newspapers.
- Anti-Chinese Discrimination on the Sound
A prominent merchant is insulted and denied service on a passenger steamer, exposing the growing intolerance of the era.
- The Hawaiian Colony of Aberdeen
Facing economic displacement by Chinese labor in Honolulu, a group of islander families seeks a new start as farmers in the forests of Grays Harbor.
- The Promised Land That Wasn't: A Settler's Warning from Assiniboia
An immigrant recently arrived in Spokane describes how colonization companies lured families to the Canadian Northwest with loans and free transportation, only to leave them in debt and misery.
- A Dry-Hills Gamble: Sixty Settlers and a Well
When boosters claimed Yakima’s brown hills could farm, thirteen families put up $25 each to drill for water and prove it.
- A Polish Colony in the Washington Woods
Organizers are recruiting hundreds of dissatisfied Polish and Swiss families from the Midwest to a planned settlement called Rapperswyl, on the south fork of the Nooksack — a Swiss name planted on the edge of Whatcom County.
- The Utopian Dream of the Credit Foncier
A new cooperative colony, modeled after Pacific social experiments, seeks to organize city life through integral co-operation.
- The Sunnyside Canal Water Dispute
Farmers from the Dunkard colony in North Yakima square off against the government, demanding a fix for their water rights after a season of devastating crop failure.
Also about this, in other words
- A Homesteader, an Indian Agent and the Land at Lake Chelan
When a federal agent prepared to forcibly remove a homesteader from land newly allotted to Colville Indians, Judge Hanford drew a line: the eviction would have to go through the courts.
- The Salvation Army's Radical Plan to End Urban Poverty
Commander Booth-Tucker calls for government-backed farm colonies to rescue the urban poor, citing the success of land reform in New Zealand.
- The Skirmish at Chelan River
Two Indigenous farmers and two white squatters face off in a dispute over land rights and cultivation.
- The Expert Turns Farmer
A county agriculturalist who has spent three years advising local farmers decides to test his own theories by homesteading land.
- The Struggle for Inclusion in the Civil War Era
A local letter to the editor challenges the anti-immigrant prejudice of the day, arguing that foreign-born citizens are just as essential to the Republic as native-born ones.
- The Pioneer Farmer Who Wanted to Represent King County
In the lead-up to the 1870 election, the local press championed a practical farmer from the Black River valley to bring common sense to government.
- The New England Hotel's Ban
A local hotel owner strikes a blow against Chinese labor, signaling a rising tide of xenophobic economic policy in the Pacific Northwest.
- The Loggers Who Built a Town: How an Indian Settlement Thrived on the Banks of Port Discovery
While Snohomish debated its own agricultural future, a thriving community of Indigenous farmers and loggers was quietly building a prosperous life in Dungeness, complete with schools, hotels, and dairy herds.