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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1862 | 2 |
| 1863 | 1 |
| 1864 | 1 |
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 21 |
| 1877 | 7 |
| 1878 | 4 |
| 1880 | 2 |
| 1882 | 2 |
| 1883 | 5 |
| 1884 | 3 |
| 1885 | 7 |
| 1886 | 6 |
| 1887 | 5 |
| 1888 | 5 |
| 1889 | 18 |
| 1890 | 4 |
| 1891 | 16 |
| 1892 | 16 |
| 1893 | 27 |
| 1894 | 26 |
| 1895 | 12 |
| 1897 | 1 |
| 1898 | 2 |
| 1899 | 9 |
| 1903 | 11 |
| 1904 | 2 |
| 1905 | 1 |
| 1908 | 1 |
| 1909 | 8 |
| 1911 | 2 |
| 1912 | 1 |
| 1914 | 11 |
| 1915 | 5 |
| 1916 | 17 |
| 1917 | 7 |
| 1918 | 1 |
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272 stories matching distribut
- The $100,000 Mill: Seattle’s Legalized Lottery for a Fortune
In 1876, the Washington Territory authorized a massive public lottery to fund a road across the Cascades. The grand prize? A fully operational steam sawmill and prime real estate in downtown Seattle.
- A Seattle League Wants Workers to Share the Profits—and the Losses
In the wake of labor unrest, a new Seattle group of employers and union men proposes profit-sharing as a cure for strikes, pointing to a company town in Illinois as proof it can work.
- The Lottery That Built Seattle: How a $5 Ticket Bought a Sawmill and City Blocks
In 1876, the Washington Territory authorized a massive state lottery to fund a road through the Cascades. The prize? A steam sawmill worth $100,000 and prime real estate in downtown Seattle.
- The $100,000 Gamble: Yesler’s Great Lottery
To fund a mountain road, Seattle pioneer Henry Yesler turned to a massive, state-sanctioned lottery, putting his own saw mill and downtown lots on the line.
- The Great Seattle Lottery: A $100,000 Sawmill and a Road to Nowhere
In 1876, the Washington Territory legislature authorized a massive public lottery to fund a road through Snoqualmie Pass. The grand prize? Yelver’s Steam Saw Mill. It was a bold gamble on infrastructure that reveals how early Seattle funded its growth.
- Aftermath of the Roslyn Mining Disaster
Community relief efforts distribute aid to the families of miners killed in a recent disaster at the Roslyn coal mines.
- Tragedy in the Roslyn Coal Mines
An industrial accident claims the life of an Italian miner, leaving six children orphaned as the community prepares to distribute relief funds.
- A Receivership Sale Rewires Seattle's Street Railway
Bondholders sign a deal to merge the troubled Rainier Power and Railway Co. into a new Third Street Suburban Railway Company, with the Denny family’s claims still shaping the terms.
- Rotting Melons and Broken Markets
Kennewick strawberry farmers find themselves squeezed by commission men and failing cooperative distribution chains.
- The Squire Building’s Grand Bazaar Opening
A record-breaking crowd floods a new storefront for a giveaway event of unprecedented scale.
- The Bee and the Blight
Fruit growers grapple with the scientific reality that bees, essential for pollination, also inadvertently spread devastating fire blight.
- The Price of a Home: How Seattle’s Real Estate Market Was Built on Death and Debt
In June 1876, the probate courts of King County were awash with estate sales. As families grieved, their homes—like that of C.C. Teery—were auctioned off to pay debts, revealing a housing market where survival depended on liquidating one's past.
- The Day Smallpox Walked the Streets: How One Man’s Ignorance Sparked Spokane’s Deadliest Epidemic
A drunk man wandering through downtown Spokane with a rash on his face nearly triggered a disaster that killed hundreds—until a sharp-eyed pharmacist stepped in.
- The Mugwump’s Ledger: How Seattle’s Territorial Secretary Gamed the Law Printing Contract
A fierce editorial exposes Secretary Owings for delaying the publication of territorial laws to favor a cronies’ printing bid, while padding the bill with 40 pages of his own party platform.
- The Pioneer Developer’s Gamble
When Seattle was a young, growing town, Henry Yesler looked for an unconventional way to fund critical mountain infrastructure: raffling off his massive timber empire.
- The Great Carp Distribution of 1885
A federal fish car arrived in Seattle from Washington D.C., sparking a city-wide frenzy as residents rushed to claim their share of a new, 'hardy' species.
- Seattle Sends Money and Flour to the Widows of Franklin's Dead Miners
After a coal-mine disaster left families in Franklin without breadwinners, the Post-Intelligencer's relief fund and an Olympic Athletic Club benefit kept cash and flour moving to widows and orphans.
- The Ledger of Grief After Franklin
Roslyn miners pledged their September pay while Franklin’s relief committee set monthly sums for widows and orphans—and the veteran mine superintendent broke down.
- The Waterworks War: Engineering the Future of West Seattle
While the rest of the city struggled with water, West Seattle turned to subterranean springs to build a booming suburban dream.
- The Water Wars: Why Seattle Should Settle with Benezette Williams
As the city prepares to sue a private developer for rights to its own water and sewer plans, this editorial argues that compromise is cheaper than litigation—and essential for public health.
- The Final Verdict on the Yesler Fortune
The Supreme Court intervenes in the contentious battle over Sarah Yesler's estate.
- Northern Pacific Labor Unrest
Railroad employees are alarmed as the company moves to unilaterally cut wages and bypass union bargaining processes.
- The Tillicums' Trick: How a Political Machine Fooled Tacoma's Democrats
A secretive faction called the Tillicums manipulates primaries, places decoy tickets, and doles out patronage jobs to tighten its grip on Pierce County politics.
- The Rambling Village That Wanted to Be a City
An 1876 editorial reflects on Seattle’s humble, sprawling aesthetic, arguing that the lack of architectural grandeur was not a failure of taste, but a deliberate, democratic strategy to avoid the 'unhealthy' wealth concentration of Eastern cities.
- The Postal War: How Snohomish’s Star Exposed Seattle’s Corrupt Postmaster
In June 1877, the editor of the *Snohomish Star* launched a blistering public attack on the Seattle post office, alleging that political cronyism and negligence were deliberately delaying his paper to protect local rivals.
Also about this, in other words
- The Hidden Stakes in Seattle's Founding
A legal dispute over Dr. David Maynard’s 640-acre donation claim reveals the overlooked property rights of his late wife, Lydia A. Maynard.
- The Struggle to Centralize Seattle's Poor Relief
A rector’s sermon critiques the chaotic overlap of city and county welfare, proposing a centralized bureau to replace piecemeal charity.
- The Price of Disunity
A local growers' association leader condemns farmers who bypass collective bargaining, warning that consigning produce to commission agents leads to market collapse.
- City Council Squeezes Out the Public Market
Tacoma’s city government moves to dismantle the D Street market, bowing to pressure from a grocery monopoly.
- The Great Disenfranchisement Fight
Legislators clash over an apportionment bill that threatens to strip the growing eastern population of representation, sparking fears of a political outrage.
- A Populist Critique of Corporate Power
State Senator J. T. Eshelman delivers a scathing rebuke of Republican 'corporate monopolies' before the Democratic Society of Washington.
- The Art of the Industrial Squeeze
How the Steel Trust uses deliberate idleness and wage competition to break unions and keep workers in poverty.
- The Great Delinquent Tax Sale of 1888
A sweeping list of hundreds of 'Unknown Owners' and Seattle residents facing the auction block, revealing the precarious nature of early land speculation in the city.