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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 1 |
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189 stories matching essenti
- Debs in Seattle: The Case for Union, and the Cost of the Wrong Leaders
As Eugene Debs lectures in the city, the Post-Intelligencer argues that organized labor is essential — but warns that strikes and reckless leaders can bankrupt the very workers they claim to serve.
- The Banker Caught in the City's Money Mess
As the corruption trial of Henry Fuhrman unfolds, his defense argues that his private financial dealings with the city treasurer were not criminal, but essential maneuvers to keep city payroll running.
- The Pulpit vs. The Parochial School
A Seattle minister takes the stage to denounce Catholic education and demand the defense of the secular public school system.
- The State Line Was Not as Solid as It Looked
A Newport property owner calls for a permanent survey of the Washington–Idaho boundary before confused surveys turn into an endless round of land litigation.
- The Poor Man's Stump Burner: Newport Farmers Pack Kelly's Hall
In 1909, 150 farmers crowded a Newport hall to hear a state expert explain how to clear land by charring stumps—a low-cost method that promised to open Pend Oreille County fields.
- Seattle's Streets Were Made of Wood. The Fight to Pave Them Was On.
A City Council vote for brick on Pike Street signaled the end of makeshift plank roads—if Seattle could stomach the first cost.
- Who Gets to Vote in the Primaries?
Seattle's corporation counsel says registration is not optional—even for party primaries—and that election judges cannot waive it.
- The Health and Independence of American Women
A lively contemporary debate centers on whether the 'ill health' of American women is a result of fashion or a symptom of their economic dependence.
- Seattle Leaders Press Railroad President Harris
Local business leaders force a tense public confrontation with the Northern Pacific Railroad president over land monopolies and deferred development.
- The Wharf King’s Victory: Yesler Wins Millions in Land Battle
Judge Lichtenberg rules that the state cannot seize waterfront property without paying just compensation, halting the Harbor Line Commission and protecting H.L. Yesler’s empire.
- The Great Northern Railroad Strike
A historic federation of railway workers defies their own union leaders to launch a massive wildcat strike across the Pacific Northwest.
- The Judge Who Was Both Defendant and Accused
In a stunning legal double-header, Judge Wickersham is convicted of seduction in one court, then immediately indicted for perjury by the federal grand jury in the very same day.
- The Iron Road Reaches Seattle
How James J. Hill bypassed government land grants to connect the Pacific Coast to the interior, permanently altering Seattle’s future.
- The Delegate Who Sold Seattle’s Future for Five Thousand Dollars
A scathing editorial in the Puget Sound Dispatch accuses Territorial Delegate George Freeman Willard of betraying Seattle’s interests—specifically the mud flats of Duwamish Bay—to secure his own political and financial gain, while simultaneously accepting bribes from rival railroad companies.
- The Ghost of the Gatherer: A Captain’s Suicide Haunted by His Own Cruelty
Decades after a horrific voyage where officers maimed and murdered sailors to escape their 'demoniac' captain, the master of the ship dies by suicide in Puget Sound, fulfilling a prophecy of vengeance.
- The Price of Falsehood in the Anti-Chinese Movement
As tensions boiled over in 1886, a Seattle newspaper called out local rabble-rousers for using blatant lies to incite hostility against Chinese residents.
- The Evangelist Who Stood Like a Statue
Mrs. Maria B. Woodworth, a traveling evangelist, brings her 'spiritual anointing' to Seattle despite a historic snowstorm.
- The Pulpit Versus the Saloon
Rev. Wallace Nutting denounces Seattle's 'reform' government for failing to regulate nightlife and corruption.
- Fifteen Minutes to Confess: The Morphine Trial of Port Townsend's Captain De Lion
A former mayor, Chilean consul and dry-dock promoter worth half a million dollars sits in superior court while his emaciated wife describes a year of morphine, delusion and a pocket watch set on the table between them.
- The Grange Declares Economic War
Washington state farmers and laborers forge a historic alliance to demand fair trade and challenge the monopoly power of the era.
- The Fight for Power on the Columbia
Settlers and a New York corporation clash in federal court over the future of the Priest Rapids dam project.
- The Mason Who Rebuilt Seattle
Otto Ranke, the master mason who constructed many of the city's most prominent buildings and steered the post-fire reconstruction, has died at 49.
- Women, Workers, and a $40,000 School Bond
Olympia prepared to vote on a new high school, with women at the polls and labor demanding that local hands build it.
- The City Lays the Foundation for its Future
On the Fourth of July, 1894, Seattle gathered between Lake Union and Lake Washington to lay the cornerstone of the University of Washington's new main building.
- The Great Cabbage Scandal
A citizen defends the public market against charges of unsanitary conditions, pointing the finger at local grocers instead.