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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1859 | 1 |
| 1886 | 1 |
| 1891 | 4 |
| 1892 | 5 |
| 1893 | 1 |
12 stories matching fitch
- The Smooth Talker of Tacoma
A persuasive con man leaves a trail of bamboozled businessmen and empty wallets.
- Chaos at City Hall: A Dispute Over Who Is Mayor
A heated council meeting descends into procedural gridlock as members argue over the legitimacy of the city's leadership.
- The Temperance Storm Brews in Seattle
Prohibition advocates take to the stage in 1886, igniting a fierce debate over morality, city control, and the role of the working man in a changing Washington Territory.
- A Mayor Willing to Resign Over a Ballot Technicality
When Olympia’s election tickets were printed under the wrong law, Mayor Horr offered to step down rather than hold office on a legal loophole—and urged the council to appoint the people’s chosen successors.
- The Political Fight Over the Washington Hop Harvest
As local growers mobilized against a proposed federal tariff reduction on hops, an 1892 letter to the editor captures the early struggle between agricultural protectionism and corporate interests in the White River Valley.
- The Desert Blooms: Yakima’s Canal Vision
A delegation of Tacoma investors returns from Yakima enchanted by the transformation of arid scrubland into flourishing, frost-resistant orchards.
- A City on the Brink: Olympia’s 1891 Debt Crisis and the Fight Over Jobs
Facing a constitutional debt limit, Olympia’s city council considers firing the deputy clerk, assistant city attorney, and city engineer—while a motion to revoke the street railway franchise fails by a tie.
- Thirty Men Want One City Job as Olympia’s New Council Takes Over
A patronage scramble greets Olympia’s incoming administration, with a crowd of applicants for street commissioner and a proposal to cut the police force while adding more streetlights.
- San Juan Islanders Draw a Line in the Salish Sea
At a packed meeting in the little town of San Juan, American settlers pass defiant resolutions against the Governor of Vancouver Island and thank the U.S. troops sent to hold the island — an early scene in the boundary standoff remembered as the Pig War.
- The Women of Olympia Furnish a Home Away from Home for Old Soldiers
The Geo. H. Thomas Woman’s Relief Corps outfits a cozy room at the Soldiers’ Home in Orting, down to a rug made from sixteen raccoon skins.
- A Polish Rancher in Muddy Boots Sits Down at the Piano and Steals the Show
Two hundred people in fancy dress fill the Olympia Theater to raise $83.75 for a Sherman Valley schoolhouse — with the lieutenant governor on fiddle, the mayor managing, and the sage of the valley in blue overalls at the keyboard.
- The People’s Ticket: Olympia’s 1891 Caucus Revolt
A printed slate handed out at the door, a mayor booed as 'defeated,' and a second-ward protest meeting: the fight over who would control Olympia's city nominations.