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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 1 |
| 1858 | 1 |
| 1859 | 4 |
| 1861 | 2 |
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| 1863 | 2 |
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| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 52 |
| 1877 | 41 |
| 1878 | 22 |
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| 1895 | 75 |
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651 stories matching fortun
- The Man Who Thought He Owned Seattle Died Chasing a Ghost Fortune
Henry Zechow spent nine years and a small army of lawyers trying to claim an uncle's imaginary empire—including a block of downtown Seattle—before his body turned up in the Fraser River.
- The Fortune-Telling Machines Banned
A Seattle judge rules that nickel-in-the-slot 'fortune-telling' devices are illegal gambling machines.
- He Went West for Fourteen Years to Make His Fortune. She Found Him on a Seattle Street.
William Connerton kissed his six-month-old daughter goodbye and went looking for gold and luck from the Black Hills to Montana. He came back penniless, met a gray-haired wife and a 15-year-old stranger — and got a divorce.
- The Orting Tragedy: A Husband’s Despair and a Fortune-Teller’s Deceit
Edgar Kimball, a Mormon settler who moved his family from Utah to Tacoma in search of purity, was found dead from morphine overdose in Orting after years of marital strife and accusations of infidelity.
- The City Hall Gambling Den
When police raided the local underworld, the city’s courtroom was transformed into an impromptu warehouse for illicit gaming gear.
- The Heir Who Sold His Parents' Grave
A young Seattle man's inherited fortune was gone, and a request to move his mother and father to a smaller plot exposed a family rupture at the health office.
- The False Promises of the Arctic Gold Rush
An 1877 dispatch from Seattle warns local laborers that chasing get-rich-quick mining dreams in the North leads only to bankruptcy, while those who commit to farming the region’s soil build actual wealth.
- A Widow’s Two Wills, a Husband’s Challenge, and a Fortune Tied to Seattle
Dr. Aaron Baldwin contests the estate of Lena Shay Baldwin, arguing that property left to her Seattle siblings was really his—and that the case belongs in Washington, D.C., not King County.
- The Rise and Lonely Fall of Spokane's Richest Man
Banker Anthony M. Cannon, who helped build Spokane from a cabin by the falls, dies broke and bereaved in a New York hotel — days after a secret second marriage made him tabloid prey.
- The Vagabond Fortune-Teller: Seattle Arrests 'Madame Malla' for the Crime of Telling Futures
In May 1877, the city’s law enforcement decided that predicting the future was a crime against public order. They dragged 'Madame Malla' from her shop, citing vagrancy, despite her having done nothing but read palms.
- The Secret Fortune of the Bereaved Bride
A newlywed widow, grieving the loss of her husband in a tragic, rapid courtship, remains unaware of the $10,000 legacy held in her name.
- Sheriff Cochrane’s War on the Gambler: A Raid That Left Wheels of Fortune in Police Hands
In a sweeping crackdown on vice, Sheriff Cochrane and his deputies arrested thirteen gamblers and seized an arsenal of gambling devices, while a decomposed body was pulled from the harbor.
- The Imaginary Inheritance
A young man's prank about a fake Chinese inheritance snowballs into a lucrative, accidental fortune built on social perception.
- The Church Fair Grind: A Young Man’s Ordeal with Charity and Cake
In a tale of social pressure and predatory fundraising, one Seattleite recounts his harrowing escape from a church bazaar where 'charity' meant forced purchases, fake fortunes, and extortionate flower prices.
- The Fruit Broker Who Shipped Bananas to the Arctic—and Planned to Make His Employees Co-Owners
J. B. Powles buys out Seattle's oldest commission house, revealing a rags-to-fortune run built on produce, Alaska trade and an unusual plan to share ownership with his workers.
- The Motorized Nomads of White Bluffs
A traveling band of fortune-tellers trades covered wagons for luxury automobiles, leaving the townspeople both captivated and suspicious.
- A Sudden Fortune for a Tacoma Nurse
A local nurse living on South Warner Street inherits a $110,000 fortune from a long-lost uncle in California.
- The Schoolmistress and the Fortune Hunter
A young clerk attempts to choose between his sweetheart and a family inheritance, only to find the choice has already been made for him.
- The Convicted Murderer’s German Fortune and the Lawyer’s $5,000 Notes
Henry Craemer, jailed for killing a mother and child, says a rumored inheritance turned his appeal into a fight over legal fees and control of his case.
- A Captain Tries Twice to Die—and Walks Home
Capt. Alfred Garton took morphine, then a bullet, in an Occidental Hotel room. Both failed, and his letter blamed a fortune in real estate that no one would buy.
- The Night a Streetcar Powerhouse Fire Left Half of Seattle Dark
A pre-dawn blaze at Fifth and Pine gutted the Consolidated Street Railway plant, destroyed nearly all its cars and dynamos, crippled three lines, and blacked out everything north of Pike Street.
- A Clerk’s Error Won Seattle an Army Post
A mix-up in the civil appropriation bill let the Secretary of War skip a site board and choose Magnolia Bluffs—giving Seattle a federal payroll and a decisive win over Tacoma.
- He Kept a $5,000 Reward Posted for His Missing Wife. Then He Drank Himself to Death.
Christine Nelson stepped into a New York hotel room in October and was never seen again. Her husband spent a fortune and two trips East searching — and died this morning at St. Joseph's.
- The Man Who Came Back from the Tundra with $1.8 Million
Nels Peterson sinks his fortune in a Yukon steamboat, hits rock bottom in Nome, then strikes it rich on a bench claim—arriving in Seattle with enough gold to buy a city block.
- The Wealthy Tramp of the Waterfront
A disheveled rancher found sleeping on the Seattle waterfront was revealed to be carrying a small fortune, catching local police and confidence men by surprise.
Also about this, in other words
- The Firebug of Fairhaven
A former assistant fire chief is arrested in Fairhaven after being caught hiding under a building just as a new fire broke out.