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233 stories matching franklin
- 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.
- A Mountain of Coffins: Franklin Buries Its Miners
After a mine fire killed 37 men, the coal town of Franklin held a day of funerals—five graves at Black Diamond, three Italian miners on a hillside, and widows whose grief doctors feared would kill them.
- Thirty-Seven Miners Died 150 Feet From Safety
An 1894 coroner's jury in Franklin, Washington, heard how a small fire in the Oregon Improvement Company's coal mine became a wall of smoke — and why the men who could have escaped stayed to fight it.
- Thirty-Seven Dead at Franklin: Seattle Rallies for the Widows of a Mine Disaster
A day after an explosion killed thirty-seven coal miners in the Franklin pit, the Post-Intelligencer opens a relief fund for the widows and orphans left behind — pleading with readers that the miners' own generosity cannot stretch far enough.
- Eight Hundred Armed Men, Two Dead: The Coal War the Guard Rode All Night to Stop
In the summer of 1891 the Green River coal towns of Franklin and Gilman armed themselves into rival companies. When the shooting started, a deputy sheriff wired Seattle for troops — and the colonel marched before he had orders.
- The Governor's Telegram: How the Militia Was Called Out to the King County Coal Fields
Colonel J. C. Haines lays out the paper trail behind the 1891 deployment of National Guard troops to the coal towns of Gilman and Franklin — and the labor war that nearly became a dawn battle.
- Miners March Thirty Miles for a Solidarity Strike
A group of Newcastle miners trekked across the territory to convince Franklin workers to shut down the pits in a labor dispute.
- The Franklin Mine Dead Were Buried. Then the Miners Went Back Down.
A relief fund swells with donations from Eddyville millmen and Seattle readers as surviving miners reopen the levels that did not burn.
- Seattle Rallies for the Franklin Mine’s Widows and Orphans
A relief fund grows by small donations, Black Seattleites organize their own drive, and officials seal the burning mine to starve the fire.
- Franklin Miners Blast Calls for a New Disaster Investigation
After 37 men died in the Franklin mine explosion, 152 miners signed resolutions defending the coroner's verdict and accusing outside agitators of exploiting their grief.
- Seattle Rallies for the Families of the Franklin Mine Dead
As donations begin arriving at the Post-Intelligencer, Seattle’s Black community organizes its own relief committee for the families of miners killed in the Franklin disaster.
- A City Rallies for Its Miners: The Franklin Disaster Relief Fund
Seattle workers, unions, and businesses dig deep for families of miners killed in the Franklin mine explosion, pushing the relief fund past $1,000.
- The First Wedding in Franklin
A historic ceremony marks the beginning of a local tradition for the growing industrial settlement.
- A Jury Called the Franklin Mine Fire Arson. Thirty-Seven Miners Were Already Dead.
A coroner's jury found that someone deliberately set the fire that suffocated 37 workers in the Franklin mine. The only survivor described how one opened door and one stopped fan turned the gangway into a death trap.
- The Franklin Mine Fire: Thirty-Seven Dead, Not a Scratch on Them
A fire in breast sixty-two traps miners between flame and return airway; bodies are laid in rows as Seattle sends a special train.
- The Franklin Miners' Riot and a Bullet in a Corset
A trial over a labor-related shooting in Franklin reveals a harrowing account of guards targeting women from a moving train.
- Roslyn Miners End a Three-Month Strike — and Return to the Pits at a 20 Percent Cut
After a bitter walkout against the Northern Pacific Coal Company, the miners of Roslyn vote almost unanimously to accept reduced wages and go back to work — a surrender that some say was hastened when a handful of Black miners from Franklin were brought in to take their places.
- Seattle Rallies for the Franklin Mine's Widows and Orphans
A newspaper fund drive, a Madison Park benefit and Black community organizers push relief past $275 for the families of miners killed in the Franklin disaster.
- Seattle Opens Its Purse for the Franklin Mine Widows and Orphans
A Post-Intelligencer relief fund nears $1,500 as post office clerks, university employees, railroad men and benefit audiences contribute to families of the miners killed at Franklin.
- The Fifteen-Cent Shooting at Newcastle
A pay-day dice game in a company saloon ends in a near-fatal shooting, leading to a botched manhunt and a casual local acceptance of violence.
- The Blacklist at Franklin Mine
Striking miners appeal for their jobs after a bitter labor dispute in King County, clashing with the superintendent over claims of systematic discrimination.
- The Elderberry Wine Defense: How a Contested Election Collapsed in Laughter
Populists dropped their challenge to Commissioner Nickerson, but testimony in the sheriff and coroner contests turned up sailors voting under protest and a lunch bag of elderberry wine at a Franklin polling place.
- The White Striker Who Opposed Black Miners, Then Praised Their Community
Three years after opposing the arrival of Black miners at Franklin, a white miner wrote home praising their societies, their Masonic hall, and their Black justice of the peace.
- The Ballot Box Was Too Full in Franklin
Populists brought witnesses to court to show that votes in Franklin precinct were pushed, shaken and crammed into an overflowing box—irregularity, they argued, even if not outright fraud.
- A Town of Widows: Seattle Rallies for the Franklin Mine Dead
The Post-Intelligencer opens a relief fund for the widows and orphans left by the Franklin mine disaster, one of Washington's worst.
Also about this, in other words
- Life Inside the Coal Company’s Town
A rare glimpse into the daily rhythm, infrastructure, and isolation of Franklin, a booming King County coal town in the summer of 1888.
- West End Residents Demand New School
The Twelfth Street Improvement Club campaigns for a replacement for the 'inadequate' Franklin building.
- 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.
- Drought Forces Franklin County Farmers to Pivot
After a difficult harvest hampered by insufficient rainfall and improper cultivation, local ranchers shift to fall-sown wheat.
- The Fugitive Foreman of Franklin
A man working at the Oregon Improvement Company’s stables in Franklin is revealed as a wanted fugitive for a fatal land dispute in Indian Territory.
- Tragedy at Franklin Mine: A Fatal Night for Three Workers
A high stump falls through a miners' cabin, taking three lives and leaving families in mourning in South Seattle.
- The Forgotten Siege of Franklin
A murder trial reveals the raw nerves of a violent labor conflict between striking miners and those who replaced them.
- Disaster Averted at the Franklin Mines
A broken cable sends an empty coal car plunging into the depths of a flooded mine, barely missing a catastrophic accident for the workers.