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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1862 | 1 |
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| 1877 | 8 |
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| 1883 | 3 |
| 1884 | 4 |
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128 stories matching fulfil
- The Streetcar Franchise Seattle Couldn't Enforce
Alderman J. Eugene Jordan accused the Yesler Avenue Cable Car Company and its City Council allies of dodging a franchise requirement to double-track the line—while the city pleaded poverty and working men waited for jobs.
- The Bitter Feud Over a Burnt Seattle Sawmill
A public legal dispute between two businessmen reveals the high-stakes cost of the 1880 fire that razed a local mill.
- City Council Members Dodge Responsibility on James Street
While private citizens were forced to fulfill their contracts, two city council members allegedly abandoned their own street improvement project without penalty.
- The Contract Wife Who Would Not Be Shaken Off
Florence Bucklin Byers followed a wealthy Chilean consul to California, then returned to Port Townsend vowing to enforce their handwritten marriage contract—or sue him for divorce.
- The Battle Over Gold and Greenbacks in Walla Walla
A legal dispute over whether debts must be paid in gold or federal paper money echoes the era's financial uncertainty.
- Seattle’s Tide-Flats Canal Clears the Court
The state Supreme Court upholds the Seattle Lake Washington Waterway Company’s contracts, leaving only a $500,000 subsidy before dredging begins.
- The City's Broken Lumber Deal
When lumber prices soared in 1887, Seattle’s city contractors simply walked away from their obligations—and the city council let them get away with it.
- The Feast of Lots: Seattle's Jewish Community Celebrates Purim with an Auction of Sacred Letters
At the Hinckley block, the Orthodox congregation dedicated a new Torah scroll and auctioned off its letters to fund education.
- The Farmer’s Cabinet: Why Seattle’s Papers Are Fighting a War in Washington
An editorial in the *Seattle Daily Post-Intelligencer* argues against elevating the Department of Agriculture to Cabinet status, warning that it would create bureaucratic chaos and ignore the true role of federal oversight.
- A Correspondent Reports on the Nez Perce Conflict
Writing from Olympia in 1877, a local correspondent describes Nez Perce leaders’ refusal to relocate and the surprise attack that sparked a war many understood as a defense of home.
- The Old Man’s Last Stand: A Father’s Flight from Greedy Heirs Ends in a Sheriff’s Chase
P.V. Thorpe, an elderly pioneer fleeing false rape accusations and property theft by his son and son-in-law, was arrested for carrying a revolver in Seattle—only to be vindicated when the truth about his family’s blackmail scheme came to light.
- The Iron Giant Lands: Moss Bay Steel Chooses Seattle Without Asking for a Penny
In a stunning victory for civic pride over corporate bribery, the massive Moss Bay Iron and Steel Company has selected Lake Washington as its site, rejecting lucrative bonuses from rival cities and the Northern Pacific Railroad.
- The Iron Flash: How Spokane Fell for a Railroad
In a daring midnight maneuver that bypassed local obstructionists, the Oregon and Washington Territory railroad laid its tracks through downtown Spokane in a single night, turning a political standoff into a civic celebration.
- 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 Iron City That Never Was: Kirkland’s $3 Million Bet on Steel
In 1891, promoters promised to turn the shores of Lake Washington into the 'Pittsburgh of the Pacific,' selling lots for a fortune and laying tracks for a empire that would vanish within a decade.
- The Bonfire of the Vanities on Occidental Square
Months after a jubilant, torch-lit victory party in Seattle, the city’s new power-brokers were left holding the bag as lawlessness and economic despair gripped the town.
- The Party Says Not Guilty—and Cheers the Man It Removed
Seattle Democrats put their scandal-scarred administration on trial at Haake's Hall, buried a First Ward delegate fight, and sent David E. Durie into the mayor's race while J.M. Wolfe got the ovation.
- The Railroad That Wanted Aberdeen's Streets
A homegrown rail company asked for a thirty-foot right of way, the eastern entrance to town, and the whole waterfront. The council had to decide how much public street to give away.
- Washington Territory's Eight-Year Push for Statehood
A Senate floor speech details the eight-year struggle for Washington Territory to shed its frontier status and become a state, including the controversial proposal to annex Idaho's northern panhandle.
- The $3 Million Scheme to Turn Seattle's Tide Flats into Dry Land
A private company plans to dredge the Duwamish and fill Elliott Bay's mudflats — paid not in cash but in land and liens — while St. Louis money waits to see the ground before it bets.
- The Captain Who Died for His Flag
A Seattle lawyer’s final wish—to be killed in battle while holding the American flag—was tragically fulfilled in Manila, casting a storm over the local community.
- The Great Land Grab: Citizens Unite to Stop the Railroad's Theft of Public Soil
In a packed meeting at Reinig’s Hall, Snohomish leaders condemn the Northern Pacific Railway for hoarding millions of acres while building a secret coal line, vowing to fight Congress to return the land to settlers.
- Government Moves to Forfeit Railroad Land Grants in Washington
Federal attorneys begin the legal process to reclaim millions of acres granted to railroad companies that failed to fulfill their construction promises.
- The Broken Promise of the Gross Earnings Tax
A scathing look at corporate influence in Olympia, where politicians promised to repeal a tax break for the Northern Pacific Railroad and failed.
- The Starving Men of Springbrook
A deputy sheriff returns from a strike site near Springbrook to report that workers have been left without food or wages for days, contradicting company claims of a riotous mill burning.
Also about this, in other words
- The Fatal Feats of the Fire Fiend
A traveling variety performer dies of consumption in Victoria after years of swallowing molten lead and red-hot iron.
- The Desperate Plea of a Hungry Man
A homeless worker chooses jail over starvation after failing to find employment in Seattle.
- The Hustle of the Territorial Frontier
A glimpse into the 19th-century mail-order economy, where ambitious merchants sought to capitalize on the labor and curiosity of working-class families across the Pacific Northwest.