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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 1 |
| 1877 | 1 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1883 | 2 |
| 1888 | 1 |
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21 stories matching grumbl
- The Roads of Seattle: A Grumbling Legacy
A wealthy traveler’s sharp assessment of Seattle’s infrastructure in 1880 highlights a civic struggle over street quality that feels strikingly familiar to modern residents.
- Railroad Lobbyists Left Grumbling in Olympia
A legislative meeting with railroad attorneys devolved into a farce when key senators failed to show, leaving the powerful corporation representatives dazed and empty-handed.
- The Imminent Threat of Forest Fires
An editorial critique of local loggers who gamble with disaster by failing to clean up flammable logging debris.
- Medical Standoff at the Courthouse
Colfax physicians go on strike against the county commissioners over pay for mandatory insanity examinations.
- A Local Political Feud
A scathing editorial attack on a local rival editor, accusing him of paranoia and claiming he sees imaginary plots to destroy his newspaper.
- The City’s Coldest Tea: A Prohibition-Era Poke at Seattle’s Saloon Culture
A satirical notice from 1871 captures the tongue-in-cheek public grumbling that followed the closure of a beloved watering hole.
- The Warehouse Gang and the Land Office Thieves
A biting satire linking local corruption in Tacoma to the national betrayal of public land trusts under the Taft administration.
- The Great Kitsap County Seat Heist
A peaceful expedition of 150 men and a team of oxen descends on Port Madison to relocate the county records to Sidney.
- The Inspector Checks the Sheets and the Fire Escapes
A new state lodging-house law brought an inspector to Newport, where rope escapes and alarm gongs were ordered—and innkeepers grumbled about fees and red tape.
- The $3 Million Capitol Olympia Was Still Waiting For
Residents grumble that nothing is being built, but the state says it must wait for the next legislature to sell land granted at statehood.
- The World's Fair Statistical Fiasco
King County scrambled to prove its economic worth to the Chicago World’s Fair commission, while local officials grumbled about the impossibility of gathering honest numbers from suspicious business owners.
- Main Street Saloonkeepers Blame Vaudeville for 'Strange Quietness'
Walla Walla’s nightlife operators grumble as a surge in family-friendly theaters and parks pulls young men away from the bottle.
- Mill Workers Resist Bank Seizure
When bankers attempted to seize a safe from a shuttered Aberdeen mill, furious workers threatened to 'lick any man' who tried to stop the operation.
- The Mayor's Boast and the City's Quiet Grumbling
Mayor Hartley claims he could easily win re-election, but labor organizers and local residents aren't buying the bravado after a year of utility rate complaints and industrial inaction.
- The Pioneer Grumble: A Call to Organize
A longtime resident complains that 'tenderfeet' arriving on luxury trains have no idea what it actually cost to build the state.
- The Struggle for an Honest Hour: A Farmer’s Grumble in 1888
An account from a local farm near Puyallup reveals the era's persistent struggle to balance agricultural labor with a zero-tolerance policy for drinking, echoing the intense pressure of the frontier economy.
- The Partisan’s Price: How Civil Service Reform Cost a Delegate His Seat
In 1876, King County’s Republican establishment turned on Judge O. Jacobs for refusing to hand out federal jobs to party loyalists, revealing the brutal mechanics of the spoils system in early Washington Territory.
- The Fireman, the Broken Leg, and the Brotherhood
When a Spokane Falls railroad fireman was badly hurt and allegedly left untended, the railroad Brotherhood organized — demanding an investigation and that the company hospital be moved to Sprague.
- The Moss-Cloaked Giants of Bay Center
A teacher’s letter from the Pacific Northwest frontier describes a landscape of colossal trees and lush undergrowth, challenging the myth of the harsh pioneer struggle.
- The King Who Wasn't: How Seattle Watched a Pacific Empire Betray Its Own
While the city prepares for its own boom, a local editorial warns that American honor is being sacrificed to German ambition in Samoa—and asks if Washingtonians care enough to stop it.
- Seattle’s 1895 Co-op Where 150 Unemployed Men Ate for 7 Cents a Day
At a Belltown barracks, unemployed single men pooled their wages, submitted to military-style rules and fed an average of 150 people daily for about 7 cents each.