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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 1 |
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82 stories matching ideal
- A Night in the Ideal Saloon
When a woman in a Washington Street brothel suffered an overdose of morphine, the man who brought it to her fled in panic to the courts—only to be arrested himself.
- Kennewick Wins the Northwest's Great Livestock Clearing House
Packers and stockmen from four states organize a $100,000 company and pick a triangle of land by the depot to turn Kennewick into the feeder market between Canada and the Rockies.
- The Turkey Rush on the Columbia
As irrigation transforms the desert, Benton County ranchers pivot from livestock to poultry, forming a new association to stake their claim in the Thanksgiving market.
- Wenatchee, 1898: A Valley Sold on Irrigation and Fruit
A booster's tour of the Wenatchee Valley recounts the first settlers, the whisky traders who fled the law, and the orchards and ditches that promised to turn sagebrush into wealth.
- The Ideal Husband: A Seattle Social Survey
Local women share their candid, conflicting, and often humorous expectations for the 'model husband' in 1893.
- The Fight for the Sound’s First Dry Dock
A century before Puget Sound became a hub of naval power, local politicians battled Congress for federal funding to establish a permanent dry dock at Port Orchard.
- The 15,000-Word Plan to Build a Great Harbor on Seattle's Tide Flats
Virgil Bogue's report to King County proposes dredged slips, public docks, a union station and a jointly owned terminal railroad—if Seattle can sort out its tide-land titles.
- The Strikebreakers Who Became Policemen
During a four-month strike at Sumner Iron Works, Everett's police commission armed strikebreakers with police authority—and the Labor Journal demanded to know who was protecting whom.
- Fort Walla Walla's Long Fight Against Abandonment
A historical look at the community's desperate efforts to preserve the military reservation as a public asset.
- The Muck in Our Pipes
A two-day investigation reveals that Tacoma’s municipal water supply, sourced from Clover Creek, is contaminated by livestock waste and agricultural runoff.
- The Navy Secretary Goes Down Into the Big Hole
Secretary of the Navy Herbert rides the lighthouse tender Manzanita across the Sound to inspect the giant new dry dock at Port Orchard, settles a bitter dispute over how deep to drive the pilings, and dances the night away at the Rainier.
- The Day Seattle Shut Down: Sailors, Longshoremen and the First Labor Day
Banks, courts and public offices closed for the first time in the city's history, 2,500 people packed Pioneer Place for a 36-minute tug-of-war, and a labor orator told the crowd that good wages are the engine of everyone's prosperity.
- A Million-Dollar Land Grab and the Wife Left Behind
Abandoned for ten years in Pennsylvania, Mrs. J. E. Jordan comes to Seattle's superior court to stop her husband from deeding away the community's real estate to a medicine company — and names the men who helped him do it.
- The Sailors' Union Fights Back Against the Waterfront Crimps
Seattle's Sailors' Union answers charges from two boarding-house men, calling them crimps and accusing them of drugging and shanghaiing sailors onto ships.
- Lynden’s Record-Breaking Dry Fourth of July
Thousands flocked to Lynden for a massive holiday celebration, proving that a 'dry town' could pull off a rowdy, successful event without a single fight or arrest.
- The Unsolved Execution at Green River
A lonely homesteader is found dead in the woods, his cabin undisturbed and his secrets kept, sparking a flurry of local suspicion.
- A Legislative Committee Finds the University of Washington Packed, Broke, and Worth Building
After touring the cramped old campus and the rising new grounds between Lake Union and Lake Washington, a joint legislative committee urges bonds, more books, a smaller board of regents, and a dry zone around the university.
- The Geopolitics of Women’s Clubs
A Seattle speaker breaks down the 'monopoly' of land and power in Latin America, framing the region's instability as a failure of democratic inheritance.
- The Renton Coal Mine Reopens
A new co-operative venture aims to reopen the long-shuttered Renton coal mine, promising jobs and coal at fair prices for the community.
- The Battle for the Unsurveyed Frontier
A 19th-century court case in Steilacoom exposes the tension between local land speculators and the ideal of the 'actual settler' on the Washington frontier.
- The Unsolved Mystery of the 'Soft-Footed' Burglar
A quiet intruder terrorizes Seattle residents, leaving victims baffled after appearing in their homes in the dead of night—only to flee at the sound of a voice.
- The 'Two Per Cent' Shylock of Tacoma
As Tacoma voters head to the polls, bitter memories of the 1885 anti-Chinese expulsion flare up, branding a mayoral candidate with a nickname that still stings.
- The Prohibitionists Embrace the Single Tax
A Seattle convention of the Prohibition party breaks with tradition, adopting a radical platform that includes municipal reform, open employment bureaus, and the single-tax system.
- A Grand Dedication at Codding Hall
The entire valley converged on White Bluffs to christen the town’s first modern amusement venue with a night of dancing and patriotic fervor.
- The Minister Who Left the Church for Socialism
Declaring the modern church a 'parasite,' Reverend J.C. Wiswell resigns to embrace the message of international Socialism.
Also about this, in other words
- The Perils of the Domestic Ideal
A satirical poem from 1882 paints a brutal portrait of the 'married life' trap awaiting the youth of frontier Seattle.
- An 1872 Manifesto for the 'Working Girl'
In an era of stifling expectations, a Seattle newspaper columnist argues that women should prioritize professional autonomy over the 'inferno' of a loveless marriage.
- The Art of Living Well in 1877 Seattle
While Seattle’s pioneer merchants touted their iron stoves and fine whiskies, the local press offered practical, timeless advice on navigating life’s demands.
- The Unreasonable Burden of Moral Regeneration
A bold editorial argument for women's suffrage, dismissing the 'degradation' objection and the notion that men need women to save them from their own vices.
- The Brutal Truth of the 'Workaday' Struggle
An 1879 editorial reflects on the universal, grinding necessity of securing a livelihood, observing that even in a 'republic' built on individualistic grit, most people are only one misstep away from ruin.
- The Price of Perfection in 1877 Snohomish
Before the fairground became a modern fixture, a meticulously itemized list of premiums reveals what pioneer families valued most—from the size of a prize turnip to the skill of a young girl's hand-stitched dress.
- The Case for Naming an Olympia Street After Judge Hewitt
A memorial sermon for a territorial judge becomes a plea to carve his name into Olympia's street map—and a meditation on what makes a public life worth remembering.
- The Ethics of Prohibition and the 'Beastly' Public
An editorial critique of a prohibitionist’s sermon that labels the common public as cowardly and corrupt.