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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 3 |
| 1877 | 2 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1883 | 1 |
| 1885 | 1 |
| 1887 | 1 |
| 1889 | 1 |
| 1890 | 1 |
| 1891 | 3 |
| 1892 | 3 |
| 1895 | 3 |
| 1898 | 2 |
| 1899 | 1 |
| 1903 | 1 |
| 1908 | 1 |
| 1912 | 1 |
27 stories matching imperfect
- The Unreliable Peer: A Seattle Critique of Jury Bias
An 1878 editorial laments that the 'glory of English law' is being tarnished by jurors who prioritize class bias over evidence.
- The Scandal at the Hotel Room
An embarrassed couple flees a hotel after being interrupted in a state of 'Edenic' undress.
- Bracing for a Blackout at the Fruit Fair
After years of frustration, Walla Walla's fruit fair management installs gas backups to keep the pavilion illuminated.
- A Family Reunited After Five Years of Silence
A man's long search for his wife and children ends in Ballard after a misunderstanding led to a mistaken belief that he had died.
- The Great Chehalis County Bond Battle
A heated debate erupts in the Aberdeen Herald over whether a half-million dollar road bond will actually build infrastructure or merely trap taxpayers in a cycle of debt.
- A Milestone for Workers’ Rights
A tragic accident at the Clough-Hartley mill highlights the life-saving impact of Washington's early workmen's compensation law.
- Typhoid and Scarlet Fever Shadow Seattle's Sewers
Health officer blames bad plumbing and cesspools as 21 typhoid cases, four fatal, are reported; a doctor prepares to test Lake Union and Lake Washington water.
- Four Years, Then a Federal Appeal: Lybarger Ordered to Walla Walla
Convicted in Thurston County of a sexual offense against 13-year-old Elsie Patnude, John G. Lybarger loses his state appeal; his wife and father-in-law had posted $3,500 bail while the case dragged on.
- The Seattle Star’s Bold Prediction: Cable Cars, Real Estate Booms, and the 'Famine' of Housing
In March 1899, the city's leading paper championed new transit infrastructure as the key to unlocking a real estate boom, while simultaneously warning of a severe shortage of homes for newcomers.
- A Boiler Explosion on the Steamer Monticello
A fireman is fighting for his life after a high-pressure steam pipe failed mid-voyage near Kingston, marking the second such accident for the vessel.
- The Stinking Gutters of 1876
While Seattle promoters bragged of a salubrious climate, a local newspaper editorial exposed the reality of deadly, stagnant cesspools lining the streets.
- Railroad Boom Built Spokane's Brick-and-Stone Downtown
A pioneer revisits Eastern Washington's boomtown and marvels at its rapid transformation from a frontier hamlet to a bustling metropolis powered by the falls.
- Wood & Osborne Bring Order to Washington Territory Deeds
As Seattle's property market surged, the city's premier title firm was forced to expand its operations to keep up with the frantic pace of land speculation.
- The Forgotten Youth of Washington Territory
A minister's impassioned crusade to establish the territory's first state-funded school for the deaf, blind, and feeble-minded.
- The Diphtheria Menace in Pioneer Seattle
A century and a half ago, Seattle residents faced a terrifying invisible contagion, with the newspaper urging 'sanitary' precautions that eerily mirror modern public health guidance.
- The Ghostly Note of Joe Davis
After his wife’s death in Oregon, a man jailed in Seattle took his own life in his prison cell, leaving behind a haunting, misspelled confession that claimed they had died for each other.
- The Deadly Plumbing of American Hotels
A leading medical journal warns travelers that the sanitary conditions in American and Canadian hotels are putting lives at risk.
- The Legal Scramble for Maynard’s Land
A bitter newspaper feud reveals the messy reality of early Seattle’s land titles, where a complex divorce and a 'lost' first wife sparked a struggle over ownership in the city’s heart.
- Seattle’s Growing Pains and the Charter Debate
As the city rapidly transformed, a newly formed committee of business and labor leaders debated whether to rewrite the city's charter to address corruption and municipal growth.
- The Unclaimed Frontier of the Central Valleys
An 1876 editorial reflects on the economic potential of the Yakima and Kittitas valleys, eyeing the end of tribal reservation boundaries for land settlement.
- The Great Legislative Mess of 1877
A scathing editorial reveals how Washington Territory lawmakers spent their time sight-seeing instead of legislating, resulting in a chaotic pile of 'undigested' laws.
- The Washington–Idaho Line Was Never Quite Where Everyone Thought It Was
A congressional committee moving to re-mark the boundary publishes a surveyor general's confession: the 1873 line zigzagged as much as a degree and a half off course, was measured with link chains, and stopped short when the crew quit to save their own lives.
- A Taxpayer Fights the Assessor for Six Years — and Loses
William Craswell petitions the county board to strike fraudulent assessments from the rolls and demands back the money already taken; the commissioners refuse, then set the rates for everyone else.
- A Will on Note Paper Survives a Husband’s Challenge
A Seattle court admits Lena Shay Baldwin’s handwritten will, ending a long contest with her surviving husband over Washington, D.C. property, family furniture and jewelry.
- The Wholesaler Tells the Growers the Truth: 'We Don't Love You'
Sixteen years in the Seattle commission trade and no patience left, R. Merchant tells a room of fruit growers that no middleman has ever cared about them — and that neat, uniform packing, not grievance, is the only thing that ever got a farmer paid.