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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1861 | 1 |
| 1862 | 1 |
| 1863 | 1 |
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 7 |
| 1877 | 6 |
| 1878 | 5 |
| 1880 | 3 |
| 1882 | 1 |
| 1883 | 7 |
| 1884 | 4 |
| 1885 | 4 |
| 1886 | 1 |
| 1887 | 1 |
| 1888 | 3 |
| 1889 | 20 |
| 1890 | 25 |
| 1891 | 15 |
| 1892 | 34 |
| 1893 | 23 |
| 1894 | 17 |
| 1895 | 23 |
| 1897 | 1 |
| 1898 | 2 |
| 1899 | 4 |
| 1903 | 10 |
| 1904 | 8 |
| 1905 | 1 |
| 1907 | 2 |
| 1908 | 5 |
| 1909 | 33 |
| 1910 | 6 |
| 1911 | 1 |
| 1914 | 2 |
| 1916 | 8 |
| 1917 | 1 |
| 1923 | 3 |
290 stories matching incorpor
- The War of the Waterfront: Port Angeles' Battle for Its Soul
As the town fights to incorporate, two factions clash over who owns the shore—leading to a chaotic 'jumping' spree where men pile claims on top of each other in a desperate grab for Pacific real estate.
- Sixty-Five Sign for a Town; Sixteen Try to Take Their Names Back
A petition to incorporate Marcus as a fourth-class town meets a remonstrance: signers want their names stricken, attorneys argue over voter qualifications, and the county board takes the matter under advisement.
- The Town That Said No to Itself
When the Great Northern Railway’s representative warned against incorporation, Leavenworth’s citizens voted down their own cityhood to stay in the good graces of the railroad boss.
- Social Club’s Liquor License Gambit Fails
A club for 'colored gentlemen' finds their strategy to circumvent licensing laws derailed by a bureaucratic oversight in their incorporation paperwork.
- The Birth of Ione
Stevens County commissioners officially certify the incorporation of the town of Ione following a successful local election.
- Newport's Battery Makers Go Big
Local investors incorporate the Newport Battery Co., raise $7,000, and plan to turn out 1,000 dry cells a day for the Inland Empire.
- A Seattle Utopia Sold in One-Cent Shares
A society of unemployed men pools its wages and plots a Bellamy-style commonwealth of railroads, coal mines and common tables — starting from $5 of capital and 500 one-cent shares.
- The Great Incorporation Panic of 1878
When a legal technicality threatened to render Seattle’s entire municipal government illegitimate, a frantic scramble to re-incorporate revealed the fragile foundations of early frontier law.
- The Ghost Town That Refused to Die
A legal war between Denver, Washington, and the city of Spokane ends in the state supreme court, effectively wiping a town off the map.
- The Collapse of a Seattle Dynasty
Facing mounting debt, the city’s founding family reorganizes its sprawling land and streetcar empire under a new corporate umbrella.
- Fairhaven Businesses Rally Behind City Incorporation
Citizens gather to fund city services and strategize for the upcoming municipal incorporation battle.
- San Francisco Capitalists Plan a New Waterway at Smith's Cove
A newly incorporated dredging company asks the state for the right to dig out and fill Seattle's northern tide flats, promising wharves, railroad yards and mills.
- The Power Grab at Stanwood
A newly incorporated town challenges county commissioners over a last-minute franchise deal.
- The Dry Wave Hits Stevens County
Voters mandate the closure of all saloons outside incorporated towns, forcing a major shift in local nightlife and commerce.
- The Judge Who Dissolved Two Towns
A legal loophole in territorial law leaves aspiring municipalities in limbo after Judge Hanford declares the town-incorporation statute unconstitutional.
- The Sheriff Was Coming for Olympia’s Hotel. A New Company Rode In.
On the eve of a foreclosure auction, local investors incorporated a $130,000 company to buy the Hotel Olympia property and keep it out of the sheriff’s hands.
- The Great Incorporation Boom of 1890
A look back at the corporate frenzy that defined Washington's frontier economy at the dawn of 1891.
- The Midnight Death of Seattle’s Charter
When a judge declared the city’s incorporation invalid in 1877, the local newspaper editor went on the warpath to save the municipality from 'gratuitous anarchy.'
- The Secret Arrival of the Southern Pacific
A new rail incorporation is revealed to be the northern tentacle of a powerful California monopoly, promising to reshape Seattle into a major railway terminus.
- The Town That Had Two Sets of Politicians
After a court ruling legalized Oakesdale's incorporation, the town suddenly found itself with two competing governments and a Populist council at odds with its own citizens.
- Legal Loophole Shuts Down Roslyn Saloons
A Supreme Court ruling invalidating town incorporations leaves local liquor dealers facing massive fines and total business closures.
- The Battle for the Bellingham Waterfront
Fairhaven and New Whatcom are locked in a bitter struggle to claim the developing city of Bellingham for their own booming municipal territory.
- The River That Would Light Seattle: Snoqualmie Falls Power Company Incorporated
In January 1893, a $2 million company filed articles to harness Snoqualmie Falls and wire electricity to Seattle—an early bet that turned a waterfall into urban power.
- The Rockefeller Land Grab: How a $2 Million Deal Bought Seattle’s Lakefront
In January 1891, the massive Lake Washington Belt Line Improvement Company, backed by John D. Rockefeller and former Governor Russell A. Alger, acquired nearly 13,000 acres of eastern Lake Washington shoreline for steel and iron works, signaling the dawn of heavy industry in the Pacific Northwest.
- State Legislature Grants Cities Local Control
A landmark bill passes in Olympia, allowing smaller towns to incorporate and manage their own debts, fueling the boom of the 1890s.
Also about this, in other words
- The 'Cigarette Fiend' of Port Angeles
A desperate machinist attempts suicide, citing a struggle to overcome a tobacco habit that led to severe insomnia and mental decline.
- A Desperate Plunge from the Coal Bunkers
A delirious man, suffering from the effects of alcohol, jumped forty feet from the Oregon Improvement Company's coal bunkers into the sound, surviving the fall only to be hauled back to shore.
- A Desperate Act at the Madrona Hotel
A waiter attempted to end his life by inhaling chloroform; doctors managed to revive him.
- The Great Egyptian Mystery: Living People Dissolve Into Air
Seattle audiences are treated to a 'London Sensation' at Yesler's Hall this week, featuring the world-renowned Mademoiselle Ilma and illusions that defy nature.
- The Decalcomania Confidence Man
A group of Seattle women expose a predatory art instructor who used a 'transfer work' scam to swindle local households.
- ‘Incipient Treason’: Judge Hanford Sentences the Spokane Strikers
Seven men are jailed for contempt after a mob derails trains and seizes a roundhouse during the 1894 railroad strike. The federal judge calls it insurrection.
- A Final Request for Mercy
A desperate railroad worker took his own life in a Second Street hotel, leaving behind a note confessing he was struggling to suppress a violent urge to kill.
- The Editor, The Gambler, and The Incorruptible Judge
A fiery editorial from 1876 exposes a local feud between the press and the judiciary, revealing a landscape of 'dance houses,' gambling hells, and political bitterness.