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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1877 | 2 |
| 1884 | 1 |
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24 stories matching lesser
- A Seattle Expedition Sets Out to Map Mount Rainier's Glaciers—and Find a Hidden Volcano
Major Ingraham's party leaves Seattle for three weeks on the mountain, hoping to name glaciers, test mineral springs, and locate a smoking volcano seen from the foothills.
- Hanged on a Doubt: Washington Territory's First White Execution
When John Thompson was hanged in Seattle in 1877, many believed he was guilty of manslaughter, not murder. The Dispatch made the case that the law had taken a life it should have spared.
- The Judge Who Wanted to Join the Salvation Army
Probate Judge Wickersham faces seduction charges in Tacoma; his defense seeks a venue change as he jokes about his future with the Salvation Army.
- The Pirate of Salmon Bay
A local captain confesses to scuttling his own schooner to collect insurance money, narrowly avoiding a death sentence due to a legal technicality.
- The Great Grain Rate War
Legislators in Olympia spar over a proposed reduction in railroad freight rates, setting Eastern Washington farmers against the powerful railroad corporations.
- Tacoma's Anti-Boodler Council Seizes Power, Demands Accounting of City Funds
A new coalition of Republicans and Populists takes control of Tacoma's city council, stripping power from the old guard and launching an investigation into the city's $720,000 bank deposit. Mayor Orr's appointments are blocked as the finance committee prepares to audit every bank.
- The Ghostly Fire on Mount Rainier
A mountain party finds their camp transformed into an eerie, glowing scene during an alpine electrical storm.
- A Weather Station on the Roof of the Cascades
A scientist's proposal imagined a summit hut on Mount Rainier, heated by volcanic steam and measuring what might be the windiest place on earth.
- A Controversial Screening in Spokane
The film adaptation of a white supremacist narrative begins its engagement at the Auditorium Theater, marketed as a major record-breaking spectacle.
- Aberdeen's Bold Rail Gamble
Citizens rally to secure the Northern Pacific connection by donating land, lumber, and labor to bypass rail delays.
- The Price of Education in Early Seattle
A concerned citizen calls out the School Board for slashing teacher wages to settle district debts, highlighting a lopsided austerity that spared no professional pocketbook.
- A Christmas on the Ice King: The Climb That Saw Rainier Smoking
In 1894, Major Ingraham led six men, seven homing pigeons, and a camera onto Mount Rainier’s glaciers. They came back with frostbite, a story of steam and smoke rising from the crater—and one pigeon missing.
- The Union Pacific's Threat to the Northern Pacific
High-stakes rail competition arrives in North Yakima as rival lines fight for a terminus on the Sound.
- The Farcical Business of Assessing Land
A scathing look at state tax commissioners who fly through town to set property values based on faulty data.
- The Treacherous Waters of the Columbia
The dangerous rapids near Waneta Landing claim two more lives as travelers attempt a perilous river crossing.
- The Great Evergreen: Seattle’s First Snow in Sixteen Years
Residents gather on rooftops and streets to witness a rare winter spectacle, as snow blankets the city for the first time since 1890.
- A Legislature in the Homestretch: Saloons, Gambling and a Fight Over Pledges
With days left in Olympia, Washington lawmakers weigh local option, an anti-racetrack law, a sweeping criminal code and a bill aimed at unions and suffragists.
- A Minister Takes a Geologist's Hammer to Genesis
Rev. Napoleon Hoagland tells a packed hall that the rocks do not show six days of creation, and that reason — not an infallible book — is the believer's best authority.
- The Mill That Stopped: A City Holds Its Breath
When Colman’s sawmill ceased its daily roar for repairs, the silence was so profound it forced Seattleites to confront their terrifying dependence on industrial machinery.
- A Seattle Sermon Asks Capital and Labor to Read Scripture Together
At St. Mark's Church, Rev. D. C. Garrett blames class friction on a Christianity forgotten by rich and poor alike—and imagines employers and grievance committees studying Paul side by side.
- Stevens County Hikes Interest Rates to Stave Off Financial Panic
Facing a national economic slump in 1909, commissioners move to protect county credit by raising interest on municipal warrants.
- The Steamboat Betrayal
A local captain accuses Ottawa officials of reneging on a mail contract after he already invested in the route.
- A Fruit Grower's Pitch: Stop Sending Cash East — Feed Alaska Instead
Before the Northwest Fruitgrower's Association, S. L. Moore argued that Washington farmers should diversify beyond wheat and prunes, supply Alaska and Western markets, and let the Northern Pacific's traveling fruit exhibit lure settlers west.
- A Civil Engineer's $200,000 Plan to Drain the Calispel Valley
A Newport civil engineer proposes canals, dikes and lock gates to reclaim a lake bed, irrigate the gravel slopes and stop the Pend Oreille from swallowing the valley's farms.
Also about this, in other words
- The Prospector Who Tried to Outsmart the Great Northern
A local prospector claimed to know a secret, lower pass through the Cascades, sparking a high-stakes search by railroad engineers.
- Minor League Baseball Team Folds Mid-Season
The Dayton baseball team disbands after failing to meet the salary limit, leaving local fans and the Inland League in flux.
- The Shadow Over Section Five
A contested land parcel near the city has become the center of a legal standoff, as heirs of the late J. M. Hopkins complicate the Northern Pacific Railroad's claims.
- The Unseen Labor of a Household
A spicy letter from a 'Little Worker' challenges a farm editor’s complaints about the difficulty of finding domestic help.
- The Weight of Little Things
A century and a half ago, a Seattle writer mused on how the smallest details of life—a penny, a word, a drop of water—shape our massive, often overwhelming destinies.
- The Unsung Power of the Label League
A local labor group is turning to music, drama, and education to boost the influence of union labels over strikes.
- Sixteen Paupers, a Clay-Bed Well, and a Farm Not Fit to Live On
County commissioners tour the county poor farm and find cracked fences, filthy bedding, horses bleeding on barbed wire and water unfit to drink. The old place will be sold, they say — but only if a poor farm is worth having at all.
- A Refuge for the City's Most Vulnerable
A modest home on Spring Street provides critical care for children whose parents have died or are unable to support them.