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1. A Gavel, a Roar, and a Populist Ticket Born in Chaos

   King County's People's Party convention at Turner Hall turned into a shouting, proxy-fighting, faction-splitting marathon—and buried Dr. J. Eugene Jordan and Jack McDonald on the way to nominating a ticket.

   Sep 7, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyCity Hall

2. City Hall Showdown: Council and Reformers Clash Over Charter Revision

   A heated joint meeting of the city council and civic organizations debates whether to call a special election for a new city charter, with accusations of bullying and claims of wasted taxpayer money.

   Mar 14, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle City Hall, Seattle, King CountyCity Hall

3. The Great Hose Heist: How a Seattle Fire Department Was Almost Scammed by a New York Manufacturer

   A peculiar dispute over fire equipment reveals the cutthroat world of late-19th-century municipal procurement, where agents played cities against manufacturers and warrants were used as currency.

   Jan 26, 1891The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle Fire Department, Seattle, King CountyCity Hall

4. The Warden Fights Back: Prison Labor, Jute Sacks and a Seattle Newspaper Scandal

   Accused of selling prison-made sacks to middlemen and brutalizing convicts, Walla Walla’s warden answers his critics with a detailed defense—and a challenge to inspect the prison.

   Sep 14, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerWashington State Penitentiary, Walla Walla, Walla Walla CountyWork & Pay · Scandal

5. Seattle's $100,000 Night: The Armory Meeting That Sold the Ship Canal

   Boosters packed the Armory in 1895 and pledged a fortune for locks and bridges on a Lake Washington canal—payable only after a ship made the passage from Elliott Bay.

   Mar 29, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerArmory, Seattle, King CountyFollow the Money · Boom & Bust

6. The Missing Will That Would Have Given Seattle a Library

   Henry Yesler's widow and two doctors are arrested, accused of burning a will that left the pioneer's fortune—and his mansion—to the city.

   Jan 27, 1893The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyFollow the Money · True Crime

7. Seattle's Bid to Be the Liverpool of America

   In 1895, boosters imagined a Lake Washington ship canal turning Puget Sound into a freshwater harbor for world commerce, coal trade, and naval power.

   Feb 24, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyFollow the Money · Boom & Bust

8. Tacoma Councilmen Accused of Extorting Bank Loans in City Funds Scandal

   An explosive card from two finance committee members denying kickbacks backfires as the Tacoma Ledger calls for a grand jury to investigate allegations of extortion involving city deposits.

   Mar 25, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerTacoma, Pierce CountyCity Hall

9. The 750-Page 'Blue Book' That Could Cost Seattle Its Customs Inspector

   A federal official fights for his job as Washington weighs a massive volume of testimony — including a scheme to bill the government for steamboat rides he never paid for.

   Apr 11, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyCity Hall

10. The General Who Conquered Rainier First

    A century after his perilous climb, Gen. A.V. Kautz recounts the first recorded ascent of Mount Rainier to a Seattle reporter, correcting the historical record on glaciers and glory.

    Jan 30, 1889The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyStrange But True

11. The Party Says Not Guilty—and Cheers the Man It Removed

    Seattle Democrats put their scandal-scarred administration on trial at Haake's Hall, buried a First Ward delegate fight, and sent David E. Durie into the mayor's race while J.M. Wolfe got the ovation.

    Feb 28, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyCity Hall · Scandal

12. The Yesler Will Case: A Dead Millionaire, a Missing Will, and a Widow on Trial

    In a Seattle courtroom, prosecutors argue that Mrs. Yesler conspired to destroy her husband's will—while defense lawyers call the case a web of speculation and newspaper rumor.

    Feb 16, 1893The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyFollow the Money · True Crime

13. A Church Scandal Erupts in a Seattle Libel Trial

    M. H. Nichols stood accused of criminally libeling Presiding Elder T. B. Ford. The defense spent the day trading rumors, old grudges, and one complaint about the prosecutor's booming voice.

    Feb 1, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyScandal

14. A Michigan Orator Packs the Armory and Rides Down the Populists

    Roswell G. Horr brings the Republican gospel of protection and sound money to a standing-room crowd in Seattle — and turns the free-silver men in the hall into the evening's comedy act.

    Jun 10, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyFollow the Money · City Hall

15. A Supreme Court Justice Denies He Bargained Away His Seat

    Judge T. L. Stiles goes public to deny that he ever promised to step down so his friend Judge Pritchard could take the bench — and accuses a party operative of forcing him out of a race he had every right to enter.

    Aug 24, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerTacoma, Pierce CountyCity Hall · Scandal

16. The Delegate Bunko: Party Math and a Patronage Promise

    Seattle's Letter Writer Carson is accused of letting King County lose convention delegates, while Collector Saunders denies breaking a promise to a Seattle longshoremen's leader.

    Aug 27, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyCity Hall

17. Under Fire on the Way to Spokane: Seattle's Militia Rode Into a Rail War

    Col. Joseph Green's detachment returns from Spokane after escorting a mutinied company through burned bridges, ambushes and striker country—and the city turns out to cheer.

    Jul 15, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle Armory, Seattle, King CountyWork & Pay

18. Roosevelt’s Secret Indorsement: The President vs. The Railroad Barons

    At a private Tacoma banquet, Theodore Roosevelt publicly backed Governor McBride against the wishes of powerful Washington Senators Foster and Ankeny, igniting a fierce political war over railroad regulation.

    May 28, 1903The Evening StatesmanTacoma, Pierce CountyCity Hall

19. The Sawmill Scandal: Henry Yesler’s Long Legal War

    Before the city grew, Seattle’s founding titan was locked in a decade-long, bitter courtroom battle over his sawmill, revealing the ruthless undercurrents of the frontier economy.

    Nov 27, 1880The Daily IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyFollow the Money · Scandal

20. A Widow’s Two Wills, a Husband’s Challenge, and a Fortune Tied to Seattle

    Dr. Aaron Baldwin contests the estate of Lena Shay Baldwin, arguing that property left to her Seattle siblings was really his—and that the case belongs in Washington, D.C., not King County.

    Apr 3, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSuperior Court of Washington for King County, SeattleScandal

21. A Screaming Farce at Pioneer Square

    Proponents and opponents of a Seattle bond issue clash in a volatile open-air debate that devolves into name-calling and public disruption.

    Jun 6, 1893The Seattle Post-IntelligencerPioneer Square, Seattle, King CountyCity Hall

22. The Fatal Dance of Washington's Ground Squirrels

    Scientists at the state agricultural college tried to wipe out crop-destroying rodents with bacteria—and found a native plague that sent infected squirrels spinning until they dropped.

    Sep 15, 1898Ranche and RangeWashington State University, Pullman, Whitman CountyStrange But True

23. The Pastor, the Circular, and the Hung Jury

    For three days a Seattle courtroom heard accusations of adultery, an illegitimate son, and a pastor’s libelous circular. At 12:35 a.m., the jury was still deadlocked.

    Feb 2, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyScandal

24. The Land Office Money That Never Reached the Books

    Register Isaac W. Smith accuses Receiver Selucius Garfielde of holding land-claim payments on private deposit and refusing to account for them—an 1861 public audit fight in Washington Territory.

    Feb 7, 1861Puget Sound HeraldOlympia, Thurston CountyFollow the Money · City Hall

25. 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.

    Jan 6, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerMount Rainier, Pierce CountyStrange But True

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