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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1862 | 1 |
| 1876 | 3 |
| 1877 | 1 |
| 1882 | 1 |
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| 1886 | 1 |
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31 stories matching magistr
- The Preacher Who Turned Court Into a Prayer Meeting
A local street preacher, arrested for his public fervor, turns the tables on the magistrate by forcing a courtroom to its knees.
- The Judge and the Brothel
A Tacoma magistrate’s attempt to move his court away from a neighboring brothel backfired when the City Council ordered him to clean up the street instead.
- Forty-Five Days From Hongkong: Seattle's New Orient Steamer Docks With Sugar, Rice and Bananas
The steel freighter Palmas, first ship on the Union Pacific's new Puget Sound–Orient run, fills Yesler's wharf with Chinese and Japanese goods and Hawaiian fruit — after her captain carries two mutinous sailors in irons halfway across the Pacific to face a court held on a Victoria wharf.
- The Yellow Glove Standoff on San Juan Island
When American informality faced British stiff-upper-lip formality in a frontier courtroom, a pair of gaudy kid gloves settled the diplomatic score.
- The Right to Testify
A Seattle magistrate clarifies that Indigenous people in Snoqualmie Precinct have the legal standing to sue in civil court and testify in trials.
- A South Seattle Murder Case Becomes a Constitutional Test
Henry Craemer’s court-appointed lawyer argued that Washington could not try a capital case on a prosecutor’s information. Judge Humes said it could; Craemer pleaded not guilty and began hunting for an alibi witness lost in the Cascades.
- A Town Buries a Judge
Olympia’s bar and Masons escort John G. Sparks to the Masonic cemetery, with resolutions praising a lawyer, magistrate, and civic fixture.
- The Siege of the 'Tenement of Terror'
When bailiffs arrived at a Seattle boarding house to evict residents, they were met with a barricaded door, a hail of rocks, and a community standing their ground.
- A Plea Against Mob Violence
Prominent citizens petition Congress to protect the treaty rights of Chinese residents amidst a wave of xenophobic riots on the Pacific Coast.
- The Beggar’s Plea: How an Old Man’s Tears Won a Judge’s Mercy
In a touching scene at the Snohomish County Courthouse, John Burner, a destitute laborer of 73 years, pleaded guilty to grand larceny not for greed, but because his starving family had no other way to eat.
- The Judge on Trial
A defendant accuses a Whitman County judge of coercion, bribery, and witness tampering in a desperate bid to clear his name.
- The Judge Who Drank: A Local Magistrate’s Confession to the Grand Jury
In a stunning display of candor, Seattle Justice of the Peace John Mercer admits to his courtroom that he was frequently intoxicated while on the bench, blaming 'political enemies' for his drinking and accusing the city of turning a blind eye to saloon owners who ruin working men's wages.
- The Unstoppable March of the Snohomish Valley
A booster-era dispatch from 1885 details the transformation of the Snohomish Valley, documenting the arrival of the railroad, rising land values, and the shifting identity of a 'rural' community entering the urban age.
- The Day the San Juan Islands Almost Sparked a War
Before the archipelago was a tourist destination, it was the site of a tense naval standoff between American and British forces over a disputed boundary.
- The Alyssum Mystery
A young man is wrongly accused of the murder of his aunt until a patch of garden flowers reveals the truth.
- A Violent Attack at the Altar
A clergyman is assaulted by an intruder while officiating mass, leading to a swift local trial.
- The Sheriff vs. The Election Posters
A Seattle lawman is arrested after he goes on a rampage tearing down political advertisements, leading to a physical showdown with a local citizen.
- The Chinook Chief's Grandson Who Was Shipwrecked in Japan
Ranald McDonald — son of a Hudson's Bay trader and Chief Comcomly's daughter — died on the Colville reservation after a life that carried him from Astoria to a Japanese prison and back to the mouth of the Columbia.
- The Underworld Abduction of Norma Hoyt
A sixteen-year-old girl is recovered from Vancouver, B.C., after being lured away by local underworld figures, sparking a looming legal battle.
- The Governor’s Secret Gift to Seattle’s Newsboys
A surprise act of philanthropy transformed the cold winter of 1887 for Seattle’s most vulnerable young workers.
- The Sermon and the Station: Seattle’s First Constitutional Clash
When the city allowed a church to use a decommissioned fire station for worship, it sparked a sharp constitutional debate between a secularist group and the Mayor.
- The Strange Case of the Seized Horse
A Port Townsend magistrate attempts to settle a private debt by seizing a horse that didn't belong to the debtor, sparking a procedural standoff.
- The Price of a Public Nuisance
A man dubbed 'Dirty Smith' faces the magistrate and finds himself working off his debt to society on the city’s construction projects.
- The Newspaper Editor and the Horsewhip
A South Bend editor faces a public thrashing from his wife, sparking a local scandal that prioritized domestic discipline over newsroom dignity.
- The Fight for Territorial Voice
Washington Territory Democrats push for a seat at the national table, arguing that 1.5 million people in the territories deserve a say in choosing the next President.
Also about this, in other words
- The Street Grader’s Injunction
Prominent real estate developer H.L. Yesler halts work on Third Street with a temporary restraining order against local contractors.