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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 1 |
| 1859 | 1 |
| 1860 | 3 |
| 1861 | 2 |
| 1862 | 3 |
| 1871 | 1 |
| 1872 | 6 |
| 1876 | 14 |
| 1877 | 8 |
| 1878 | 5 |
| 1880 | 6 |
| 1882 | 3 |
| 1883 | 14 |
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1885 | 12 |
| 1886 | 4 |
| 1887 | 12 |
| 1888 | 5 |
| 1889 | 23 |
| 1890 | 4 |
| 1891 | 14 |
| 1892 | 58 |
| 1893 | 55 |
| 1894 | 49 |
| 1895 | 50 |
| 1898 | 2 |
| 1899 | 12 |
| 1902 | 1 |
| 1903 | 38 |
| 1904 | 8 |
| 1907 | 1 |
| 1908 | 3 |
| 1909 | 18 |
| 1911 | 2 |
| 1915 | 4 |
| 1916 | 1 |
| 1917 | 5 |
| 1918 | 1 |
| 1923 | 4 |
| 1924 | 1 |
| 1929 | 1 |
456 stories matching marriag
- The $100,000 Estate and the Indian Marriage That Seattle Forgot
A daughter claiming the estate of pioneer Franklin Mathias says her parents were married by Indian custom in 1867. A federal judge must decide whether that marriage—and her legitimacy—counts.
- 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.
- The Gilded Union: A Chorus Girl and a Chinese Actor Defy Convention in Seattle's Chinatown
In a scandalous departure from social norms, Jessie Kitchie and Ah Bock exchanged vows in the opium-scented apartments of Jackson Alley, marking a rare public union across racial lines in 1889.
- The Widow’s Pension Legal Trap
A woman finds her pension rights threatened by the complex, shifting definitions of marriage under 19th-century law.
- Mary Fisher Sues Architect Jasper Fisher Over Marriage Vow
A woman sues a prominent Seattle architect for $10,000, alleging he kept her in a common-law marriage for years before abandoning her for a new bride.
- The Contract Wife Who Would Not Be Shaken Off
Florence Bucklin Byers followed a wealthy Chilean consul to California, then returned to Port Townsend vowing to enforce their handwritten marriage contract—or sue him for divorce.
- The Bride of Sixteen and Her Husband of Fifty-Eight
A teenage bride petitions for divorce, citing a forced marriage, cruelty, and the abandonment of a child.
- The Marriage of Convenience
A federal judge bypasses exclusion laws by upholding a traditional Chinese proxy marriage for an immigrant woman.
- A Six-Month Divorce Rule Meets a Quick Idaho Wedding
A Spokane court asks whether a divorced woman's speedy remarriage makes her an adulteress—and whether hundreds of local marriages and land titles are at risk.
- A Montana Millionaire's Secret Seattle Wedding
Hugh F. Galen, a wealthy Helena mine owner and politician, secretly married schoolteacher Laura B. Tague at a Seattle church, then slipped away to California—leaving friends in Montana to plan a reception.
- A Scandalous Clandestine Marriage Ends in Court
After defying her father's warnings about her husband's bad habits, Kate Stephenson secures a divorce and custody of her children.
- The Judge Rules on the 'Common Law' Marriage
A King County court recognizes a union without a formal ceremony, sparking debate over the legal definition of marriage.
- The Cruelty of a Mock Marriage
A young woman is left destitute in Seattle after a man used a fake marriage ceremony to steal her savings and abandon her.
- The Pioneer Pastor Who Counted Seattle's Weddings and Funerals
Rev. John F. Damon arrived in 1869 and spent a quarter-century marrying and burying Seattle—often without enough in return to cover his car fare.
- The Music-Hall Queen and Her Contract Husband
A Port Townsend performer known as "Shiner" says she will sue Frederick Macondray for divorce, brandishing love letters signed "My Dear Little Kid" and a marriage contract struck on Puget Sound.
- The Maid of Honour, Nine Years Later
Anna Peterson stood at Myron Spath's first wedding. Now she came to Newport to marry the groom herself — and he failed to arrive.
- The Skagit Farm Courtroom Battle
A landmark inheritance case hinged on the validity of an 1880s marriage between a white settler and a Swinomish woman.
- Courtroom Chaos After Secret Marriage Ends in Gunfire
A mother's desperate attempt to retrieve her teenage daughter from a clandestine marriage leads to a dramatic shooting in the heart of Seattle's legal district.
- The First Wedding in Seattle, Celebrated Forty-Two Years Later
David and Louisa Denny gather four generations of pioneers at their Temperance Street home, where relics of the 1850s—and the certificate from Seattle’s first marriage—turn an anniversary into a founding story.
- The Bride Who Wasn't
A Norwegian woman who traveled from Minneapolis to Seattle on the promise of marriage finds herself at the police station instead.
- The Mock Wedding Scandal
A Seattle bride files for divorce, revealing her husband tricked her into a sham ceremony before marrying her for real under the watch of a constable.
- The Six-Month Trap: A Seattle Divorce Scandal
A husband abandons his second wife after a bigamous marriage, forcing a judge to rule on the legality of vows broken before the ink was dry on a divorce decree.
- The Six-Month Rule: A Marriage Undone
A Seattle man files suit to annul his marriage, claiming his bride was still legally bound to her ex-husband under Washington’s strict divorce laws.
- The Hidden Marriage of Port Townsend
A prominent local pharmacist faces a divorce suit for a marriage his community never knew existed.
- The Bigamist of White Bluffs
A local marriage is legally dissolved after the groom is revealed to have a secret history of multiple wives.
Also about this, in other words
- A Wedding Night Turned to Blood
A celebratory shotgun 'charivari' in Ping Gulch went terribly wrong when pranksters left live ammunition in their guns, leaving the bride with multiple bullet wounds.
- The Finley Grange's Mock Divorce Trial
A local organization stages a fake courtroom drama to serve as a closing act for a years-old, real-life legal grudge.