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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 3 |
| 1858 | 1 |
| 1859 | 1 |
| 1860 | 1 |
| 1861 | 6 |
| 1862 | 4 |
| 1863 | 17 |
| 1864 | 1 |
| 1865 | 1 |
| 1871 | 1 |
| 1872 | 9 |
| 1876 | 65 |
| 1877 | 54 |
| 1878 | 28 |
| 1879 | 4 |
| 1880 | 12 |
| 1882 | 7 |
| 1883 | 43 |
| 1884 | 15 |
| 1885 | 39 |
| 1886 | 22 |
| 1887 | 16 |
| 1888 | 21 |
| 1889 | 84 |
| 1890 | 15 |
| 1891 | 76 |
| 1892 | 111 |
| 1893 | 87 |
| 1894 | 125 |
| 1895 | 144 |
| 1897 | 3 |
| 1898 | 18 |
| 1899 | 14 |
| 1900 | 7 |
| 1902 | 4 |
| 1903 | 58 |
| 1904 | 48 |
| 1905 | 8 |
| 1907 | 3 |
| 1908 | 29 |
| 1909 | 73 |
| 1910 | 20 |
| 1911 | 7 |
| 1912 | 8 |
| 1914 | 16 |
| 1915 | 17 |
| 1916 | 39 |
| 1917 | 18 |
| 1918 | 5 |
| 1919 | 1 |
| 1922 | 1 |
| 1923 | 4 |
| 1924 | 9 |
| 1925 | 4 |
| 1928 | 3 |
1,430 stories matching need
- A Legislative Committee Finds the University of Washington Packed, Broke, and Worth Building
After touring the cramped old campus and the rising new grounds between Lake Union and Lake Washington, a joint legislative committee urges bonds, more books, a smaller board of regents, and a dry zone around the university.
- The Dairy Commissioner’s War on Adulterated Food
A Washington dairy official warns that fake honey, poisoned candy, oleomargarine and brewers’ grain are cheating farmers — and demands stronger pure-food laws.
- The Ruins on the Hilltop
Tacoma’s newspaper calls for a new high school, suggesting the city convert a blighted hotel site into a centerpiece for civic growth.
- A Boomtown School Bursting at the Seams
With 500 pupils enrolled, $24,000 in debt and another classroom already needed, Newport's school board weighs a new building — while the Commercial Club prints 3,000 leaflets to lure the East.
- Dinner at the Antler: Newport Lobbies Stevens County for Its Own Courthouse
Three Stevens County commissioners tour Newport, hear from merchants and lawyers over an evening banquet, and postpone a decision on splitting the county into judicial districts until June.
- The Governor’s War: Seattle’s Militia Mutiny and the Coal Creek Massacre
In the wake of a deadly strike at Newcastle coal mines, Governor Elisha Peery clashes with local sheriff over military command, exposing the fragility of civil authority in Washington Territory.
- Walla Walla's Water War: Springs, a Bank, and a $250,000 Bond
In December 1903, an editorial backed Councilman Glasford's plan to use Thomas Springs rather than buy bank-owned ranch land or bond for Mill Creek water.
- 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.
- The Primary Teacher’s Plea: Why Seattle’s Schools Are Failing Our Children
Miss C.I.T. Parsons delivers a scathing indictment of the King County Teachers' Institute, arguing that cheap buildings and unqualified instructors are robbing Seattle’s youth of their potential.
- When Seattle's Taps Ran Dry, One Citizen Took the City to Task
A resident of the city's eastern heights petitions the Seattle City Council over empty pipes, fire risk, and water bills—with sarcasm aimed at every authority from City Hall to the White House.
- Newport's Cesspool Crisis Made a Sewer System the Town's Biggest Need
With refuse in the streets and an epidemic feared, the Newport Miner backed a bond-financed sewerage plan in 1909.
- The Wagon King Tells Seattle to Build Roads and Put Idle Men to Work
Clem Studebaker, visiting from South Bend, says Puget Sound is beautiful but backward: good roads, an army-built highway system, and the Nicaragua canal would cure unemployment.
- The Great Chehalis Road Debate
A local taxpayer argues that a proposed $224,500 infrastructure bond is an act of folly that ignores the region's most pressing agricultural needs.
- The Senator Who Came to Bless the Canal
Illinois senator Shelby Cullom tours Seattle's proposed Lake Washington ship canal, flirts with a presidential run, and tells boosters their city needs 'a little Chicago push.'
- The Fire Chief’s Plea for Hydrants
Seattle’s fire safety infrastructure lags behind its rapid expansion, leading officials to sound the alarm on neglected districts.
- Seattle’s First Fire Company: A Half-Hearted Start in a City That Needs It
In October 1876, Seattle’s citizens are debating the formation of a volunteer fire engine company. While some jeer at their 'small beginnings,' the paper argues that even a half-hearted effort is better than no defense against the city's greatest fear: fire.
- The Farmer Who Said the Colleges Were Failing Rural Washington
Addressing the state dairymen, farmer Wm. F. Izett argues that the land-grant colleges move too slowly and cost too much to save the farm — and pitches a cheaper, faster kind of agricultural school as the 'machine gun' the countryside needs.
- Thirty-Seven Miners Died 150 Feet From Safety
An 1894 coroner's jury in Franklin, Washington, heard how a small fire in the Oregon Improvement Company's coal mine became a wall of smoke — and why the men who could have escaped stayed to fight it.
- A Town of Widows: Seattle Rallies for the Franklin Mine Dead
The Post-Intelligencer opens a relief fund for the widows and orphans left by the Franklin mine disaster, one of Washington's worst.
- Longshoremen Strike Against Wage Cuts
Striking dockworkers faced off against non-union labor hired by the Pacific Coast Steamship Company to unload cargo at drastically reduced pay.
- The Judge Who Warned Seattle Not to Sell Its Waterfront to a Canal Company
In 1894, Judge John J. McGilvra urged Congress to build the Lake Washington Ship Canal and warned that a private company's tideflat scheme would put tolls on the water and enrich speculators at public expense.
- The Salvation Army’s Plan to Turn a Kitsap Farm Into a Lifeline for Seattle’s Unemployed
With a 250-acre bequest near Sidney and a crowded food-and-shelter depot at Weller and South Third, the Army proposed a co-operative farm, woodyard and prison-gate brigade to put hundreds of jobless men to work.
- The Gall and Wormwood of Olympia: Tacoma’s Defeat in the Senate Race
As Washington's first U.S. Senator is chosen in a bitter legislative battle, defeated candidate Calkins' supporters cry foul, while Jefferson County delegates secure the victory for Watson Squire.
- 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.
- 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.
Also about this, in other words
- The Unseen Cost of a Growing City
A desperate letter from a laboring family illustrates the crushing reality of poverty in a booming Spokane, where basic survival was becoming an unreachable luxury.
- The Husband Who Had Enough: A Domestic Dispute of 1877
A rare 19th-century report of a King County man seeking divorce on the grounds of domestic abuse, citing his wife's 'cruel and inhuman treatment.'
- The Necessity of Mercy: Aberdeen's First Hospital
Founded by the Dominican Sisters, the new St. Joseph's Hospital arrived just in time to treat the frequent, brutal injuries sustained by loggers and mill workers in the surrounding timber country.
- The Lonely Plea of Miss Martha Bronson
An Eastern woman takes out a newspaper advertisement to find a husband in Washington Territory, declaring she is 'already grown up' and looking to build a life in the West.
- 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.
- A Sick Child, an Empty Cupboard, and $22 in the Collection Plate
A Unitarian minister in Tacoma argues that charity is only a bandage, and that a man who works hard and still cannot feed his family is the church's real problem to solve.
- A Call for Compassion
A local horse is left to suffer after being overloaded, highlighting the lack of animal protections in early Aberdeen.
- Work for a Meal: The Salvation Army’s ‘Elevator’ Opens in Seattle
The Salvation Army opened a combined shelter, soup kitchen and workshop near Third and South Second, offering hundreds of meals and 130 beds—provided able-bodied men earned their keep.