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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1877 | 2 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1882 | 1 |
| 1883 | 3 |
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1885 | 4 |
| 1886 | 1 |
| 1887 | 3 |
| 1888 | 2 |
| 1889 | 5 |
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| 1892 | 12 |
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| 1903 | 4 |
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| 1917 | 1 |
73 stories matching penniless
- Turned Back for Being Penniless: The $50 Wall at Seattle's Dock
Fifty-six Japanese men and women arrive aboard the steamer Thistle — all admitted but two, who are deported to Victoria for lacking the cash the immigration law demands.
- The Klondike Nightmare: A Millionaire’s Niece Returns Broken
After chasing gold in the frozen north, a woman with family connections to Chicago wealth returns to Seattle penniless and ruined in health, offering a grim warning to other hopeful prospectors.
- The Great Snohomish Desertion: A Husband Left Penniless by His Wife’s Flight
In a scandal that gripped the small river town in early 1877, a man returned from a logging trip to find his wife had vanished with their cash, leaving him stranded and destitute.
- The Shipbuilder’s Debt of Honor
A Seattle industrialist pays back a fifty-cent loan given to him by a stranger when he was a penniless runaway.
- The Snohomish Runaway
A husband’s search for his wife ends in a bitter surprise after she leaves him penniless at a hotel.
- The Tragedy of a Sailor’s Train-Hopping Gamble
A penniless traveler, desperate to reach San Francisco, attempts to ride a moving freight train through the Washington wilderness—with fatal consequences.
- The Price of a 'Square Meal' for a Piano Tuner
After recovering from a drinking binge in Oroville, a hungry traveler found himself penniless—and learned the hard way that business owners in 1882 took a dim view of unpaid bills.
- Wealthy Miner Found Stupor-Struck in Seattle Lodging
After arriving from the North with $10,000, a miner is found penniless and in a stupor; his hosts are arrested for robbery.
- Abandoned in the Storm
Three children, orphaned and penniless, were found wandering the streets of Seattle in the rain, clutching tags that pleaded with strangers for help.
- Total Loss at Black Diamond
A hotel fire in the mining town of Black Diamond leaves residents homeless and penniless.
- The Shadowed Streets of Old Tacoma
A late-night robbery on Jefferson Street leaves a local man penniless and sparks public outrage over a surge in city crime.
- A Prospector's Final Twenty Cents
Penniless and despondent, a traveler takes his own life in a Seattle lodging house after a failed attempt to mask his actions as an accident.
- Bank Failure Leaves Local Families Penniless
Seattle bank collapse hits White Bluffs residents, wiping out savings of local depositors.
- The 'Tramp' and the Steamer Ticket
A traveler, left penniless on the docks of Tacoma, finds an unexpected reprieve through a local act of charity.
- A Refugee's Flight Across Washington
A man forced to flee for his life across Eastern Washington finds himself branded a murderer by the very people he sought to aid.
- A Failed Holdup on the Streets of Seattle
Two highwaymen with revolvers cornered a pair of locals near the waterfront, only to discover their victims were penniless.
- A Veteran’s Long Walk Home
A hungry and penniless soldier, having lost his horse in the Olympics, finds his fellow veterans unwilling to help him reach his home in Klickitat County to cast his vote.
- The Captain Who Vanished After the Bottle Cost Him His Ship
Turned out of a Chilean freighter for drunkenness, old Capt. John Maaeke has disappeared from Port Townsend—and his son in Valparaiso is demanding answers.
- The Sudden Passing of a Seattle Titan
Guy C. Phinney, the wealthy capitalist and benefactor of Woodland Park, dies at his estate following a brief illness.
- Wage Theft on the Rails
Great Northern laborers quit and waited days for owed pay; Prosecutor Bell's push brought only calls for haste.
- Fire Takes an Old Soldier's Every Saving at Beaver
A state representative's newly built Clallam County home, barn, livestock, and tools were destroyed in a fire — a $3,000 to $4,000 loss.
- The Price of Urban Ambition
A farming family leaves their land for the allure of city life, only to find themselves penniless and humbled by tragedy.
- The Tragedy of a Destitute Woman
After facing poverty and failing to find a way to support herself, a woman takes her own life in a Tacoma hotel room.
- Commerce Street Express Robbery
A local expressman is left destitute after a thief steals his horse and wagon in broad daylight on Commerce Street.
- Seattle Settlers Condemn British Rule in Ireland
A local assembly of Irish-American organizers drafts a formal protest against the British government's land policies and the forced migration of the Irish peasantry.
Also about this, in other words
- The True Cost of Living
A haunting poem from the era exposes the impossibility of supporting a family on a mill worker's starvation wage.
- A Mother, a Child, and a Cold Shack Off Albert Street
A police officer's dollar leads Superintendent Gilmer to a family with no food, no furniture and no shoes—and to a quiet rescue before the county takes over.