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22 stories matching pestil
- Tacoma’s Water Crisis and the Million-Dollar 'Steal'
A court injunction cuts off the city's primary water source, prompting fears of pestilence and highlighting a suspicious, debt-laden municipal purchase.
- Olympia Bought a $1,500 Sewer Map Critics Called Worthless
A letter to the editor accuses the city council of buying a stranger's sewer plan without scrutiny—complete with a harbor reservoir already condemned in San Diego.
- A Neighborhood's Battle Against Filth
Tacoma residents at 11th and Sprague demand city action to clear stagnant wells and sloughs breeding typhoid.
- The Angel of Pestilence: Seattle’s War on Rot and Ruin
In May 1877, a local merchant’s complaint about piles of carrion near the sawmills sparked an editorial outcry against civic negligence, declaring that 'malarial vapors' were generating poison and death in the growing town.
- The City’s Panic Over a Smallpox Outbreak
When an infectious disease arrived on the Seattle waterfront in 1876, the City Council and local editors turned to extreme rhetoric, calling for the forced removal of the city's vulnerable populations.
- Every Hospital Turned Him Away, So the Health Officer Decided to Open One Himself
A contagious patient with nowhere to go, a council that won't pay its bills, and a health commissioner who dug up a forgotten ordinance and stopped asking permission.
- The Editor Who Sold His Paper to a Brothel Keeper
A scathing letter in the Puget Sound Dispatch exposes the corrupt alliance between Seattle’s Republican party and its most notorious vice kingpins, asking: 'What of that newspaper publisher... who for a palm share in the wages of prostitution gives his aid and influence?'
- Inquest Held for Remains Found in Seattle Cellar
A jury convenes to address the discovery of unidentified Chinese remains in a cellar, raising questions about municipal neglect and health risks.
- The Shadow Over Seattle's Early Growth
A vitriolic 1881 congressional speech from Thomas H. Brents reveals the dark, exclusionary labor politics that defined the foundations of the Pacific Northwest.
- The Plague at the Doorstep: Seattle’s Battle Against Smallpox in 1877
As smallpox ravages Port Orchard and Salmon Bay, the city's Health Officer takes drastic quarantine measures against Indigenous communities, highlighting the fragile public health infrastructure of early Seattle.
- Snohomish Wants Its Health Officer Gone as Smallpox Closes In
A mass meeting demands Dr. McCready resign, the new pesthouse burns down overnight, and a pauper patient dies — all while the state threatens to quarantine the town.
- The County’s Cold Shoulder: Seattle Bleeds for Indigent Sick
In April 1877, the City of Seattle faced a financial crisis as King County refused to pay medical bills for indigent patients, leaving local taxpayers to foot the bill for care that should have been shared.
- The Brooklyn Plague: A Satirical Warning Against the 'Fanaticism' of Moody and Sankey
A local correspondent in Snohomish mocks the recent evangelistic crusade of Rev. D.L. Moody and singer R.A. Sankey, comparing their emotional preaching to a contagious disease and jokingly inviting missionaries to relocate to Washington Territory.
- The Hidden Killer in Seattle’s Business District
The tragic, preventable death of a young businessman in 1889 exposes the lethal lack of sewage infrastructure in the heart of downtown Seattle.
- The Mob Rule at Our Doorstep
When an organized society in Walla Walla issued threats against anyone hiring Chinese labor, the press decried the move as a return to the lawless spirit of the frontier.
- The City’s Stinking Secret
In 1888, Seattle's growing pains were literally surfacing on the beach as inadequate sewers turned the bay into an open dumping ground.
- The Opium Evil: How 48 Cans Slipped Past Seattle's Customs Inspector
In 1877, a Seattle paper raged about opium smuggling, corruption in the revenue service, and a den where 'white men, Chinese and Indians' met—a racist panic that echoes today's drug crises.
- The Price of a 'Boom'
In 1889, the Post-Intelligencer rebuked city leaders for prioritizing the 'boom' over public sanitation, warning that a failure to build a proper sewer system would inevitably bring pestilence to a rapidly growing Seattle.
- The Smallpox Threat from Victoria
As cases of smallpox rise rapidly in British Columbia, Seattle calls for a strict maritime quarantine to protect the city.
- Seattle Declares Victory Over Smallpox Outbreak
After twenty days of tension, health officials confirm the city is safe, though the bill for containment—and a sharp rebuke for those who brought the sickness to town—remains.
- The Great Table Etiquette Debate
An editorial scrap between the Intelligencer and the Post-Intelligencer over whether eating with a knife is a sign of 'vulgar' breeding.
- Pestilence in the Puyallup Valley Hop Fields
A rainy, humid August threatens the harvest as growers fight aphid infestations and labor shortages.
Also about this, in other words
- The City's 'Pest House' Under Siege
A Seattie facility for contagious diseases is damaged by wayward debris from local riverfront construction.
- The Town's Pest House Dilemma
A Garfield official and a local doctor clash over who should pay for a young man's post-quarantine clothing.
- The Price of a 'Pest House' in Pioneer Seattle
As drought and economic chaos gripped 1877 San Francisco, Seattle citizens found themselves debating the ethics of turning a local residential property into an isolation facility for the smallpox-stricken.
- The City’s Sick and the Floating Hazard
A growing public outcry in 1889 Seattle demands the relocation of the city’s pesthouse, currently moored in a dangerous, wind-swept location that threatens public health.
- The Plague of Caterpillars on the North Side
A swarm of voracious insects descends upon Seattle's northern outskirts, stripping gardens and trees bare while defying all attempts at extermination.
- The Snake Oil of Snohomish
A century-old miracle cure for man and beast that promised to heal everything from rheumatism to ‘hollow horn’.
- The Shadow of Infantile Paralysis
As a polio outbreak grips the nation, public health officials in 1916 offer desperate, homespun advice to anxious mothers.
- The Rotting Jaw: Labor’s Fight Against Deadly Phosphorus
Workers in American match factories face a horrific, disfiguring illness while the government debates banning the white phosphorus that causes it.