Research the archive
Narrow 25,724 newspaper stories by words, years, place, newspaper and subject. See when and where they ran, then download what you find.
Put a phrase in quotes ("rent strike") or leave a word out with a minus (strike -baseball). Old scans misspell names, so when little is found, near-spellings are offered.
Refine
Show the numbers
| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 1 |
| 1877 | 2 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1883 | 1 |
| 1885 | 2 |
| 1887 | 1 |
| 1889 | 1 |
| 1894 | 1 |
| 1895 | 1 |
11 stories matching preemption
- The Price of a 'Sharp Practice'
An early Tacoma settler recounts how a handshake deal for a town site—and his trust in corporate promises—cost him a half-million-dollar fortune.
- The Looming Transition: Homesteaders Face Bureaucratic Limbo
As Washington prepares for statehood, federal land officers warn settlers that their pending homestead proofs may become legally invalid overnight.
- The Battle Over Snohoish County Timber Land
A definitive government ruling reshapes the future of land rights in Washington Territory.
- The Fight for the Indemnity Belt
How Washington settlers fought to reclaim land from corporate control, breaking the grip of the Northern Pacific Railroad.
- Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad Takes Land-Grant Case to Congress
A legislative battle brews in Congress over land-grant endowments that could finally connect Seattle to the interior.
- The Business of Veterans' Benefits in 1880s Seattle
An advertisement for a local attorney reveals the complex bureaucracy of settling Civil War military land claims and homestead rights for pioneers in the Washington Territory.
- The Great Land Grab: Seattle's Board of Commissioners Condemns Northern Pacific’s 'Gross Swindle'
In a rare show of unified civic resistance, Thurston County officials denounce the railroad's seizure of public lands as an outrage against settlers.
- A Captain at Eighteen, a Pioneer at the End
John A. Steeves survived a Cape Horn shipwreck, mined in Butte, and became one of Squak Valley’s most trusted settlers. He died at his Sixth Street home after a three-week illness.
- The Ghost of Marysville: A Town That Forgot It Was Dead
In 1886, the once-thriving settlement of Marysville (now Snohomish) was still trying to convince itself it existed. A local correspondent reports on a town struggling with identity, mail routes, and real estate in the shadow of its neighbor, Seattle.
- The Many Lives of J. S. Howell: Gold Miner, Town Founder, Tacoma Broker
A Tacoma pioneer dies at his Twelfth Street home. His obituary is a tour of the nineteenth-century American West — Wisconsin lumber, Colorado gold, an Iowa townsite he platted and owned, and finally real estate in a rising Tacoma.
- The Great Land Grab: Tacoma Citizens Unite Against Northern Pacific’s ‘Squatter’ Tactics
In a packed hall at Reinig’s Hall, leading citizens condemn the railroad’s seizure of public lands and its attempt to claim hundreds of thousands of acres for a coal line that will never be built.
Also about this, in other words
- The Battle for Block Eight: Two Men, One Lot, and the Law
In a dispute that highlights the chaotic land rush of early Seattle, two settlers find themselves locked in a legal battle over the same pre-emption claim, forcing a federal judge to intervene.
- The Pre-emptor’s Ledger: A Blueprint for Owning Olympia
In November 1860, the federal government issued a rigid, almost theatrical checklist of requirements for settlers hoping to claim land in Washington Territory. It wasn't enough to just show up; you had to prove your worthiness through a litany of domestic and agricultural details.
- The Battle for the Snohomish River Claim
A landmark interior department decision favors an ailing settler over a speculator who tried to exploit a technicality in federal land law.