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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 2 |
| 1859 | 5 |
| 1860 | 2 |
| 1861 | 1 |
| 1862 | 3 |
| 1863 | 2 |
| 1864 | 1 |
| 1871 | 1 |
| 1872 | 10 |
| 1876 | 57 |
| 1877 | 42 |
| 1878 | 19 |
| 1879 | 3 |
| 1880 | 11 |
| 1882 | 14 |
| 1883 | 30 |
| 1884 | 16 |
| 1885 | 40 |
| 1886 | 20 |
| 1887 | 24 |
| 1888 | 19 |
| 1889 | 68 |
| 1890 | 10 |
| 1891 | 53 |
| 1892 | 108 |
| 1893 | 119 |
| 1894 | 115 |
| 1895 | 35 |
| 1897 | 1 |
| 1898 | 3 |
| 1899 | 23 |
| 1900 | 3 |
| 1902 | 2 |
| 1903 | 56 |
| 1904 | 27 |
| 1905 | 5 |
| 1907 | 1 |
| 1908 | 1 |
| 1909 | 19 |
| 1910 | 8 |
| 1911 | 6 |
| 1912 | 1 |
| 1914 | 15 |
| 1915 | 12 |
| 1916 | 27 |
| 1917 | 9 |
| 1918 | 5 |
| 1919 | 1 |
| 1923 | 5 |
| 1924 | 5 |
| 1925 | 3 |
1,068 stories matching prove
- A Newspaper Editor's Silence in Court: The Lugrin Libel Trial
C. H. Lugrin, managing editor of the Seattle Telegraph, rested his defense without calling witnesses in a libel trial brought by Police Chief Rogers. The case now goes to the jury.
- The Judge Who Gambled Away His Office: Soderberg’s Dramatic Resignation
After the grand jury returned five indictments for extortion and malfeasance in office, District Attorney Joseph Soderberg walked into court, tendered his resignation, and declared he would repay every illegal fee to the county treasury.
- The Yesler Will Case: A Dead Millionaire, a Missing Will, and a Widow on Trial
In a Seattle courtroom, prosecutors argue that Mrs. Yesler conspired to destroy her husband's will—while defense lawyers call the case a web of speculation and newspaper rumor.
- The Secret Courthouse Bond Deal Benton County Tried to Ram Through
Commissioners Clements and McNeill authorized $125,000 in bonds for a Prosser courthouse after a closed-door plan their own lawyer admitted was designed to keep taxpayers in the dark. A Kennewick lawsuit put the deal before Judge Grady.
- A Wife's Testimony Was Enough: Supreme Court Reverses Divorce Denial
The Washington Supreme Court ruled that a wife's own account of cruelty and habitual drunkenness could justify a divorce, reversing a lower court that had dismissed Nellie Lee's case.
- The Tacoma Republicans Who Refused to Knife John McGraw
A Pierce County party committee tried to block the state ticket. A rival Harrison Club fired back with a mule-team metaphor and demanded candidates pledge loyalty.
- The Editor, the Chief, and the Libel He Could Not Prove
Seattle’s police chief wins a criminal libel case after the Telegraph’s promised corruption evidence never materializes.
- Troops Take the Yards as Seattle Braces for the Great Railroad Strike
Regular artillery, deputy marshals and a nervous militia dig in across the city — even hauling the state's rifles up to the university for safekeeping — as the 1894 Pullman boycott reaches Puget Sound.
- The Opium Smuggling Trap
A Seattle man accused of opium trafficking convinces a jury he was actually working as a government informant to expose a crooked customs inspector.
- The Right to Vote Should Not Be an Obstacle Course
A Seattle judge strikes down a restrictive registration law that forced foreign-born citizens to constantly prove their naturalization status.
- Fatal Lumber Mill Accident Claims Life of Tacoma Worker
A workplace tragedy at the St. Paul mill leaves one man dead and another facing life-altering injuries.
- The Palouse Professor Who Helped Rediscover Heredity
Before Mendel's laws were famous, an agriculturist at the Washington State Experiment Station stood alongside three European scientists as a co-discoverer of them — and proved the principle with velvet-chaffed wheat.
- The Race That Beat the Sea: How a Local Yacht Outpaced the Coast
Captain Burns’ Pacific coaster claims victory in a thrilling seven-round duel against the Dashing Wave, proving that beating to windward is what truly tells.
- The Circular of Rumors That Landed a Minister in Court
A four-hour Seattle libel hearing ends with Rev. M. H. Nichols bound over after he admits his charges against Rev. Dr. T. E. Ford were built on hearsay.
- A Seattle Editor Convicted of Libeling the Police Chief
Charles H. Lugrin of the Seattle Daily Telegraph was found guilty after a four-day municipal court trial for an article about Chief of Police Bolton Rogers.
- A Crate of Sweet Potatoes to Sell the Desert
Land agents pack up the valley's finest produce — mammoth sugar beets, honeydew casabas, and one 250-pound potato crop — and ship it to Chicago to convince Eastern buyers that this sagebrush country is a garden.
- Prosser Experiment Sheds Light on Alfalfa and Corn for Lambs
State College of Washington researchers reveal new findings on feed efficiency for regional sheep ranchers.
- The Widow and the Land Graber
An Indian widow and her children reclaim their land after being defrauded by a prominent guardian.
- 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.
- The Judge Who Was Both Defendant and Accused
In a stunning legal double-header, Judge Wickersham is convicted of seduction in one court, then immediately indicted for perjury by the federal grand jury in the very same day.
- The Missing Will That Would Have Given Seattle a Library
Henry Yesler's widow and two doctors are arrested, accused of burning a will that left the pioneer's fortune—and his mansion—to the city.
- The Delegate Who Sold Seattle’s Future for Five Thousand Dollars
A scathing editorial in the Puget Sound Dispatch accuses Territorial Delegate George Freeman Willard of betraying Seattle’s interests—specifically the mud flats of Duwamish Bay—to secure his own political and financial gain, while simultaneously accepting bribes from rival railroad companies.
- The Shadowy Land Claim at Quilayute
A local teacher exposes a fraudulent land grab scheme involving the intimidation of Indigenous residents and forged petitions to the Land Office.
- A Pioneer's 40-Year Fight for Land the Indian Wars Took
Isaiah W. Bryant's 1895 petition traced how he fled his White River donation claim during the 1855-56 war, lost his savings, and waited decades for the land office to act.
- The Opium King’s Last Stand: A Seattle Showdown
As federal agents prepare to prosecute the city's most notorious vice figure, he stands defiant in his hotel room, claiming his trunks were rigged and vowing to clear his name before a New York jury.
Also about this, in other words
- The Price of Proving Up
A Ritzville homesteader defends his livelihood against malicious neighbors in a grueling legal battle over the integrity of his claim.
- The Price of Proving Up on Timber Land
A reader argues that the President’s veto of a relief bill makes it nearly impossible for average settlers to acquire government land without losing everything to travel costs and lawyers.
- The Forged Warrants, and the Ticket to Liverpool
A Tacoma city clerk's alleged forgery ring comes apart in court as a detective reveals escape passages booked to Halifax and a forged signature on the city's own money.
- The State Inspector’s Chicken Dinner Challenge
A White Bluffs student wins a state-wide academic challenge from a visiting inspector.
- The Justice, the Teen Bride, and the Proof of Adulthood
When a young couple arrived in 1876 Seattle seeking to re-validate their wedding, a skeptical judge found himself out-argued by the bride’s most persuasive piece of evidence.
- The Marriage of Convenience
A federal judge bypasses exclusion laws by upholding a traditional Chinese proxy marriage for an immigrant woman.
- The Rule of Law in the Wild West
A deep dive into the 1854 Washington Territorial legal code governing criminal trials, bail, and the rights of the accused.
- The High-Stakes Legal Battle Over Yesler’s Millions
A courtroom drama unfolds as attorneys argue over whether a secret will exists—or if a massive, convoluted conspiracy to defraud the widow is afoot.