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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 5 |
| 1859 | 2 |
| 1860 | 1 |
| 1861 | 4 |
| 1862 | 2 |
| 1863 | 1 |
| 1864 | 1 |
| 1871 | 1 |
| 1872 | 4 |
| 1876 | 31 |
| 1877 | 26 |
| 1878 | 16 |
| 1879 | 2 |
| 1880 | 6 |
| 1882 | 5 |
| 1883 | 24 |
| 1884 | 18 |
| 1885 | 43 |
| 1886 | 10 |
| 1887 | 16 |
| 1888 | 17 |
| 1889 | 36 |
| 1890 | 3 |
| 1891 | 53 |
| 1892 | 89 |
| 1893 | 85 |
| 1894 | 117 |
| 1895 | 136 |
| 1897 | 5 |
| 1898 | 10 |
| 1899 | 20 |
| 1900 | 2 |
| 1902 | 2 |
| 1903 | 40 |
| 1904 | 26 |
| 1905 | 2 |
| 1907 | 3 |
| 1908 | 19 |
| 1909 | 40 |
| 1910 | 8 |
| 1911 | 6 |
| 1912 | 3 |
| 1914 | 6 |
| 1915 | 11 |
| 1916 | 7 |
| 1917 | 7 |
| 1918 | 1 |
| 1923 | 2 |
| 1924 | 1 |
| 1928 | 2 |
| 1929 | 2 |
979 stories matching read
- A Packed Council Chamber, a Railroad Franchise, and a Fight Over Public Streets
Newport's city council meeting drew a standing-room crowd as aldermen tangled over an Idaho Washington Northern street-vacation request, a conflict-of-interest accusation, saloon licenses, and an electric-light contract.
- The First Teachers’ Institute: A Battle for Seattle’s Soul
In September 1872, the Territory’s top educators gathered in Seattle to debate everything from corporal punishment to the role of women in teaching, laying the groundwork for public education in Washington.
- The Divorce Dozen: Olympia’s Council Clears a Path for Broken Marriages
In December 1860, the Washington Territory Council processed a flurry of divorce petitions, including one from prominent local figure Carson D. Boren, revealing the fragile nature of domestic life in the frontier.
- 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.
- A Midnight Council Fight Over Rails, Rubbish and Residency
Newport's council spent a long May evening weighing a railroad franchise, ordering alleys cleaned, and questioning whether one of its own members actually lived in town.
- A One-Man Supreme Court: Olympia Weighs 500 Cases and 16-Hour Reading Days
A legislative investigation hears that Washington’s high court has misstated facts and been crushed by its workload — with one justice sometimes reading an entire case alone.
- The County's Ledger: A Glimpse into Snohomish Life in 1877
Minutes from the Snohomish County Commissioners reveal a town in transition: new justices, bridge bids, and the quiet bureaucracy of building a community on the edge of the frontier.
- The Perils of the Telegraph
A look at the chaotic and often hilarious errors produced by local telegraph operators.
- City Hall Hands a 50-Year Power Franchise to the New Electric Company
Newport’s council approves a long-term electric franchise, ties up a telephone ordinance in restrictions, orders street grades, and hears complaints about street preachers.
- 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.
- Newport's Railroad Franchise Went Through in a Single Night
In May 1908, the Commercial Club packed the council meeting and Newport's leaders voted without dissent to hand the Idaho & Washington Northern its franchise, betting the town's future on rail and industry.
- 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 Court-Martial That Laughed Up Its Sleeve
In closed sessions at Olympia, Col. J. C. Haines faces charges of foul and abusive language—but his supporters say the fix is already in.
- The Territorial Auditor and the Slander Machine
When the Walla Walla Statesman accused a prominent territorial official of being a fugitive felon, it sparked a local crisis in journalistic ethics and public reputation.
- Seattle's Fire Chief Accused as the Council Wrestles a Telephone Franchise and a Paving Bill
Both houses of the city council meet late into the night: charges that Chief Hunt holds office under false pretenses, a twenty-five-year franchise for the Seattle Home Telephone Company, and a fight over who pays for the sick and injured.
- Fifteen Minutes to Confess: The Morphine Trial of Port Townsend's Captain De Lion
A former mayor, Chilean consul and dry-dock promoter worth half a million dollars sits in superior court while his emaciated wife describes a year of morphine, delusion and a pocket watch set on the table between them.
- The Newspaper Letter That Nearly Started a Fight in the Washington Senate
With the U.S. Senate election deadlocked in Olympia, a Pierce County senator read a rival’s letter aloud — and the chamber erupted over money, lobbyists, and borrowed favors.
- The Railroad Wanted the Streets. The Nagles Wanted Compensation.
Newport's council granted the Idaho & Washington Northern a franchise through Second and Third streets while Philip and Mary Nagle warned it would damage their property. A letter from M. M. Sammons also pressed the railroad to donate ten acres for a public park.
- The $8,000 Schoolyard Fight
A losing contractor accuses Seattle’s school board of steering a South School grounds contract to a favored bidder and wasting taxpayer money. The board fires back that the cheapest bids were unsafe and that a $25,000 schoolhouse was at risk of falling.
- The 10-Cent Alternative to the Saloon
A local leader proposes a 'reading room and coffee house' to offer Seattle's young men a moral, affordable sanctuary away from the city's liquor dens.
- Queen Anne parents ask where the $25,000 school levy went
A delegation from the Queen Anne district told the school board it had both the money and the legal duty to build a schoolhouse on the hill. The board conceded the need, blamed the county treasurer's books, and referred the whole thing to committee.
- Who Gets to Run Seattle's Streetcars?
A proposed thirty-year franchise for the Consolidated Street Railway cleared its first reading at city hall, but fights over fares, paving and transfers were far from over.
- Newport Council Digs In Against Electric Company's Meter Rates
A 25-year steam-heating franchise request collides with a fight over streetlight bills and what the town can afford.
- Seattle’s School Board Said No to $153
Contractors crowded the board meeting, but a fight over $4,000 versus $4,153 left a school addition unbuilt—and a Lake Union petition for 107 children pending.
- The Westside Railway Deal and the Councilman Who Didn't Read It
Olympia's council weighed a cheaper route through C. M. Moore's block to reach the Westside Railway—until one committeeman admitted he had signed the report blind.
Also about this, in other words
- Resuscitated from the Lake Union Depths
A milling company worker narrowly survives a terrifying drowning incident after a log turns under him in the freezing waters.
- The Newspaper Habit: A Cure for 'Old-World' Stagnation
An 1877 Snohomish editorial argues that the key to becoming a 'live man' in the American West is the daily consumption of news.
- Books for the Common Good
An anonymous businessman donates $100 in gold to expand the Y.M.C.A. reading room for the working men of Seattle.
- A Judge Ate Candy While a Man's Life Hung on the Verdict
The state supreme court overturns a Jefferson County murder conviction after Judge Sachs reads newspapers and passes sweets on the bench — and delivers a rebuke that is the longest opinion of the term.
- A Bible in Every Schoolroom? The Epworth League's Careful Campaign in Western Washington
Meeting in convention, Methodist delegates moved to demand Bible reading in the public schools — then softened the demand, and asked the legislature to put a constitutional amendment to a vote.
- The Collapse of a Partisan Press
The editor of 'The Dispatch' announces the closure of the publication after a series of financial betrayals and political infighting.
- The Clerk’s Odd Sales Pitch
A farmer learns a strange and aggressive new way to test if his wife is 'sound' while shopping in 1877 Seattle.
- A Sanctuary for Temperance and Study
The Women's Christian Temperance Union opens a free reading room to provide young men an alternative to the saloon.