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|---|---|
| 1854 | 1 |
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| 1878 | 29 |
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754 stories matching readi
- Seattle’s Japanese Neighbors Answer the Call of War
In August 1894, Japanese residents packed a Jefferson Street hall to send money, flour and volunteers to the First Sino-Japanese War—while Chinese Seattleites predicted Japan’s defeat.
- Seattle Lost the Ship Canal Fight in One Olympia Night
The 1892 Democratic state convention rejected the Lake Washington ship canal, humiliated King County's delegates and nominated Henry J. Snively for governor — setting off a political feud over Seattle's waterfront future.
- No Work, Then Gunshots: A Tacoma Family's Despair
Albert McAchren shot his wife and himself in a Tacoma lodging house after a year without steady work; his young daughter survived to tell the story.
- Under Fire on the Way to Spokane: Seattle's Militia Rode Into a Rail War
Col. Joseph Green's detachment returns from Spokane after escorting a mutinied company through burned bridges, ambushes and striker country—and the city turns out to cheer.
- Seattle Makes Its Case for Statehood
As the constitutional convention convenes in Olympia, Seattle’s delegates argue for the city’s readiness, its infrastructure, and its claim to statehood.
- Homesteading Reality Check for the Skagit Valley
A blunt warning to new arrivals: the frontier isn't a land of ready-made farms.
- The Primary That Ended in a Chokehold
In Ellensburg, a fight over a supreme court nomination turned a Populist primary into a brief, violent farce—and threatened to split the party before the fall election.
- Left Stranded on the Beach
A holiday picnic party at Damon's Point turns into a moonlight vigil when their boat fails to appear.
- Lumber Barons Admit Defeat: Seattle Lumbermen's Association Suspends Operations
Fierce competition and falling prices force the Seattle Lumbermen's Association to stop meeting, though its secretary insists the group hasn't disbanded.
- 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 Day Washington Was Born: A City Holds Its Breath
As the nation celebrates statehood, Seattle gathers in a packed hall to hear speeches on liberty, land fraud, and the future of the 'Queen City.'
- The Hangman's Verdict: John Thompson Convicted of Murder in Snohomish
A trial that captivated the entire Territory ends with a death sentence for a man accused of killing his friend during a drunken brawl over a card game.
- The Army Occupies the Armory
When the Coxey's Army movement reached Seattle in 1894, federal troops were brought in to prevent a rescue of imprisoned protesters.
- The Mass Departure of Chinese Laborers
After the completion of the Cedar River extension, the Oregon Improvement Company arranged for the mass transport of 1,700 Chinese workers out of Seattle.
- Masked Vigilantes Hang a Convicted Murderer in Dayton Jail
James McPherson, convicted of murdering E. H. Cummins at New York Bar, was taken from the Dayton jail by masked men and hanged, despite a governor's reprieve and a new trial order.
- 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.
- The Great Reconstruction: Seattle’s Waterfront Rises from the Ashes
Less than a month after the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, the city’s wharves are a hive of frantic, round-the-clock labor to restore the vital commerce of the Pacific.
- The Shadowy 'Dynamiters' and the Seattle Employment Crisis
While international fears of dynamite conspiracies gripped 1885, a local Seattle employment agency quietly documented the harsh reality of thousands of men out of work, desperate, and struggling in the wake of an ironworks decline.
- The Boat That Built Itself Twice: How a Portland Captain Saved His Alaska Dream
Captain Spencer didn't just buy a wrecked sternwheeler; he bought the parts of two lost ships and assembled them into a new vessel, proving that in the age of steam, ingenuity could outpace disaster.
- A Kenton Picnic Speech and the Justification of Native Displacement
At a Kenton picnic, Judge Orange Jacobs cast pioneer survival as historical necessity and used dehumanizing rhetoric to defend the displacement of Native Americans.
- The Shadow of the Indian Wars in the Snohomish Valley
As rumors of conflict and uprisings on the upper Columbia stir the frontier, Snohomish locals organize a volunteer militia to defend their settlements.
- The Captain Who Caught a Monster: Seattle’s Own Sea Serpent Hoax
Captain Pat J. Boyton of Seattle claims to have captured a 63-foot sea serpent in the Pacific, sending a letter from his ship that has locals buzzing with wonder and skepticism.
- The Railroad That Couldn't Steal His Home
How a local homesteader outlasted the Northern Pacific Railway in a decade-long legal battle over land rights.
- The Ship Canal Double-Cross at the Democratic Convention
Seattle's delegates went to Olympia ready to die on the canal plank. Their own campaign manager had already sold them out.