Research the archive
Narrow 25,688 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 |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 3 |
| 1859 | 2 |
| 1860 | 1 |
| 1861 | 5 |
| 1863 | 2 |
| 1864 | 2 |
| 1865 | 1 |
| 1872 | 12 |
| 1876 | 62 |
| 1877 | 62 |
| 1878 | 31 |
| 1879 | 5 |
| 1880 | 13 |
| 1882 | 7 |
| 1883 | 54 |
| 1884 | 23 |
| 1885 | 36 |
| 1886 | 31 |
| 1887 | 32 |
| 1888 | 37 |
| 1889 | 85 |
| 1890 | 13 |
| 1891 | 62 |
| 1892 | 130 |
| 1893 | 128 |
| 1894 | 157 |
| 1895 | 205 |
| 1896 | 1 |
| 1897 | 7 |
| 1898 | 19 |
| 1899 | 27 |
| 1900 | 4 |
| 1902 | 3 |
| 1903 | 68 |
| 1904 | 43 |
| 1905 | 2 |
| 1907 | 4 |
| 1908 | 19 |
| 1909 | 60 |
| 1910 | 9 |
| 1911 | 6 |
| 1912 | 5 |
| 1914 | 12 |
| 1915 | 17 |
| 1916 | 33 |
| 1917 | 15 |
| 1919 | 1 |
| 1923 | 4 |
| 1924 | 3 |
| 1925 | 1 |
| 1928 | 5 |
| 1929 | 2 |
1,571 stories matching reason
- 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.
- Who Owns the Shore? The Fight for Salmon Bay's Tide Flats
State land commissioners hear five contests over tide lands at Ballard, where railroads, mill companies and upland owners all claim the right to buy the waterfront.
- The Normal School Was Cleared. The Unpaid Workers Weren’t.
A legislative committee investigating the Ellensburg Normal School found no corruption among trustees—only changed plans, discounted emergency scrip, and laborers left chasing a contractor.
- The Lease a Husband Had No Right to Sign
A Tacoma mercantile firm stopped paying $500-a-month rent, arguing the leased property was community property and the wives had never signed. Washington’s Supreme Court said the lease was not absolutely void—but the tenants had rights too.
- The Railroad That Stole Our Land: How Seattle’s Interests Blocked Snohomish’s Future
A furious letter to the editor exposes how political maneuvering in Washington D.C. and Seattle kept vital federal lands locked up, denying homesteaders their rightful homes while railroad tycoons played games with territory.
- The Weight of Reasonable Doubt in Early Seattle
A century and a half ago, a Washington judge meticulously laid out the standard of proof for a murder trial, reminding the jury that a man’s life hung not on suspicion, but on evidence.
- Judge Hanford Draws the Line: Sheep Can't Graze on Railroad Land Without Consent
A federal court ruling in Yakima County upholds the Northern Pacific Railway's right to protect its unenclosed lands from sheep, setting a precedent for property rights and land use in the West.
- Sixty-Five Sign for a Town; Sixteen Try to Take Their Names Back
A petition to incorporate Marcus as a fourth-class town meets a remonstrance: signers want their names stricken, attorneys argue over voter qualifications, and the county board takes the matter under advisement.
- Seattle Bricklayers Push for a Nine-Hour Day
The city's bricklayers' association counted 29 members and commanded $5 a day—more for top hands—as workers eyed shorter hours without a pay cut.
- The Home Market Fight: Farmers Say Seattle Merchants Look Past Their Own Fields
A Port Angeles farmer’s letter to the Post-Intelligencer argues that Seattle merchants undercut local growers by buying from California, Oregon, and Chinese gardeners—and warns that the city’s food economy is bleeding money out of Washington.
- A Freethinker Takes On the Pulpit in Olympia
At Liberal Hall, P. D. Moore answers a minister’s sermon on law with a call for a religion of nature, reason, and good conduct rather than wrath and dogma.
- A Mob Hanged Two Men at the Courthouse. Then the State Argued Over the Bill.
After Hill and Parker were lynched in Colfax, Attorney General W. C. Jones ruled that the county need not pay for a coroner's inquest—and said the real hunt for the mob belonged to a grand jury.
- Hanged on a Doubt: Washington Territory's First White Execution
When John Thompson was hanged in Seattle in 1877, many believed he was guilty of manslaughter, not murder. The Dispatch made the case that the law had taken a life it should have spared.
- The Coal Creek Massacre: A Coroner’s Inquest into the Battle Between Knights of Labor and Mine Owners
In January 1890, Seattle Sheriff Cochrane deployed militia to Newcastle to suppress a miners' strike. When a riot erupted at Coal Creek, one man was killed and ten arrested. The subsequent coroner's inquest revealed a chaotic scene where union men claimed self-defense against armed mine owners, while the sheriff dismissed the Knights of Labor as 'too excitable.'
- Puyallup Families Finally Win Title to Their Land
While the President ordered land titles for the Puyallup people in 1884, a corrupt 'ring' of speculators held up the process to seize the property for profit.
- The Shackled Sailors of the Karoo
A federal judge in Tacoma intervenes to protect a crew 'inveigled' onto a British ship, exposing a brutal system of forced labor and maritime exploitation.
- Seattle's 1895 Warning: Secure Cedar River Water Before Private Speculators Do
City Engineer R. H. Thomson says Seattle's overworked pumps cannot survive another summer and urges the city to buy the Cedar River watershed, dams and reservoir sites while it still can.
- "An Act of Providence": State Clears the Great Northern for the Wellington Dead
After a joint inquiry with the coroner's jury into the Wellington disaster, the state railroad commission finds the train crew did everything reasonable and calls the catastrophe an act of God — then quietly asks engineers to study the grade.
- The Land Grab That Built Tacoma: How the Northern Pacific Railroad Stole Millions of Acres
A furious editorial in the Seattle Star exposes the Northern Pacific Railroad’s scheme to misappropriate public lands for a private coal line, arguing that the company is using legal loopholes to steal from settlers in King and Snohomish counties.
- Acquitted in Five Minutes: The Girl Accused of Poisoning a Child
A packed Seattle courtroom erupts when Hildegard Rundberg is cleared of murdering little Richard Parker with 'Death to Rats' rat poison — the jury needing barely five minutes to set her free.
- Seattle's Bid to Be the Liverpool of America
In 1895, boosters imagined a Lake Washington ship canal turning Puget Sound into a freshwater harbor for world commerce, coal trade, and naval power.
- Two Plans, One Spring, and a $25,000 Holdup
Walla Walla's council will let voters choose between a $191,000 pipeline up Mill Creek and a cheaper gravity system at Thomas Springs — but the editor suspects a land speculation scheme is baked into the ballot question.
- Spokane Merchants Take the Railroad Monopoly Back to Court
Thirty-five Spokane merchants ask a federal judge to force the Northern Pacific and Union Pacific to obey an 1891 Interstate Commerce Commission order that found the roads were gouging the inland city.
- The Smuggler's Shield: How a Seattle Customs Chief Defended Himself in Tacoma
In the height of the 1888 opium smuggling scandal, Chief Inspector Gardner takes the stand in Tacoma, claiming he was set up by political rivals to cover his own failures.
- The Professor, the President, and the Champagne College Deal
A legislative investigation at Pullman exposes secret opposition, abandoned building plans, and site-selection hospitality that included brass bands and champagne.
Also about this, in other words
- The Great Debate of Reason vs. Revelation
Seattle's Armory hosts a week-long verbal brawl between a Christian minister and a secularist skeptic over the role of the Bible in modern life.
- Healing Through Faith: Judge Hanna at the Opera House
A prominent Christian Science lecturer visits the Walla Walla Opera House to explain the doctrine's stance on sickness and the 'mental cause'.
- The Sermon of Science in Snohomish
A local lecture series bridges the gap between theology and natural history, framing evolution not as a conflict with the divine, but as the 'eternal reign of law.'
- The Unreasonable Burden of Moral Regeneration
A bold editorial argument for women's suffrage, dismissing the 'degradation' objection and the notion that men need women to save them from their own vices.
- The Price of Discontent: A Warning from the 1877 Panic
While Seattle thrives on the steady hum of mills and logging camps, a Seattle editor warns citizens against petty grievances by recounting the harrowing hunger and unemployment plaguing the rest of the country.
- A Case of Reasonable Doubt
Salvador Pecani, once sentenced to hang for a brutal crime, is set free after the Supreme Court rules the evidence against him purely circumstantial.
- Hospitalization Excuses City Hall's Negligence
The Washington State Supreme Court ruled that a citizen’s hospital stay is a valid reason for missing a 30-day window to file a claim against the city for street injuries.
- The Sudden End of a Legal Tug-of-War
After facing trial on multiple charges, a defendant unexpectedly opts for prison time rather than risking a lengthier legal fight.