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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 1 |
| 1859 | 1 |
| 1861 | 1 |
| 1862 | 2 |
| 1872 | 2 |
| 1876 | 13 |
| 1877 | 12 |
| 1878 | 6 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1880 | 3 |
| 1882 | 3 |
| 1883 | 13 |
| 1884 | 11 |
| 1885 | 12 |
| 1886 | 6 |
| 1887 | 7 |
| 1888 | 5 |
| 1889 | 12 |
| 1890 | 1 |
| 1891 | 10 |
| 1892 | 25 |
| 1893 | 20 |
| 1894 | 25 |
| 1895 | 18 |
| 1899 | 7 |
| 1900 | 1 |
| 1903 | 8 |
| 1904 | 2 |
| 1905 | 1 |
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| 1909 | 9 |
| 1911 | 2 |
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| 1917 | 3 |
| 1924 | 1 |
248 stories matching sad
- A Final Insult for a Fallen Engineer
After an Everett railroad engineer died in a tragic mountain fall, his employers refused to pay for his transport, offering only a boxcar for the journey home.
- English Homesteader Runs Out of Money Near Seattle
An immigrant family struggling to clear their homestead near Seattle loses their only daughter and everything they own to a tragic logging accident.
- The Well That Killed Twice
A promising new homestead a few miles east of Whatcom became a death trap when a pocket of gas swallowed John Kidwell and the neighbor who tried to save him.
- A Sister’s Desperate Search Ends in the Poor Farm
After traveling across the country to find her brother, a woman is declared insane and sent to the county infirmary.
- A History of a Sad Honeymoon
A Seattle woman sues for divorce, alleging a brutal pattern of domestic abuse and betrayal mere months into her marriage.
- The Tragic Disappearance of James Irving
A young sailor, days away from his wedding and the start of a new life in Tacoma, vanishes after a final boat trip across the bay.
- The Perils of 'Coasting' in Downtown Seattle
A winter evening of sledding on the city's steep hills resulted in multiple injuries, leaving one young man unconscious.
- Three Children Dead in a Week: Diphtheria Stalks a Legislator's Family
Called home from the legislature by a telegram, Hon. Joseph Foster buries three children in a single week as his wife lies gravely ill with the same disease.
- A Mother Taken From a Spree: Seattle's Temperance Crusade Fixes on One Family
A well-dressed mother of three is found drunk and taken to the city station to recover — and the Post-Intelligencer turns her private ruin into a sermon on marriage, appetite and the duty of the state.
- The Girl With a Tag and a Basket, Half a World From Home
Hilda Kanniainen left Finland in June, crossed the Atlantic and the continent without speaking English, and arrived in Seattle bound for her sister in San Francisco. Strangers took her in for the night.
- The Myth of the 'Overcrowded' Frontier
In 1889, local papers pushed back against sensationalist claims that Seattle was a destitute wasteland, framing the 'idle' men on street corners not as victims of an economic crisis, but as voluntary loafers.
- The Man Who Wanted to Go to Jail
A desperate and confused man repeatedly begged police to arrest him, only to be rebuffed by officers who had no interest in adding him to their workload.
- Legislature Honors Fallen General Isaac I. Stevens
Lawmakers declare a ten-day mourning period for the former Governor and Union General killed in the Civil War.
- Samuel Gompers Tells Seattle: Organize, and Dare Not Do Otherwise
The president of the American Federation of Labor writes to Seattle organizer Abe Spring, lamenting the bloodshed of the era's labor wars, urging union solidarity, and declining a Western trip.
- The Sad Martyr of Snohomish City
A local official’s descent into obsession over an impossible get-rich-quick scheme mirrors the mania of early Washington's frontier booms.
- A Tragic Kitchen Fire in Semiahmoo
A young woman loses her life in a heartbreaking domestic accident during a time of religious devotion.
- Tragedy at a Family Gathering
A young boy, visiting family in Snohomish, is killed by a horse kick in a sudden and heartbreaking accident.
- A Lake Stevens Bathing Party Ended in Drowning
Olive Hinman, daughter of a county commissioner, and Miss Jordan went into the water for an evening swim. Rescue came too late.
- The Stranger in His Own Hometown
After four decades away, Walla Walla's city sexton finds that returning home is a bittersweet encounter with lost time.
- The Last Goodbye: A Seattle Widow’s Final Sermon
Rev. I.W. Read delivers a poignant eulogy for Addie Z. Pross at Market Street Baptist, reflecting on her hopefulness and refusal to gossip in the face of sudden death.
- The Miser and the Missing Gold
A cautionary tale of a man who loved his gold more than his own peace of mind, only to find that hoarding it under a stone offered no security from the opportunistic thief.
- The Burden of Owning a High-Class Dog
Humorist Bill Nye reflects on the social anxieties of owning an English mastiff that clearly views his owner as a social inferior.
- The State's Duty to Your Dinner Plate
An 1878 editorial debate in the Seattle press over a 'Colusa Sun' piece satirizes the radical notion that government should provide housing and ensure personal satisfaction for citizens.
- Roslyn Relief Fund Grows as Miners' Families Struggle
Seattle rallies for the widows and orphans of the catastrophic Roslyn mine explosion, while investigators confront the reality of corporate negligence and the brutal nature of the disaster.
- Tragedy at the Roslyn Mines
A devastating explosion traps forty-four miners in the Roslyn slope, leaving families in despair.
Also about this, in other words
- The Tragic End of a Lonely Immigrant
A German immigrant, once prosperous and educated, dies by suicide in a lonely cabin on the Grant Street Bridge after years of decline and heartbreak.
- A Heartbreak by the Snohomish River
A lonely local man is caught in a 'melancholy case' of unrequited love, spending his days watering a hitching post in a lovestruck daze.
- The Tragic End of 'Old Despair'
A local musician, known to the town as 'Old Despair,' dies in a dance hall, leaving behind his only treasure—a violin—to a man he barely knew.
- A Heartbreaking Winter in Cle Elum
A Northern Pacific railroad worker's family struggles with extreme poverty and illness in Cle Elum.
- The Sad Procession of the Snohomish Bachelors
A local scene captures the quiet, threadbare dignity of three men moving house, offering a rare, human glimpse into the isolation of frontier bachelorhood.
- The Sad Case of Eight-Year-Old Albert
A young boy, orphaned and abandoned by his father, is sentenced to reform school for petty theft.
- The Tragic End of a Young Woman in Love
A nineteen-year-old Seattle woman dies by suicide after a romantic disappointment, sparking local gossip about strychnine and heartbreak.
- The Sad Tale of a Funeral Con
A man in mourning clothes successfully swindles a local funeral director out of three dollars under the guise of grieving for his dead wife.