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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1862 | 1 |
| 1871 | 1 |
| 1872 | 5 |
| 1876 | 36 |
| 1877 | 22 |
| 1878 | 24 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1880 | 11 |
| 1882 | 3 |
| 1883 | 32 |
| 1884 | 16 |
| 1885 | 15 |
| 1886 | 10 |
| 1887 | 9 |
| 1888 | 12 |
| 1889 | 25 |
| 1891 | 26 |
| 1892 | 32 |
| 1893 | 31 |
| 1894 | 41 |
| 1895 | 61 |
| 1897 | 1 |
| 1898 | 2 |
| 1899 | 5 |
| 1903 | 5 |
| 1904 | 4 |
| 1909 | 1 |
| 1910 | 1 |
| 1916 | 1 |
| 1928 | 1 |
435 stories matching section
- A Judge Strikes Down the Ordinance That Told Teamsters to 'Move On'
A test case in Seattle's court quashes the section that let the board of public works declare any wagon an obstruction — and the courtroom fills with teamsters waiting on the verdict.
- Seattle's Mayor Vetoes Boiler Safety Bill Over a Clerical Error
Mayor J. T. Ronald sends a steam-boiler inspection ordinance back to the House of Delegates because a duplicated section would not survive court—and warns that a $3 inspection fee has already stirred opposition.
- Who Gets to Vote in the Primaries?
Seattle's corporation counsel says registration is not optional—even for party primaries—and that election judges cannot waive it.
- The Great Moss Panic of 1878
Seattle's early city council once declared war on rooftop greenery to prevent the city from burning down.
- The Great Annexation Fight: Seattle's Borders Expand as Ballard Demands Independence
As the City Council votes to absorb surrounding territories into Seattle's corporate limits, a fierce debate erupts over taxation, representation, and the future of the growing town of Ballard.
- The Road to Riches: Seattle’s $33,000 Gamble on the Snoqualmie Pass
In March 1877, local editors urged citizens to fund a toll road through the mountains, arguing that the vast grain fields east of the Cascades were Seattle's only true economic future.
- The Eight-Hour War: Seattle’s Labor Law Hits a Legal Wall
As the state’s landmark eight-hour workday law takes effect, prosecutors and judges clash over whether it applies to private contractors like the Pacific Bridge Company, leaving workers in limbo.
- The City Council’s War on Inflammable Storage
New regulations restricted the storage of petroleum, naphtha, and gasoline, mandating fireproof construction and buffer zones from the waterfront.
- The Mugwump’s Ledger: How Seattle’s Territorial Secretary Gamed the Law Printing Contract
A fierce editorial exposes Secretary Owings for delaying the publication of territorial laws to favor a cronies’ printing bid, while padding the bill with 40 pages of his own party platform.
- 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.
- A Million-Dollar Land Grab and the Wife Left Behind
Abandoned for ten years in Pennsylvania, Mrs. J. E. Jordan comes to Seattle's superior court to stop her husband from deeding away the community's real estate to a medicine company — and names the men who helped him do it.
- The Lake Washington Land Fight That Turned on a Cabin, a Railroad Claim, and 'Crazy' Miller
A decade-long homestead contest ends with William L. Miller keeping first claim—if he or his guardian can prove it within 90 days. His rival says the cabin was never really a home.
- The Clay Under Seattle Built a Million-Dollar Industry
King County clay works turned local deposits into firebrick, paving brick, sewer pipe and architectural terra cotta—winning federal tests and employing hundreds of men.
- A Missing Section 25: How a Clerk's Slip Could Cost the Collins Heirs $500,000
Grandchildren of John Collins's first wife want a one-sixth share of the Seattle hotel property. The whole case turns on whether a territorial statute took effect on December 2, 1869 — or 42 days too late.
- The Strict Rules of Territorial Ballot Boxes
Before the secret ballot was standardized, Washington Territory enacted stern penalties to prevent election-day fraud, coercion, and liquor-fueled chaos.
- The Fight for Seattle’s Soil
A 19th-century editorial warns that land monopolies and timber speculation threaten to turn Washington into a land of feudal tenants, sparking a civic debate on who truly owns the future of the Northwest.
- Seattle's 1877 Plea: Build a Wagon Road Over the Cascades Before Portland Steals the Inland Empire
With no railroad yet across the mountains, a Seattle newspaper argued the city's future depended on a wagon road to Yakima—before Portland grabbed the inland trade forever.
- The Battle for Lake Union: A War of Words Over Seattle’s First Public Road
In May 1877, a bitter public feud erupted between the newly appointed Supervisor of Road District No. 1 and a group of influential local voters over the legal authority to build a road along the west shore of Lake Union.
- 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.
- 1891 Special Election Asks Seattle-Area Voters to Annex Land
Seattle prepares for a sweeping expansion to pull the booming northern suburbs and Salmon Bay industrial corridors into the city limits.
- The Grooming of a Section Foreman
When a railroad boss demanded a married man for a section-house job, an applicant didn't let a minor detail like bachelorhood stop him from closing the deal in an hour.
- The Fight to Fix Washington's Territorial Schools
A concerned teacher proposes major reforms to end patronage, cheating, and superintendent corruption in the Territory's school system.
- The Price of Frontier Survival: A Seattle Sheriff's Sale
A 1878 legal notice reveals a bleak snapshot of life in early Seattle, where debt-ridden families faced the auction block under the gaze of a booming young city.
- 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.
- Two Railroads Cut a Deal Through Ballard
The Ballard council ratified a track-swap agreement between the Seattle & Montana and the Lake Shore & Eastern, settling access to Shilshole Avenue and the mills.