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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1865 | 1 |
| 1871 | 1 |
| 1876 | 4 |
| 1877 | 4 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1883 | 4 |
| 1884 | 2 |
| 1885 | 3 |
| 1886 | 2 |
| 1887 | 3 |
| 1889 | 5 |
| 1890 | 4 |
| 1891 | 1 |
| 1892 | 18 |
| 1893 | 18 |
| 1894 | 15 |
| 1895 | 8 |
| 1899 | 2 |
| 1900 | 2 |
| 1903 | 7 |
| 1904 | 8 |
| 1905 | 1 |
| 1907 | 1 |
| 1908 | 2 |
| 1909 | 7 |
| 1911 | 1 |
| 1915 | 2 |
| 1916 | 7 |
135 stories matching smash
- The Wild Carriage Ride Down Commercial Street
A frightened team of horses turned a routine ride into a violent, smashing spectacle, leaving passengers bloody and onlookers breathless.
- A Fight for the Right to a Shave in Pioneer Square
H. R. Cayton, editor of a Black Republican weekly, is thrown out of a barber shop after the proprietor demands an old debt, sparking a scuffle and a smashed window.
- The Violent Politics of the First Ward
A power struggle between two rival Democratic factions in Seattle’s First Ward erupts into a physical brawl, signaling deepening fractures in local party machine politics.
- The Desperate Plea of a Crippled Sailor
A man smashes a streetcar window to force the city to provide him with basic care.
- The Brutal Assault on a Chinese Laborer in Dayton
A local editor denounces the cowardly beating of a Chinese worker by his employer, highlighting the stark racial injustice and lack of protection for Asian laborers in 1892 Washington.
- A Runaway Team Smashes into Downtown Tacoma
A delivery driver narrowly cheats death after his team bolts down Ninth Street, leaving a trail of destruction at the Tacoma Bazaar.
- The Machine Smashed: Walla Walla Rejects Levi Ankeny
In a local municipal election, the political machine of U.S. Senator Levi Ankeny is soundly defeated by an anti-machine coalition, signaling a shift in county influence.
- A Nighttime Confrontation at the Brooklyn Lodging House
A woman tracks her husband to a rooming house, smashes a door, and claims to have caught him in a scandal—while the husband insists he was simply a victim of mistaken identity.
- A Late Night Window-Smashing 'Frolic' in Lake Union
A doctor residing near Lake Union is rattled when firewood is thrown through her window in the dead of night.
- A Chaotic Runaway Team on Commercial Street
A frightened lumber team sparks a chain-reaction collision, leaving one man nearly killed and his buggy destroyed.
- The Great Northern's Bad-Luck Stop: Freight Wreck at Elk
A through eastbound freight slammed into the caboose of a local train at Elk, smashing six cars and tying up traffic for hours—just the latest wreck at a town with a reputation.
- Streetcar Chaos on Madison
An electric car crashes into a cable car at Second and Madison, causing a machinery backup that carried the crippled vehicle blocks away.
- The Iron Wreck: A Train’s Deadly Plunge Near Tacoma
Conductor Stroud and passengers suffer grave injuries when a tender axle fails at 25 mph, sending cars tumbling down an embankment in one of the region's most serious rail accidents to date.
- The Unruly Everett Jail Riot
A rowdy group of local troublemakers battered their way into the Everett jail to liberate an associate, leaving the facility in shambles.
- Railroad Mishap at Martin's Mill
Three track workers jump to safety as a delayed passenger train smashes their section car at a blind curve.
- Over the Side of the Ferry Dock
A horse balks at the free ferry landing and takes the buggy — and Mrs. Edith Olson — ten feet down toward the water. She rolled clear with bruises and a smashed rig.
- A Close Call at the Teachout Residence
When smoke began to fill the bedroom walls, a quick-thinking resident saved her home from total ruin.
- The Sheriff's Bad Week
Prosser's Sheriff C.E. Duffy had a string of bad luck involving a broken axle, a horse-drawn rescue, and a smashed finger.
- The Schoolhouse Mutiny
When an empty Seattle schoolhouse became a playground for neighborhood boys, a mild prank turned into a local spectacle of adolescent mischief.
- Death on the Division Street Bridge
A morning commute turned into a catastrophe when a steel span over the Spokane River collapsed, sending two trolley cars into the freezing water.
- 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.
- The Desperate Plea of a Hungry Man
A homeless worker chooses jail over starvation after failing to find employment in Seattle.
- The Night They Walked to an Indian Village: A Shipwreck Survivor’s Tale
After the steamer *Port Gordon* smashed against rocks near Destruction Island, four men survived a nightmare of broken lines and drowning comrades by building a raft from hatches—and then walking ten miles through the brush.
- A Neighborhood Under Siege: The Fatal Feud of Fourth Street
A quiet funeral for Fred M. Hall masks a violent, month-long dispute between neighbors that ended in a fatal shooting and a town paralyzed by fear.
- Streetcar Plunges into Seattle Waterfront
An electric car derails on the North Seattle waterfront, sliding into the tide flats and impaling a passenger on pier pilings.
Also about this, in other words
- The Arcade Saloon Melee
A morning brawl involving the 'John Bull Combination' spills out of the Arcade Saloon and into the street.
- Heavyweight Showdown at Turner Hall
A champion wrestler from Japan and a local strongman have signed a high-stakes contract for a match in Seattle.
- The Strong Boy and the Local Champion
Omer Marbet and Frans Unfried sign articles for a $500 catch-as-catch-can wrestling match at Turner Hall.
- Streetcar Smash-up on the Spur
A motorman is seriously injured in a collision at a local woodyard after a switch fails to be reset properly.
- Show Business Solidarity for a Local Acrobat
When an aerialist and her husband faced medical catastrophe, the community rallied for a benefit show at the park.
- Brutal Bare-Knuckle Prize Fight Ends in Foul
A local pugilist match on Pennsylvania Avenue ends in controversy after a fighter strikes his opponent while he is down.
- A Furniture Store Fisticuff
A social slight between families led to a curse-filled brawl inside a Second Street furniture shop.
- Blasting the Berries
An innovative agricultural technique using explosives brings new life to Washington’s unique holly industry.