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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1862 | 8 |
| 1865 | 2 |
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1877 | 3 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1880 | 3 |
| 1883 | 2 |
| 1885 | 6 |
| 1889 | 4 |
| 1890 | 1 |
| 1891 | 2 |
| 1892 | 2 |
| 1893 | 3 |
| 1894 | 2 |
| 1895 | 3 |
| 1898 | 1 |
| 1899 | 1 |
| 1903 | 4 |
| 1904 | 1 |
| 1909 | 3 |
| 1914 | 1 |
| 1916 | 1 |
| 1923 | 1 |
56 stories matching trader
- The Night of the War Dance: A Frontier Survival Story
A young fur trader, caught in the crossfire of escalating tensions during the Indian Wars, finds his only salvation in the quick thinking of a woman named E-wan.
- Federal Notice Warns Traders Against Liquor Sales to Indigenous Tribes
The Superintendent of Indian Affairs warns traders that supplying alcohol to Indigenous people in the Territory is a serious federal crime.
- The Sheriff vs. The Reservation Agent: A Neah Bay Standoff
When a federal agent refused to obey a district court order, a deputy sheriff took a midnight steamer to enforce the law—only to be met with a threat of the guardhouse.
- Two Farmers Who Started With Nothing and Built Dairy Fortunes
A Scandinavian immigrant with no money and an Ilwaco homesteader who once lacked even winter underclothing became models of dairy success through testing, breeding, and relentless work.
- The Neah Bay Sealing Conflict
A local captain alleges a corrupt scheme involving a government agent and a private trader to monopolize the sealing industry at the expense of Indigenous laborers.
- Olympia Official Warns Traders Violating Tribal Trade Laws
Superintendent Calvin H. Hale issues a stern warning that the illicit liquor trade on Indian reservations will be met with force and prosecution.
- The Neah Bay Land Grab
A historic Seattle-area editorial exposes how federal officials and a powerful monopoly manipulated reservation boundaries to seize a lucrative trading post from a local merchant.
- The Railroad Land Agent Who Chose Death Over Ruin
Paul Schulze, the Northern Pacific’s former land agent and a promoter of Tacoma streetcars and Yakima irrigation, shot himself as receivers took over his enterprises.
- The Great Seal Controversy: Do Pups Swim or Sink?
Local mariners and traders challenge the prevailing scientific 'fables' about seal pup habits to protest federal regulation of North Pacific sealing.
- Kennewick Moves to Outlaw Itinerant Horse Traders
City council drafts a 'prohibitive' license ordinance to address a wave of petty thefts linked to transient trading camps.
- The Chinook Chief's Grandson Who Was Shipwrecked in Japan
Ranald McDonald — son of a Hudson's Bay trader and Chief Comcomly's daughter — died on the Colville reservation after a life that carried him from Astoria to a Japanese prison and back to the mouth of the Columbia.
- An Indian Agent Defends His Administration
Agent C.W. Young addresses allegations of monopoly and mistreatment of the Indigenous population at his reservation.
- The City Rallies for a Bankrupt Manager
When the Traders' Bank in Tacoma folded, it took the theater manager's personal funds with it—prompting an outpouring of support from the Seattle, Portland, and Tacoma arts communities.
- The Federal Crackdown on Alcohol Sales to Indigenous Tribes
Superintendent Calvin H. Hale issues a stern warning to traders violating federal statutes against selling liquor on reservations.
- Federal Crackdown on Liquor Trafficking in Indian Country
The Superintendent of Indian Affairs warns traders and settlers that selling alcohol to Indigenous people or operating on reservations without a license is a federal crime punishable by seizure and jail.
- The Octopus and the Seal: A Local Captain’s War Against a Washington Monopoly
In 1901, Port Townsend resident James G. Swan published affidavits from experienced hunters to debunk Professor Elliott’s claim that seal pups sink like stones, exposing the Alaska Commercial Company’s stranglehold on federal policy.
- The Tragedy at No. 21 Nixons Street
A Puget Sound trader’s sudden descent into madness leaves a wife dead and himself in his blood on the floor of their attic home.
- The Would-Be Holdup Man Who Left a Debt Behind in Sandpoint
A Newport saloon shooting killed the gang's ringleader. In Sandpoint, neighbors remembered Robert Hackworth as a family man who stuck a friend with a $300 note.
- Three Banks, One Creamery, and a Race Against the Clock
Seattle and Tacoma banks claw over the last assets of an insolvent creamery, ending with a sheriff's sprint to the wharf before an injunction could land.
- The Forgotten Battle at the Mouth of the Okanogan
A newly unearthed cannonball recalls a bloody 19th-century massacre between Hudson’s Bay Company traders and local Indigenous tribes.
- The Settlement of the Colville Valley
An engineer’s report argues that the Colville Valley is held back by the presence of Indigenous and mixed-race populations.
- The Tragic End of a Forgotten Life
A young, disabled woman dies in Seattle after surviving a life of exploitation at the hands of 'charitable' organizations.
- The Vampire of Hard Times: Why Seattle's Banks Are Starving Its Growth
An editorial in the March 1877 *Seattle Intelligencer* blames the region’s economic stagnation not on a lack of enterprise, but on predatory lending rates that are strangling local industry.
- The Neah Bay Standoff: A Clash of Court and Cabinet
A territorial judge, a stubborn Indian Agent, and an injunction gone wrong sparked a tense, potentially violent jurisdictional battle at Neah Bay.
- The Neah Bay Standoff: A Battle over Tribal Land Sovereignty
When the government sent an Indian agent to clear traders off the Makah Reservation, a local legal battle exposed the deep friction between federal authority and corporate interests.
Also about this, in other words
- The Dealer in the Gambling Den
In the rowdy timber town of Sedro-Woolley, the local gamblers have found a unique way to keep the peace: replacing the standard rough-hewn card shark with a captivating young woman.
- Chinese Merchants Return to Tacoma
A trading company opens in the Bostwick Block, sparking fears of renewed anti-Chinese violence.
- The River Merchant’s Gamble
A bold entrepreneur stakes his future on a new steam-powered shop boat, promising Seattle-level prices to the remote logging camps of the Snohomish River.
- The Transient Merchant Problem
A group of clothing peddlers skips town, leaving local brick-and-mortar merchants to foot the tax bill.
- The Opium Dealer Next Door
In the early days of Seattle, a Chinese merchant operated not just a grocery, but an 'intelligence office' and opium den on Washington Street.
- Merchants Win Trade Battle as 'Loo Sok' Docks in Seattle
A British steamer brings tea and silk to Schwabacher's wharf after Seattle merchants protest Tacoma-only landings.
- The Fight for the Right to Trade
Chinese merchants detained upon returning to Seattle face a legal battle over what defines a 'merchant' versus a 'laborer' under federal law.
- Huntsville Merchants Declare War on Trading Stamps
Local business owners unite to end a lucrative, one-sided loyalty program that had been draining local profits.