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28 stories matching whatsoev
- The 1886 Pact to Purge Chinese Laborers from Seattle Canneries
Newly unearthed documentation reveals a formal agreement between cannery owners and the Knights of Labor to replace all Chinese workers with white employees by September 1886.
- The Vagabond Fortune-Teller: Seattle Arrests 'Madame Malla' for the Crime of Telling Futures
In May 1877, the city’s law enforcement decided that predicting the future was a crime against public order. They dragged 'Madame Malla' from her shop, citing vagrancy, despite her having done nothing but read palms.
- Trades Council Denies Political Endorsement
Union leadership speaks out to clarify that labor organizations are not backing candidates in the city election.
- The Railroad That Tried to Take Its Tracks Off the Tax Rolls
Northern Pacific receivers tell Thurston County that its right-of-way and stations are federal property—and therefore exempt from local taxes.
- The Laborer’s Question
A candidate for mayor is put on the spot regarding political litmus tests for city jobs.
- Merchants Declare War on Trading Stamps
Local business owners organize to reject the popular, yet controversial, loyalty program system.
- Government Labels Hog Cholera Cure a Fraud
Federal agriculture officials warn that a widely advertised 'cure-all' medicine is being sold to farmers using fake government endorsements.
- The Husband Who Sued for Peace
A local man seeks divorce, claiming his wife's constant 'jawing' and refusal to mend his clothes made his life unendurable.
- The Battle for the Seattle Waterfront
As the Washington State Constitutional Convention nears its conclusion, delegates engage in a fierce final debate over the ownership of tide lands and the rights of the state versus private corporations.
- The Great Seattle Streetcar Heist
A scathing editorial exposing the city council's plans to give away a lucrative cable car franchise on Front Street without public oversight or fair payment.
- The Great Incorporation Panic of 1878
When a legal technicality threatened to render Seattle’s entire municipal government illegitimate, a frantic scramble to re-incorporate revealed the fragile foundations of early frontier law.
- The Pioneer Priest Who Cleared the Forest for a Church
In 1883, Father Frefontaine laid the cornerstone of a grand new cathedral in Seattle, reflecting on a journey that began with clearing dense timber by hand to serve a tiny, fractured congregation.
- The Political Battle for Power
A state senator warns that municipal utility expansion could shift tax burdens onto rural farmers.
- The Paper Trail of Patronage
A bold act of civic favoritism in King County sees the Board of Commissioners award a lucrative printing contract to a higher bidder, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill.
- The Land Baron Who Never Was: The Bizarre Legal Saga of Burke's Second Addition
A territorial secretary’s attempt to claim land in Seattle collapsed when it was revealed that the man who actually bought the property had already died years ago.
- The Grand Jury's List of Complaints
In 1885, Seattle’s grand jury turned its attention to everything from jail conditions to the 'inhaling or smoking' of opium, highlighting a city struggling with the growing pains of a frontier boom.
- Death on the Seattle Waterfront: A Call for Boiler Safety
An 1886 letter to the editor demands accountability for the 'shoveling engineers' and shoddy steamship maintenance risking lives in Puget Sound.
- Fisticuffs in the Judge's Chambers: Two Attorneys Settle a Newspaper Quarrel
A hot-tempered Tacoma lawyer, angered by a story in the Post-Intelligencer, storms Judge Fogg's office to confront a Seattle attorney — and gets his head tucked under his rival's arm for the trouble.
- A Militia Captain Cleared—Then He Quit
Company D's investigators found no missing money and called forgery charges a 'malicious lie,' but Capt. Elmer R. Brady still handed in his resignation.
- The Political 'Boodle' That Nearly Toppled Seattle's Republican Party
A look back at the chaotic 1889 Republican primaries in King County, where internal factions, broken promises, and the 'boodle' system turned a local race for the U.S. Senate into a full-scale political scandal.
- The Treasurer's Bond Begins to Crumble
Two surety names vanish from John W. Maple's $400,000 bond, and more may follow as King County waits for its prosecutor.
- A Bank President Accused of Looting His Own Vault
Deputy Internal Revenue Collector James P. Gleason says he bought $10,000 in Commercial National Bank stock on promises that turned out to be worthless—and that H. W. Wheeler used a mortgage company to hide the assets.
- A Daughter's $750 Secret: Seattle Heiress Sues Her Father's Estate
Lucy Sprague says her father, a celebrated general, sold her Ohio inheritance when she was a child and kept the money—and the guardianship—hidden for decades.
- A County Asks to Refinance Its Credit Card
Pend Oreille County carries $183,000 in 8-per-cent warrants it cannot pay, plus $18,000 in accrued interest. On September 7 voters are asked to swap the whole pile for $200,000 in 4-per-cent bonds — a second time, because the first election was voided on a technicality.
- The Prosecutor Says He Is Not in the Gamblers' Pocket
Seattle's prosecuting attorney goes on the record to deny a deal with a gambling fixer, and dares the sheriff and the chief of police to bring him a single witness.