The Great Spelling Bee of 1873
Before high-speed internet and digital debates, Seattle’s social life centered on the grand Spelling Match, a community competition held at Yesler’s Hall.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
At 7 o’clock this evening at Yesler’s Hall will commence the exercises connected with the grand Spelling Match and Supper, under the auspices of the Ladies’ Aid Society of the M. E. Church. The contest will be conducted in the old-fashioned way of 'walking down'—no contestant to have more than one trial upon a word, but each word to be passed until spelled correctly. All professions and all ages are invited to take part in the contest—the champion speller of the evening to be awarded a prize of ten dollars in gold coin. Prof. E. S. Ingraham will serve as pronouncer; Messrs. Charles Prosch, D. B. Ward, and B. L. Northrup will serve as referees. Words are to be selected from the latest Worcester’s Speller, and the dictionaries of Worcester and Webster are to be taken as authority in orthography and pronunciation.
“The contest to be conducted in the old-fashioned way of 'walking down'—no contestant to have more than one trial upon a word.”
Long before the Scripps National Spelling Bee became a televised spectacle, small-town spelling bees were the primary form of civic entertainment in 19th-century Seattle. While the prizes have shifted from gold coins to scholarships, the competitive spirit and community reliance on gathering in halls—like the historic Yesler’s Hall—remains a core thread of local culture.
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