Late Wednesday evening, October 3, 1894, outlaw Thomas Blanck (1870-1895) enters a saloon in Seattle with a gun, intending to steal the day's proceeds. While the proprietor, William H. Codrick, tries ...
On October 9, 1894, four miners die in an explosion in the Oregon Improvement Company coal mine at Newcastle, Washington. The following day, coroner's jury rules that the explosion was "caused by a ch...
The opening of a post office is an important marker of the beginning of a community. On October 13, 1894, the Cumberland Post Office opens. Tyra F. Lawson is appointed postmaster. Cumberland is loc...
On October 19, 1894, a group of women in Walla Walla meet and organize the Walla Walla Woman's Reading Club. The club is committed to the "critical study of such writings as may be deemed best to prom...
Early Saturday morning, October 27, 1894, a fire in the West Street Hotel, located on the second floor of the Colman Block Annex, a commercial warehouse located at the foot Columbia Street in Seattle,...
On November 12, 1894, the Woman's Book Club of Everett passes a resolution to petition the mayor and common council of Everett to create a free public library for the city. They will secure their firs...
The opening of a post office is an important marker of the beginning of a community. On December 5, 1894, the Greenlake Post Office opens. Matilda S. Petersen is appointed postmaster. Green Lake becam...
On December 8, 1894, Fr. Victor Garrand, SJ, (1847-1925) formally dedicates the new home of the Parish and School of the Immaculate Conception near the intersection of Broadway and Madison Street on t...
On December 13, 1894, the Kinetoscope -- the latest wonder from famed inventor Thomas Edison (1847-1931) -- makes its Seattle debut in a storefront on the Occidental Block, at the corner of 2nd Avenue...
In 1895, John Edward Hawkins, the first locally trained Black lawyer, is admitted to the King County Bar.
In 1895, in Seattle, Goldie Schucklin, an ardent fundraiser and dedicated Jewish community volunteer, founds the Ladies Montefiore Aid, a welfare organization. The Society was active until 1936, when ...
In 1895, the Washington State Legislature amends the Public Accommodations Act, removing penalties for denying access to hotels, inns, and public conveyances for persons of color. This effectively nul...
In 1895, the University of Washington moves from a downtown Seattle site to its current site along the shores of Lake Washington and Lake Union.
On January 10, 1895, a newspaper, the Buckley Banner, reports the eruption of Mount Baldy. Although unlikely, the story paints a vivid account of the "event." The peak in the foothills of the Cascade ...
In the spring of 1895, J. E. Mace, a resident of Vashon Island, finds a bag of opium on the beach and reports it to the authorities. Weeks later he finds another one, but this time he falls under susp...
Even before Washington was a state, legislation in the region reflected the importance of the oyster. A 1911 state senate committee report reviewing oyster legislation stated, "Washington, as a state ...
On March 14, 1895, the Washington State Legislature approves what is commonly called the "Barefoot Schoolboy Act," which for the first time provides a uniform means of producing recurring income for t...
On March 17, 1895, notorious desperado Thomas Blanck (1870-1895) engineers a mass escape from the King County Jail, using an imitation handgun carved from pieces of wood. In October 1894, he had been ...
On March 19, 1895, the Washington State Legislature unanimously passes a law prohibiting the sale of alcohol on the University of Washington campus in Seattle and within two miles of the campus, with ...
Beginning in April 1895, prospectors flow north by the hundreds through the ports of Puget Sound to strike it rich in gold fields in Alaska and in the Yukon Valley of Canada. The travelers feed busine...
On April 8, 1895, a firedamp (methane gas) explosion kills 23 miners in the Blue Canyon Coal Mine located on the southeast shore of Lake Whatcom, about 10 miles southeast of Bellingham. Only two of th...
On April 25, 1895, an article appears in the Everett Herald featuring rare details about one of the Pacific Northwest’s first guitar-makers, Mr. W. O. Welch. The story apparently was origin...
On June 1, 1895, Aberdeen businessmen connect their own railroad to the Northern Pacific. In 1892 the Northern Pacific Railroad decided to bypass the town of Aberdeen. Local businessmen take matters i...
On July 4, 1895, the body of Nisqually Chief Leschi (1808-1858) is reburied on the Nisqually Reservation in Pierce County south of Tacoma. One thousand people, mostly Native Americans representing the...