On November 10, 1881, the city of Dayton, county seat of Columbia County, is reincorporated. The Washington Territorial Legislature initially incorporated it under the Act of 1877. However, this incor...
On November 29, 1881, the Eastern Washington city of Spokane Falls, the forerunner of Spokane, is incorporated as a first-class city. From a tiny settlement established in 1871 along the falls of the ...
In 1882, President Chester A. Arthur (1829-1886) formally establishes Fort Spokane, the U.S. Army's last frontier outpost in the Northwest, at the junction of the Spokane and Columbia rivers in what i...
In the early 1880s, Western Washington becomes one of the world's major hop growing regions after blight destroys much of the European hop crop. Hops are a bitter plant in the hemp family used to flav...
In January 1882, the Seattle School Board holds a public meeting to lament the deplorable and inadequate facilities and to gain public support for funding new buildings. One teacher, speaking of crow...
On Friday, January 14, 1882, Dr. Francis B. H. Wing (1838-1882) walks to his New Tacoma office and sleeping quarters after a late-night visit with his friend R. F. Radebaugh (1846-1927) of the Tacoma ...
On January 18, 1882, a mob of Seattleites lynches three men. Two of them, James Sullivan and William Howard, had robbed and fatally wounded businessman George B. Reynolds. A mob hangs Sullivan and How...
On January 20, 1882, King County Sheriff Lewis V. Wykoff (1828-1882) dies of a heart attack, resulting no doubt from the effects of mob violence.
On February 9, 1882, a gale blows six cattle cars and a caboose into Elliott Bay. The gale twists Yesler Wharf in Seattle and railroad service stops. Olympia records wind speeds of 42 mph during the a...
On March 9, 1882, Lake Union Lumber and Manufacturing is incorporated. The company owns the first sawmill in Seattle that is not located on Elliott Bay and marks the beginning of the shift northward o...
On April 8, 1882, fire burns blocks of downtown Dayton, touching off a decade of blazes that will cause hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses. Some of the fires will be started by arsonists, incl...
The opening of a post office is an important marker of the beginning of a community. On May 22, 1882, the Arthur Post Office (later Maple Valley) opens. Charles O. Russell is the first postmaster. The...
On July 10, 1882, voters elect Republican Henry G. Struve (1836-1905) as mayor of the City of Seattle.
On July 26, 1882, in one of the most notorious murders in Columbia County history, freight agent Eli Cummins is robbed and murdered at the town of New York Bar. He is shot six times, struck with an ax...
On September 4, 1882, classes begin at Whitman College on the campus of Whitman Seminary in Walla Walla, Washington Territory. Originally chartered in 1859 as a coeducational pre-collegiate academy to...
On October 11, 1882, Seattle printers organize the Seattle Typographical Union Local 202.
In December 1882, the British "tramp steamer" Madras departs Seattle for Hong Kong, China, via Honolulu. This is the first ship to depart Seattle for Asia. The steamship is one of several in 1882 to b...
In 1883, the Crescent Manufacturing Company, a Seattle-based spice and seasoning firm, is founded as a small supplier of vanilla extract.
In 1883, African American pioneers John Conna (1836-1921) and Mary Conna (1840-1907) arrive in the Federal Way area and settle on their 157 acre homestead. John Conna becomes the first black political...
In 1883, Seattle Jews found B'nai B'rith Lodge No. 342, a Jewish fraternal organization. American Jews founded the parent organization in October 1843 in New York City to provide service to their own ...
In 1883, Washington women win the vote. In the next election they tip the balance for law and order, closing down saloons and brothels in local communities, including Seattle. Legal challenges follow....
On January 16, 1883, the steamer Josephine, enroute from Seattle to the Skagit River, explodes in Puget Sound near Mukilteo. Eight or nine people are killed, another five are injured, and about 15 esc...
On February 28, 1883, Winlock becomes the first town in Lewis County to be incorporated. The date is prominently recorded on the town seal. Nearly a decade earlier, on December 27, 1873, the town had ...
On March 7, 1883, the Sunset Telephone Company starts operating with 90 Seattle subscribers. In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) invented the telephone, which was demonstrated two years later in...