The Panic of 1893: The Untold Story of Washington State's First Depression

In 1893 Washington, a new state with new people, plunged into the last economic depression of the 19th century. Banks failed. Sawmills closed. Money became so scarce that in Bellingham and Port Angeles, people made their own. Jobless men sawed wood, picked blackberries and dug clams.

In Spokane, the town's richest man was wiped out, and from Tacoma and Seattle protesters set off for Washington, D.C. seeking help, on foot and by stealing rides on trains.

In The Panic of 1893, former Seattle newspaper reporter, editor and columnist Bruce Ramsey tells the story of how people survived and how their state was changed forever.

Bruce A. Ramsey studied at the University of Washington School of Business and at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Journalism.

He began his newspaper career in 1976 at the Daily Journal-American in Bellevue, Wash., and in 1979 worked under Elliot Marple at Marple's Business Newsletter, Seattle.

He covered business news for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer during the 1980s, when he won a national award for a series on the failure in 1982 of the Seattle-First National Bank.

In 1989 he moved to Hong Kong as a senior writer at Asiaweek magazine. He returned to Seattle in 1993 as a business and editorial columnist at the Post-Intelligencer.

In 2000 he joined the editorial board of The Seattle Times, from which he retired in 2013. Ramsey edited for volumes of the works of journalist Garet Garrett and authored a biography of him, Unsanctioned Voice, all published by Caxton Press. He lives in Seattle with his wife Anne.