Editor's Note: The best part about being proven wrong is learning something new. In that spirit, the letter and photos below were wonderful to receive and we couldn't wait to share them with you.
On Dec. 31, 2016, on page 6, The Citizen ran a letter from the publisher, by Colleen Sparrow, which stated that on Feb. 12, 2016, The Citizen celebrated its 100th anniversary in Prince George as "the longest continuously-operating locally-founded business." That claim is not true. The "longest continuously-operating locally-founded business" in Prince George is Wilson King lawyers, which was founded in 1914.
In 1912, Peter Edmund Wilson resigned as a Judge of the County Court of East Kootenay, and in the spring of 1914 he moved his family to Prince George at which time he established a law practice here. We understand that P.E. Wilson assisted the City of Prince George in obtaining their Letters Patent of Incorporation as a city on March 6, 1915. The city appointed P.E. Wilson as its first city solicitor in 1915, a position he held until his death in 1961.
We have a photograph of a building on George Street in which an upper window displays the words "P.E. Wilson - Barrister at Law," and one of the windows at street level displays a banner which states "For Mayor - Neil Gething - Committee Rooms."
Rev. F.E. Runnalls, in his excellent little book, A History of Prince George, published in 1946, states at page 143 that the first election for Mayor of Prince George took place on May 20, 1915 at which Neil Gething lost to W.G. Gillett.
That election allowed us to determine that the photograph would have been taken in April or May of 1915.
As further evidence of the early existence of the P.E. Wilson law business, we have his Statutes of British Columbia from the early 1900s. The volumes dated prior to 1916 all show evidence of having been in a fire. In his book, Rev. Runnalls states at page 150, "At midnight on January 12, 1916, in the bitter cold a disastrous fire broke out and destroyed one of the main business blocks, that between Third and Fourth Avenue on the east side of George Street. This removed Hood's large general store and other pioneer buildings." The photograph referred to above shows Hood's Limited general store in the building adjoining the P.E. Wilson law office.
It is interesting to note that the bindings and edges of the pages of the Statutes of B.C. prior to 1916 are singed, but the books themselves were packed so tightly together that their pages survived the fire. These statutes are still on display today in the reception area at the offices of Wilson King in Prince George.
A hearsay anecdote (from Bob Guile, who is the grandson of P.E. Wilson) about the fire is that someone tossed a typewriter out of the second-storey window in a vain attempt to save it from the fire.
Your readers might be also be interested to know that P.E. (Pete) Wilson was the father of J.0. (Jack) Wilson who became a lawyer after returning from the First World War.
J.0. Wilson practiced together with his father P.E. Wilson for a time under the firm name of Wilson & Wilson. J.0. Wilson eventually became the eighth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, and the square at the current Prince George Courthouse is named in his honour.
Hubert B. King who commenced his practice of law in Barkerville in 1932, later joined P.E. Wilson in Prince George in 1948 and the firm became known as Wilson & King.
More than 70 lawyers have practiced law at the Wilson King law firm over the years.
In 2014, I retired from the practice of law at Wilson King after 47 years.
Robert M. Dick, Q.C.
Prince George
