Sacramento County
Biographies
PETER J. WILKIE
PETER
J. WILKIE.--A native of Scotland,
Peter J. Wilkie was born in the town of Paisley,
on January 1, 1877. He is the only
surviving son of John and Nora (Monaghan) Wilkie, and is a descendant of one of
the oldest Scottish families, whose names have helped to make Scotland
famous. His was a family of
artists. One member of the family
belonged to the Royal Academy,
and by some of the critics his paintings have been ranked with the fiction of
Scott and Burns; in 1836, he received the honor of knighthood.
When
fifteen years of age, Peter J. Wilkie came to Canada and went to work on a
farm; but after three years he decided that farming would never satisfy him as
a permanent vocation, and going to the city of Ottawa, he entered the employ of
the Coles National Manufacturing Company, dealers in art goods and interior
decorations. Finding the business to his
liking, he made rapid advancement, and the firm decided to send him out as a
traveling representative. For a number
of years thereafter he represented them, until the Watson Foster Company, of Montreal,
Quebec, recognizing his ability as a
salesman, engaged him at what was then considered a very high salary even for a
commercial traveler. Later still he was
traveling representative of the Reg. N. Box Company, of the same city. He has traveled all over Canada,
and is familiar with every city and town of importance from Halifax,
N. S., to Victoria, B. C. Besides having
a speaking acquaintance in nearly every town in the Eastern States, he has also
visited many European countries; and being a close observer of conditions and
circumstances, he finds California
superior to any other country in which he has ever traveled.
In
the year 1901, Mr. Wilkie married Miss Maude Woods, of Brockville,
Canada, and by her he has had four
very promising children, Elsie, Harold, Lillis and Leslie, the two last-named
having been born in Sacramento.
Mr.
Wilkie came to California in 1913, and took charge of
the decorating department of the J. P. Jarman Company, at San
Jose. A year
later he removed to Sacramento, to
take charge of the same class of work for the C. H. Krebs Company, with whom he
remained until in 1916, when he went to the Mexican Border with the United
States Army.
As
a boy, he had studied law, in the law school of Walter Jenkins, near Campbeltown in Scotland, and continued to read law and to
be interested in that profession for many years after his arrival in
Canada. In 1913 he became a student of La
Salle University, Chicago,
Ill., and four years later, in 1917, he was
successful in being admitted to the Bar, in this state; and he is now a member
of the State and County Bar Associations. Mr.
Wilkie has gained state-wide, and indeed nation-wide, attention by his fearless
and tireless efforts to defend a cause, in which he honestly and sincerely
believed; but which, upon discovering its falsity, he assisted in prosecuting
with the same determination he had displayed in its defense. In 1917, he became a member of the infamous
American Masonic Federation, under the impression that it was a regular Masonic
body. Shortly after his initiation into
the order, he became suspicious of the authority which the organization
claimed, and began a long and comprehensive search of their credentials and
records, but could find no flaw therein.
The members’ diplomas came to them directly from Scotland,
and members both of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Scotland and of other Masonic
Grand Lodges, from foreign countries, often visited the lodges of the American
Masonic Federation, some of them becoming regular attenders. Mr. Wilkie, in his professional capacity, was
often called upon to defend the members of the organization in the courts of
California, on charges of being clandestine and on charges of misrepresentation;
and in every case he was successful in gaining an acquittal, thereby becoming
more firmly convinced of the justness of his cause.
In
1919, he had been elected to the second highest office in the Supreme Lodge of
this order for the United States, and
in the absence of the Supreme Grand Master, who was then on a visit to Switzerland,
Mr. Wilkie received information of an alarming nature. He awaited the return of his superior, and
then laid this information before him, obtaining a complete confession of his
guilt. Thereupon, Mr. Wilkie immediately
began to prepare the members of the order in California for the disclosure
which he later made, in June, 1921: and before the end of that year he had
destroyed the organization utterly, and in the month of May, 1922, he assisted
the United States Prosecutor in obtaining a conviction of the parties
responsible for the fraud which had been imposed upon the American public for
over fourteen years. They were sentenced
to the Leavenworth prison, and were
fined in the sum of $5,000 each.
In
this manner Mr. Wilkie not only vindicated his character and reputation, but
again proved his sincerity and fearlessness.
He will fight to the last ditch, in the old Scottish style, for a cause
in which he has faith and confidence, and will just as sincerely and
persistently pursue and prosecute a fraud or a faker. He is a friend of the poor and the
unfortunate, and believes that the chief end of his profession is to assist the
courts to do justice.
Transcribed by Barbara Gaffney.
Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches,
Pages 802-805. Historic Record Company, Los
Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Barbara Gaffney.