When WR Gay worked in partnership with Brady, he aided Mary Roderick as she struggled in the aftermath of Mathew’s shooting death near Camp McKinney in October of 1896. Wilson sent an investigator to the mining camp to learn what they could about the death. Unfortunately the investigator had no proof of the many unsubstantiated claims he made.

But the investigation convinced Wilson to write a letter to the officials in British Columbia imploring them to fully investigate the shooting by Joseph Keane. Keane had fallen under suspicion of the BC Provincial Police allowing for a thorough inquest to be held at Vernon, BC the following June.

Mary Roderick went through a troubled time during which her children were under the care of another. Wilson helped her to acquire the propertires held in Matt’s name; a town lot in Ellensburg, three lots in Port Angeles and a mining claim on the Coleville Reservation owned with a partner as well as the house and possessions.

Wilson later partnered with a lawyer named Griffin in the Alaska Building constructed in 1904. The fourteen story building was the tallest in Washington State for a decade. He went on to become a Superior Court Judge and once again had contact with Mary Roderick. She had become a bailiff and occasionally worked in Wilson’s courtroom.

WR Gay was a member of the New Thought movement flourishing at that time. Also known as the Altrurian Society, the movement believed in one God and stressed healing, happiness and opulence. The judge died suddenly at home on November 19, 1920. His wife Lillian bore one daughter who was married by that time.

Photo courtesy of the Seattle Public Library.