"[3] During the American Civil War, King was entrusted by Governor William Dennison, Jr. to meet with citizens of Louisville from the neutral state of Kentucky, to assure them Ohio would not embargo shipping goods to that state.

When Waite was made Chief Justice of the United States in early 1874, King became president of the convention.

[12] In 1864, Governor John Brough offered King a seat on the Ohio Supreme Court, which he declined.

[19] The Cincinnati Law Library Association was formed in 1847 by King, Alphonso Taft, Bellamy Storer, Salmon P. Chase and others.

King was elected president of the board of directors in 1855, and held the office 36 years until his death.

[20] His mind was wonderfully clear and his penetration deep; but he did not rely for success upon acumen or other natural gifts.

He studied each case and presented it in court only after the exhaustive research which gave him the mastery of its principles and details.

[22] In 1888, King authored Ohio, First Fruits of the Ordinance of 1787, one of a collection of state histories in Horace Scudder's American Commonwealths series.

His widow wrote: "Among other things, it was his wish to enlarge his history of Ohio, which he had written under the disadvantage of being compelled to abridge the volume to a uniform size of a series for which he had undertaken to write.

... Mr. King's great desire, however, was to prepare a much-needed law book on a subject which for years had been a study of deep thought and research.

[25] He was a friend and legal advisor for Bishops Charles Pettit McIlvaine and Gregory T. Bedell, and a trustee of Kenyon College.

[25] Among the pall-bearers were Judson Harmon, Manning Force, William S. Groesbeck, Jacob Dolson Cox and George Hoadly.