[4][5] In 1888, Ford was elected as District Attorney of Sierra County on the Republican ticket by the largest majority than any candidate for that office in 17 years.

[9] Ford solved a difficult legal dispute over ownership of an area known as Channel Street located in the San Francisco's harbor leading to the bay.

One of his noteworthy acts was the reversal of a decision regarding the inheritance tax on the Leland Stanford estate that converted $250,000 to public schools of San Francisco.

Ford wrote a book called California State Prisons: their history, development and management, published in 1910.

He was a successful mining lawyer in Downieville that was engaged as counsel by the Miners' Association to conduct important cases.

[15] Ford went to Washington in January 1896 to expedite the passage through Congress for bills to appropriate money for the construction of works to protect the rivers and streams of California.

[1] His knowledge of railroad law as of other departments of jurisprudence was comprehensive and accurate, and he stands today as one of the foremost representatives of the legal interests of California.

The bribery scandal was one of the many San Francisco graft trials, which included Mayor Eugene Schmitz and attorney Abe Ruef, who were receiving bribes.

[19] During the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, Ford became a member of Mayor Eugene Schmitz's Committee of Fifty.

In 1926 he published a novel, Dawn and the Dons: The Romance of Monterey, with vignettes and sketches by artist Jo Mora.