William R. King (judge)

William King was born near Walla Walla, Washington on October 3, 1864, to David Rufus King and Elizabeth King (née Estes).[1][2] Ten years later in 1874 William and his parents moved to Malheur County, Oregon, where he received his basic education.[2] King then attended Oregon Agricultural College from 1882 until 1885 before moving on to Indiana's Central Normal College in Danville to study law.[2]

In Danville, he married L. Myrtle King on December 6, 1892.[1] King studied there from 1889 to 1891 and earn an LL.B. degree from the school and passed the Indiana bar in July 1891.[1] After graduation he returned to Oregon and was admitted to the bar in January 1893.[1] King practiced law in the Eastern Oregon communities of Ontario, Vale, and Baker.[2]

In 1892, King was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives as a Democrat representing Malheur County.[3] He was then elected in 1894 to the state senate as a Democrat Populist.[4] While in the legislature he was a proponent of the initiative and referendum that Oregon would later adopt.[2] In 1898, he ran for Governor of Oregon and lost to T. T. Geer in the general election.[1]

King was appointed as the Commissioner of the Oregon Supreme Court on February 23, 1907.[1] On February 12, 1909, Oregon Governor George Earle Chamberlain appointed King to the state supreme court when the court expanded from three to five justices.[5][6] He left the state's high court at the end of the term on January 1, 1911.[6]

After serving on the bench, King moved to Washington, DC, where he served as chief counsel while working for the United States Bureau of Reclamation.[2] He married and had one daughter, Myrtle Marion King, and one son, Eldon R. King, an attorney.[7] He also lived in Honolulu, Hawaii and Los Angeles, California. William R. King died in Washington, DC, in his hotel room on June 2, 1934.[7] He had been a member of the Masons, the Woodmen of the World, the B.P.O.E., and the Knights of Pythias.[7]

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