James Elwood Morey
James Ellwood Morey was born in Milford Township, Butler County, Ohio, on the third day of April, 1845. He is the son of William and Derexa Morey, and is the thirteenth child in a family of fourteen children, of whom nine were sons and five daughters. His childhood and youth were spent in the ordinary duties and pursuits of a farmer's son, and in attendance upon the public school of his district, and as he grew older the Morning Sun Academy, until he reached his seventeenth year, when, on the 7th of August, 1862, he enlisted in the Ninety-third Regiment Ohio Volunteers in response to President Lincoln's second call for 300,000 men. In the Fall of the same year he was taken prisoner, but was soon exchanged and again took his place in the ranks. He continued in the service until the 14th of June, 1865, when he was mustered out and honorably discharged, the rebellion being subdued and peace declared. His regiment formed part of the Army of the Cumberland. He took part in the battles of Chickamauga, Mission Ridge and Lookout Mounain, Rocky Face, Resaca, Dallas, Kenesaw Mountain, Lovejoy Station, Columbia, Nashville, and numerous skirmishes and minor engagements.
Returning home at the close of the war, he entered Miami University in 1865, from which he was graduated in 1867, and in the same year began the study of law in the Indianapolis Law College. He received his diploma in March, 1868; was admitted to the bar the following August, and at once commenced the practice of law at Hamilton, in which place he has since resided.
On the thirty-first day of January, 1870, he was elected secretary of the Hamilton Insurance Company, and from that time gave his attention to the insurance business, until August, 1878, when he returned to the active practice of law, to which he has since exclusively given his time. On the 18th of October, 1880, he entered into partnership with his brother, Henry Lee Morey, and Allen Andrews, under the firm name of Morey, Andrews & Morey. He was brought up in the Universalist faith, and is a member of that Church. He is a charter-member of Lone Star Lodge, No. 39, Knights of Pythias, Hamilton, Ohio. On the 16th of April, 1873, he was married to Winona Chadwick, daughter of Clinton and Ellen Chadwick, of Camden, Preble County, Ohio.
Mr. Morey is a man of excellent health, strong mind, and good morals. He is kind, sympathetic, obliging, and greatly attached to his home, family, and friends. In business he is careful, industrious, and enterprising, and has been very successful. As a citizen he is public-spirited, influential, and deeply interested in the improvement of his city and county. As a lawyer he is zealous in his profession, cautious in counsel, and careful of his clients' interest; and, in the trial of any cause, strong and tenacious. To the court he states his propositions with force and clearness, and before a jury he is candid, earnest, and effective. In politics he is a firm Republican.
From A History and Biographical Cyclopædia of Butler County Ohio, With Illustrations and Sketches of its Representative Men and Pioneers, Western Biographical Publishing Company, Cincinnati Ohio, 1882.