Henry L. Morey was born in Milford Township near Collinsville, Butler County, Ohio. He was a son of William and Derexa (Whitcomb) Morey, and the great-grandson of Revolutionary War officer Silas Morey and grandson of Revolutionary soldier Anthony Whitcomb. William Morey in his early life was a hatter and to buy furs he occasionally visited New Orleans, where he witnessed the workings of slavery. He abhorred what he saw and became a radical abolitionist. Returning to Ohio, William opened his home as part of the Underground Railroad, and was well known as a friend of the black man.
Henry received his education in the local public schools and the Morning Sun Academy at the village of Rising Sun. He then entered Miami University at Oxford, Ohio.
Civil War
On the day after the fall of Fort Sumter, Morey left the university and enlisted as a member of the University Rifles, a military organization attached to the 20th Ohio Infantry, serving an enlistment of three months in West Virginia under General Robert C. Schenck.
Morey then undertook the study of law and was graduated from the Indianapolis Law School in 1867 and was admitted to the Ohio bar, commencing practice in Hamilton, Ohio, in partnership with one of his six brothers. His wife Mary died July 1, 1867, in Hamilton. On February 26, 1873, he was married to Ella R. Campbell, sister of his first wife.
In 1880, he was elected as a Republican from Ohio's third district to the Forty-seventh Congress. In 1882, following the reapportionment as a result of the 1880 census, he ran in Ohio's seventh district and presented credentials as a Member-elect to the Forty-eighth Congress, serving until June 20, 1884. James E. Campbell successfully contested the election and was seated June 21, 1884. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1884. In 1888, Morey was again elected from Ohio's seventh district to the Fifty-first Congress. However, back in the Third district the following term, he was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1890.
After his last term in Congress, Morey resumed the practice of law in Hamilton. He was a Mason, having advanced to the Knight Templar degree. He also was an Odd Fellow, a Knight of Pythias and a member of the Royal Arcanum. He died in 1902 and was interred in Greenwood Cemetery.
Henry L. Morey was a cousin of James Whitcomb, governor of Indiana (1843–1848) and United States Senator from Indiana (1849–1852).
