Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/468

 MOREY

MOREY

eentative from the fifth Louisiana district in the 41st;, 42d and 43d congresses, 1869-73, and in the 44th congress from Dec. 6, 1875, till June 8, 1876, when the house of representatives awarded the seat to the Democratic contestant, William B. Si)encer of Vidalia. He removed to Washington, D.C., where he died Sept. 22, 1890.

MOREY, Henry Lee, representative, was born in Butler county, Ohio, April 8, 1841; son of William and Derexa (Whitcomb) Morey. He matriculated at Miami university, Oxford, Ohio, in the class of 1862, but left at the outbreak of the civil war and joined the University Rifles for three months' service in the 20th Ohio regiment. He then enlisted in the 75th Ohio regiment for three years. He served under General Schenck in West Virginia, General Sigel in the Shenan- doah valley. Generals Pope and Hatch in Flor- ida and General Gillmore at the siege of Charles- ton, S. C. He rose to the rank of captain and after the close of the war engaged in business for a short time. He was graduated at the Indian- apolis Law school in 1867, and was admitted to the bar in Hamilton, Ohio, where he settled in practice. He was city solicitor, 1871-73 ; prose- cuting attorney for Butler county, 1873-74 ; was defeated for tlie state senate in 1875, and was a Republican representative from the seventh Ohio district in the 47th and 48th congresses, 1881-85, and in the 51st congress, 1889-91. He was mar- ried April 25, 1865, to Mary, daughter of the Hon. William L. Campbell of Hamilton, Ohio, and on Feb. 23, 1S73, to her sister, Ella R. Campbell.

MOREY, Samuel, inventor of a steamboat, was born in Hebron, Conn., Oct. 23, 1762 ; son of Gen. Israel Motey, an officer in the Revolutionary war, who served on the frontier. He removed to Orford, N. H., with his parents in 1766, and as he grew to manhootl turned his attention to mechan- ias and chemistry. From 1780 to 1830 he devoted liimself to practical experiments upon steam, heat and light, and to propelling boats by steam. Between 1790-93 he took out several patents for steam machinery, some of the models of which are in the tx)Ssession of the New Hampshire Anti- quarian society, and his prophecy of a boat pro- pelled by steam was ridiculed by his neiglibors. He constructed a boat and fitted it with a steam engine of his own manufacture, and on one Sun- day in 1792, with a young companion, JohnMaun, he made his firet trip from Orford several miles up the Connecticut river to Fairlee, Vt., and re- turn. The boat was propelled by a paddle wheel in the prow, and made about four miles an hour. Encouraged by Prof. Benjamin Silliman, with whom lie corresponded, he went to New York to exhibit his model. H© had several interviews with Robert R. Livingston, who had visited him at Orford and tried his boat, and Mo»"»y after-

ward visited Livingston at Clermont at the ex- pense of the chancellor, and at his request Morey spent three successive summers in New York city, building and experimenting witii a new boat. He was told by Livingston that if he would perfect an arrangement for placing the paddle wheel in the stern of the boat he would purchase liis invention for a considerable sum, understood by Morey to be $100,000, and if he would give the use of the boat to run between New York and Amboy, N. J., he would give him $7,000, which latter offer Morey* refused, leaving his boat at Hartford, Conn. The next summer he improved the engine, and after study and experiment ap- plied the wheel to the stern, being aided in the mechanical work by his brother Israel. The boat attained a speed of five miles an hour, and Livingston and others accompanied him on atrip from the battery to Greenwich village and back. A patent was issued to Samuel Morey on March 25, 1795, for a steam engine, the power to be ap- plied by crank motion, to navigate boats of any size ; patents were issued to him on March 27, 1799, and on Nov. 17, 1800, for the application of steam, and one for a steam engine in 1803. He continued to experiment with the steamboat, and in 1797 constructed a boat on the Delaware at Bordentown, N. J., placing a paddle wheel on each side, which increased the rate of speed and proved more effectual in every way. The boat was openly exhibited at Pliiladelphia, Pa., and arrangements were made with certain capitalists for the construction and practical operation of large steamboats, but financial distress overtook those interested before tiiey could execute their plans. He received a patent for a revolving steam engine July 14, 1815, and invented one of the first stoves in the United States. He inherited large tracts of land in New Hampshire and Vermont, where he was engaged in lumbering for many years. He built chutes on West mountains to slide the logs from the steep sides to Fairlee pond, and planned and built the locks at Bellows Falls, which opened up navigation between "Windsor, Conn., and Lebanon, N. H. He con- tributed to Silliman's Journal of Science. He re- sided at Fairlee, Vt., from 1836 until his death, April 17, 1843.

MOREY, William Carey, educator, was born in North Attleborough, Mass., May 23, 1843 ; son of the Rev. Reuben and Abby (Bogman) Morey, grandson of Samuel Morey, and great-grandson of Thomas Morey, who came from Rhode Island to the colony of New Y'^ork about 1775 and joined the 13th Albany regiment, serving during the Revolution. His first ancestor in America, Roger Morey, came from England with Roger Williams in 1631. His father, born in Fabius, N. Y., Feb. .21, 1805, graduated at Brown in 1835, was a Bap-