Nelson L. Morey

MOREY, HOLDRIDGE, QUAKENBUSH, LEED

Posted By: Marthann Kohl-Fuhs (email)
Date: 5/13/2009 at 15:15:38

1889 BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF
SHELBY AND AUDUBON COUNTIES, IOWA
W. S. DUNBAR & CO., PUBLISHERS
113 ADAMS STREET, CHICAGO

pages 738-739

NELSON L. MOREY, a farmer of Leroy
Township, was born in North Adams,
Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Feb-
ruary 16, 1836. His father was Samuel
Morey, a native of Rhode Island. He was a
shoemaker in early life, but later emigrated
to Ashtabula County, Ohio, and engaged in
farming. The mother was Orvilla Hold-
ridge, a native of the State of Massachusetts,
and the mother of twelve children, ten of
whom lived to maturity. Milton L. was a
child when his parents removed to Ohio.
The trip was made via the lakes and canal,
the country being then a dense forest. The
new home was a truly pioneer one, having no
conveniences and scarcely the necessities.
The school-house in which our subject re-
ceived his first lessons was the typical log
house of that day. He passed his youth on
the farm with his parents, assisting in clear-
ing out the farm. At the age of twenty-one
years he came to Iowa and settled in Clinton
County, where he worked on a farm by the
month for three years. He then returned to
his old home in Ohio, where he engaged in
farming for some years. In 1868 Mr. Morey
was married to Julia A., daughter of Martin
Quakenbush, a Canadian by birth. Mrs.
Morey was born in the State of New York,
near Troy. After his marriage Mr. Morey
remained in Ohio for seven years, and then
returned to Iowa, renting a farm in Clin-
ton County; here he remained until 1878,
when he came to Audubon County, and
bought 160 acres of raw prairie in Leroy
Township. Mr. Morey has made many val-
uable improvements, and is a successful
farmer-paying special attention to the rais-
ing of live-stock. Samuel Morey, the father
of our subject, was a soldier in the war of
1812, and was a fifer in the battle of Sackett's
Harbor. He dropped dead of heart disease.
Mrs. Morey's mother was Lucy Leed; her
father died in the war of the Revolution.