After the death of his father, 15-year-old Morong and his family moved to Woburn, Massachusetts.
[1] After graduating from the Warren Academy and from Amherst, he entered Harvard Law School.
However, he soon dropped law school, entering Andover Theological Seminary where he graduated in 1853.
That same year, he traveled to South America to collect and study specimen.
[1] Soon after the return from his excursion, he was named curator of the herbarium at Columbia University in New York City.