Our 21st Lucas County Prosecutor was born in Columbiana County, Ohio and educated at the Ohio Normal University in Ada, Ohio, presumably as a teacher. He attended the University of Cincinnati Law School, where he was reputedly an outstanding student. Admitted to the Ohio Bar in 1891, he moved to Toledo, where he entered private practice until 1897. In 1896, he ran as a Republican candidate for Prosecuting Attorney, but withdrew from the race, allowing Charles Sumner to be elected. Sumner subsequently hired Ulery as an Assistant Prosecutor. Subsequently, Ulery ran for and was elected as Lucas County Prosecutor and served in that capacity from 1903-1905. His "specialty" was criminal trials and was known as quite an eloquent orator.

It has been said of him:

"Mr. Ulery has a host of warm personal friends. He has a faculty for making them... and forms strong attachments where most men would make mere acquaintances." (Businessmen of Toledo and Northwestern Ohio, C.S. Van Tassel, Toledo, 1989, p. 59).