James Turner Morehead (North Carolina)

James Turner Morehead is the name shared by two separate individuals, uncle and nephew, who were members of a prominent nineteenth-century North Carolina family.

The first James Turner Morehead (January 11, 1799 – May 5, 1875) was the younger brother of North Carolina Govorner John Motley Morehead[1] and a Congressional Representative from North Carolina; born in Rockingham County, North Carolina, January 11, 1799; attended the common schools; was graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1819; studied law; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Greensboro, North Carolina; commissioner of Greensboro in 1832, 1834, and 1835; served as a member of the North Carolina Senate in 1835, 1836, 1838, 1840, and 1842; trustee of the University of North Carolina 1836-1868; elected as a Whig to the Thirty-second Congress (March 4, 1851 - March 4, 1853); declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1852 to the Thirty-third Congress; resumed the practice of his profession; also engaged in agricultural pursuits and operated an iron works; died in Greensboro, Guilford County, N.C., on May 5, 1875; interment in the Presbyterian Cemetery.

The second James Turner Morehead (1840-1908) was the son of Governor John Motley Morehead. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1861. Commissioned a lieutenant in the Confederate army, he was wounded at Bristoe Station, Virginia in 1863. Following the war, he served two terms as a state senator (1870-1874). He became a pioneering chemical manufacturer, who with his son, John Motley Morehead III founded one of the world's leading chemical companies -- Union Carbide. He was a serial entrepreneur, chemist, engineer, inventor and author of scientific works. He had one son John Motley Morehead III chemist, industrialist, and noted philanthropist (0 children) and four daughters: Mary Kerr Morehead Harris (2 children: Trent Harris, William Nelson Harris), Eliza Lindsay Morehead Nelson (1 child: William Harris Nelson), Lilly Connolly Morehead Mebane (0 children), and Emma Gray Morehead Parrish (0 children).