John Motley Morehead

Infobox Governor
name =John Motley Morehead


order =29th
office =Governor of North Carolina
term_start =1841
term_end =1845
lieutenant =
predecessor =Edward Bishop Dudley
successor =William Alexander Graham
birth_date =July 4, 1796
birth_place =Pittsylvania County, Virginia
death_date =October 30, 1866
death_place =Rockbridge Springs, Virginia
nationality =
party =Whig
spouse =
relations =
children =
residence =
alma_mater =
occupation =
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John Motley Morehead (4 July 1796ndash 27 August 1866) was Whig governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1841 to 1845. He is known as "the Father of Modern North Carolina."

Born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, Morehead moved to Rockingham County, North Carolina at the age of two.

Morehead graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1817 and trained as a lawyer. He served in the North Carolina General Assembly for several sessions and was the first governor inaugurated in the new State Capitol.

During his term in office, Morehead supported the new public school system, the extension of railroad lines, the improvement of rivers and harbors, and the construction of waterways and turnpikes. Morehead was instrumental in raising private funds for a railroad line to accompany $2 million provided by the legislature. For his efforts, Morehead was elected president of the North Carolina Railroad.

After his term, he returned to his home Blandwood in Greensboro, North Carolina, designed by New York architect Alexander Jackson Davis. There, Morehead entertained numerous politicians and personalities of the day, including Dorothea Dix. In 1861, he represented the state at a conference to avoid war. With the failure of the conference and the secession of North Carolina, Morehead served in the Confederate Congress. Morehead died at Rockbridge Springs, Virginia in 1866 and is buried in the Old First Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Greensboro. [http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/t/u/r/Jim-Turner-Silver-Spring/GENE2-0008.html]