James Turner Morehead (Entrepreneur)

James Turner Morehead (born August 5, 1840 in Greensboro , North Carolina , † April 19, 1908 ) was an American businessman and politician .

He was the son of North Carolina Governor John Motley Morehead and studied at the University of North Carolina from 1857 to 1861 . He then served as a Confederate officer as a lieutenant in the 5th North Carolina Cavalry and was badly wounded by a bullet through the mouth and neck at Bristoe Station on October 11, 1863. In December 1864 he married in Greensboro and in 1866, after the death of his father, he took over the family business (land around Leakesville , where he moved, mills with cotton mill and wool factory) which he expanded with the construction of railroads during the reconstruction period after the civil war . From 1870 to 1874 he served as a Democrat in the North Carolina Senate for two terms .

After the recession of the 1880s in search of new business fields , he began to work in 1891 with the Canadian inventor Thomas Willson in aluminum production, for which his water mills supplied the electrical energy. In the process, Willson discovered calcium carbide production in electric ovens (important for acetylene production for lighting and later welding), which at that time could not be used. The aluminum production was unsuccessful and led to bankruptcy in 1893. In 1894 he founded the Electro-Gas Company, which was to market acetylene as town gas . Soon afterwards, Willson also succeeded in developing ferrochrome alloys, which were used for armor plates in time for the Spanish-American War and brought Morehead prosperity. He acquired hydropower plants in West Virginia . The global company Union Carbide emerged from the calcium carbide business under his son John Motley Morehead III .

He had a son and four daughters.

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