Local figure
John Motley Morehead graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1817. He enslaved people, was elected governor of North Carolina in 1840 and 1842, served as president of the North Carolina Railroad, and was a delegate to the Confederate Provisional Congress in 1861–62.
Source: NCpedia: Morehead, John Motley
1796–1866 as the Library of Congress records it · Library of Congress authority record ↗
4 indexed works are connected with this person, and the index includes one work by John Motley Morehead.
Works in the index that concern this person directly, or were written by them. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it; background reading with wider context sits further down.
Fifteen linear feet of papers from John Motley Morehead III (1870-1965), approximately 8,000 items covering 1914 to 1988, part of the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 70156. The papers concern the Morehead Planetarium, the John Motley Morehead Foundation, Union Carbide Corporation and buildings and structures in Chapel Hill.
Condensed from John Kerr's memorial oration, an account of John Motley Morehead, governor of North Carolina in the 1840s. It was detached from the June 1887 North Carolina University Magazine and printed at Chapel Hill by the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies.
Papers of Alexander Boyd Andrews Jr., a Raleigh lawyer and son of railroad official Col. A. B. Andrews, 1861 to 1945. Among the letters are John Motley Morehead's account of the 1881 hanging of Tildy Carter, a Black woman, in Rockingham County, and H. A. Page Sr. writing about the home of Walter Hines Page. The Hillsborough Academy, the Civil War and the Episcopal Church also figure. State Archives of North Carolina, PC.125.
David L. Swain, 1801 to 1868, served as governor of North Carolina and then as president of the university at Chapel Hill. His papers span 1807 to 1877 with the bulk from 1833 to 1868. Subjects include Cornelia Phillips Spencer, Elisha Mitchell, W. W. Holden and Thomas Ruffin, and cover state politics, railroads, and records of enslaved people. Microfilm reels were made in 1949 and 1974.
The State Archives' Miscellaneous Collection: letters, deeds, land grants, surveys, wills, leases and other single items dating from 1689 to 2017, some as photocopies or transcripts from other repositories. Writers and subjects vary widely, governors and generals among them, and Orange County figures among the many places touched.
Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this person. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled.
Four men who shaped North Carolina before the Civil War are the subjects of these lectures by R. D. W. Connor: Archibald Murphey and his plans for schools and internal improvements, David Swain and the constitutional reform of 1835, Calvin Wiley and the common schools, and John Morehead and the railroads. Delivered and published in 1914 at the State Normal and Industrial College; reprinted in 1971 from the 1930 edition, 123 pages.
Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 4 dated events in the chronology →
Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.
Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.
The index lists works with an Orange County connection. To find everything else about John Motley Morehead, search these catalogs.
Searched with the Library of Congress heading Morehead, John Motley, 1796-1866, so the results are about this person and not others with the same name. Each link opens that catalog’s own results in a new tab. The Friends have not reviewed what they return.
Found a book OCPL doesn’t own? You can often borrow it through interlibrary loan at OCPL.
Other catalogs to search and local organizations that can help.
Picture: John Motley Morehead, painted portrait, 1841. No known copyright restrictions. State Archives of North Carolina, General Negative Collection (T_81_5_18); via Wikimedia Commons
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