John Alfred MOREHEAD born at Dublin, Pulaski county, Virginia, son of James William MOREHEAD and
Barbara Katherine YONCE, his wife. His father, a farmer, was prominent in
educational matters in Wythe county, Virginia, and Dr. MOREHEAD descends
paternally from Scotch forbears, maternally of German ancestry and a nephew
of Dr. William B. YONCE, for many years professor of Greek and Latin in
Roanoke College. He attended private schools in the county of his birth. He
graduated with the Bachelor of Arts degree at Roanoke College in 1889, then
entered the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Mount Airy, Pennsylvania. He
was graduated from this institution in 1892, in the same year being ordained
into the Evangelical Lutheran ministry, and also in that year receiving
assignment to his first charge, Burke's Garden, Virginia. For two years he
filled this pastorate, then became pastor of the First English Lutheran
Church of Richmond, where he remained until 1898. In 1898 Dr. MOREHEAD was
elected president of the Southern Lutheran Theological Seminary, at
Charleston, South Carolina, also being elected to the chair of systematic
theology, a connection that endured until 1903, although during the
scholastic year of 1901-02 he pursued courses at the universities of Berlin
and Leipsic. In 1903 Dr MOREHEAD accepted the presidency of Roanoke College,
where his diligent labors have met with splendid results. It was this
institution that in 1894 honored him with the degree of Master of Arts and
in 1902 with that of Doctor of Divinity. He married, October 6, 1892,
Eleanor Virginia FISHER and has issue.

Source: Extracted from Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Volume III, Lyon G. Tyler, (1915)

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