Means, Alexander J., 1977-

Alexander Means, clergyman, inventor, and poet was born in Statesville, North Carolina, on February 6, 1801, and died in Oxford, Georgia, on June 5, 1883. On December 25, 1827, Means married S.A.E. Winston. Licensed to preach in the Methodist Church in 1828, Means was also the first superintendent of the Manual Labor School (1834-1838), professor of natural science (1838-1846), and president of Emory College (1854-1855); president of Masonic Female College in Covington, Georgia (1853); lecturer in chemistry at Augusta Medical College (1840-1860) and Atlanta Medical College, (1855-1868), where he demonstrated incandescent electrical lighting equipment in 1857. He was the Confederacy's official inspector of munitions during the Civil War and examining chemist for the State of Georgia (1868-1877), as well as a member of various scientific organizations. Means was the author of sermons, addresses, and verse.