James Powell Kernochan

James Powell Kernochan (October 22, 1831 – March 6, 1897) was an American businessman and clubman who was prominent in New York society during the Gilded Age. Early life Kernochan was born on October 22, 1831, in New York City in a house at 8th Street and Second Avenue. He was the son of Joseph Kernochan (1789–1864) and Margaret Eliza (née Seymour) Kernochan (1804–1845). His siblings included William Seymour Kernochan, and Elizabeth Powell Kernochan Garr, John Adams Kernochan, Henry Parish Kernochan, Ann Adams Kernochan, Frank Edward Kernochan, and J. Frederic Kernochan. His father, who was born in Scotland and came to America in 1790 as a baby, was a dry goods merchant and banker and a founder of the University Club of New York. His paternal grandparents were William and Esther Kernochan, Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who had a farm in Orange County, and his maternal grandparents were William Seymour and Eliza (née Powell) Seymour, an English family who lived in Brooklyn. Career Along with Albon Man, a New York attorney, William E. Sawyer, an electrical engineer, Hugh McCulloch, and others, Kernochan was an initial investor-partner in Electro-Dynamic Light Company, a lighting and electrical distribution company organized in 1878. Electro-Dynamic Light was the first company organized specifically to manufacture and sell incandescent electric light bulbs.