Joy Morton

Joy Sterling Morton (September 27, 1855 – May 10, 1934) was an American businessman and entrepreneur best known for founding Morton Salt and establishing the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois. Biography Morton was born on September 27, 1855, in Detroit, Michigan. His mother, Caroline Joy, was an accomplished artist, musician, and gardener. His father, Julius Sterling Morton, a newspaperman and a leader in Nebraska territorial and state politics, played a key role in establishing Arbor Day, and served as the United States secretary of agriculture in the second administration (1893–1897) of President Grover Cleveland. In 1880, Morton married Carrie Jane Lake, the daughter of Nebraska Supreme Court Judge George Lake. They had two children, Jean (who married Joseph Cudahy of a Chicago meatpacking company) and Sterling (who married Sophia Preston Owsley, a granddaughter of Carter Henry Harrison, a popular mayor of post-Civil War Chicago). Morton’s first wife died in 1915. Two years later, he married Margaret Gray, who became a local leader in health care. At 15, Morton began to manage the family farm and estate. He also took a job at the local bank. At age 18, he fell ill with spinal meningitis. Needing physical exercise and an outdoor environment for full recovery, he farmed his own land for two years. Later, he worked for railroads in Omaha, Nebraska, and Aurora, Illinois, before joining a Chicago salt distribution company in 1880. By 1886, he owned the firm, renaming it Joy Morton and Company, and branching out into the distribution and processing of agricultural products in Nebraska and Illinois. In 1910, he incorporated his salt firm as the Morton Salt Company. He remained the company's president until 1930, when Daniel Peterkin, Sr., became president while Morton served as chairman of the board until his death in 1934.