The Morton Connection By Herb Reagan One day, about 1927 I would guess, a fancy chauffeured limo that looked like Hollywood at its finest, drove up in front of the house to pick up Mother, Ben and me for a trip to town (Chicago) for the day. The chauffeur (in full uniform) got out of the open front of the car and opened the door for us, He tucked the motoring robe around the two ladies in the back seat and then folded out the jump seats for Ben and me. This was my introduction to Mrs. Joy Morton, the wife of the son of the first Secretary of Agriculture. Joy Morton was also the founder of Morton Salt Company, and owner of a number of properties in Chicago. For years after that when I thought of the incident, I idly wondered how did Mother know the Mortons -- who lived at least twenty miles away from Riverside (a long way in those days) - enough to spend a shopping day with her. The name was not commonly referred to in our house. Jump to 1998, Redmond, Washington. Tom White, a relative of Bev Weymer, a friend of
mine, was visiting from the Chicago area. For many years he had conducted tours at the
Morton Arboretum. Eventually I told him the above story, but neither of us could come up
with a clue to a connection until Tom happened to mention that Joy Morton’s middle
name was Sterling. Bingo! Joy Morton’s father lived in Omaha, and, among other things helped promote western migration through the railroads. He acquired some land near Omaha on which he built an estate named Arbor Lodge. He was an early day conservationist and originated Arbor Day in 1872. Joy Morton and his three brothers enlarged and improved on Arbor Lodge a number of times and started an arboretum there in 1902. In 1923 the property was deeded to Nebraska and is now a state park.
Joy married Martha Lake in 1880. In 1897 she became an invalid and was attended to by a nurse companion until she passed away in 1915. In 1917 Joy married Margaret Gray, his wife’s nurse for the last ten years of her life. Margaret Gray had a young niece of the same name who used to visit Thornhill in the
early 20’s. Joy Morton died in 1934 and the Arboretum Chairmanship was held by his daughter, his son and his son’s daughter until 1977. In 1994 the Arboretum was changed to a publicly held not-for-profit organization and is considered one of the best of its kind in the world.
The pictures of the arboretum used above were taken by Liz Field during the 1970s. This site maintained by John Reagan and last updated January 06, 2008 |
When I got home I got out Monte’s book and there
it was! Joy Morton’s grandfather had married Emmeline Sterling. Her brother Joseph E.
Sterling, was Joseph Sterling Goddard’s grandfather. Grannie (Ellen Ware Goddard) was
married to Joy Morton’s second cousin.. To us today a second cousin relationship is
pretty remote but in those days, and especially in those two families, relatives were
everything and the names Sterling and Morton are prevalent throughout both as first and
last names. Actually the name Joy was his mother’s maiden surname. 
Joy came to
Aurora, Illinois in 1879 to work for the Burlington Railroad and in 1885 built a house in
Chicago. In 1909 he found the property in Lisle and bought 1000 acres, where he built his
home and called it Thornhill. In 1920 at the age of 65, he started plans for an arboretum.
Ground was broken in 1921 and one of the first contracts to be let was to Yale &
Reagan, a contracting partnership between Mr. Yale and Herbert Reagan, Grannie’s
second husband and my father. They had a contract to dig out two artificial lakes and
probably to construct some of the roads on the property. The lakes are named Lake Marmo
for Margaret Morton, his wife, and Lake Jopamaca for Joy and his three brothers, Paul.
Mark, and Carl.
Caroline and Elizabeth (Goddard) were often invited
out to Thornhill to keep her company. Liz said these were fun times since there was lots
to explore and many things to do. She said that at meals there were two lackeys (her
words!) that would whisk away all the plates when Cousin Joy was through. They learned to
eat fast! "Cousin Joy" was what he wanted them to call him. 
The Morton Arboretum is located in Lisle, Illinois,
about 25 miles west of Chicago. It covers 1,700 acres and features over 3,600 kinds
of trees, shrubs and vines. For more information, visit the Arboretum's website at