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Morton Salt history
Morton Salt company history timeline
But the story of Morton Salt actually dates back more than 60 years prior, to its founding in 1848.
As early as 1848, the canal was known as “the ditch that salt built.” Today, Morton has solved many of the transportation problems by having salt plants located across North America.
The company began in Chicago, Illinois, in 1848 as a small sales agency, Richmond & Company, started by Alonzo Richmond as agents for Onondaga salt companies to sell their salt to the Midwest.
In 1880, a 25-year-old Nebraskan named Joy Morton arrived in Chicago to become a new partner in E. I. Wheeler & Co., a salt-marketing firm.
Joy Morton started working for E. I. Wheeler in 1880, buying into the company for $10,000, with which he bought a fleet of lake boats to move salt west.
In 1889, it was renamed after the owner, Joy Morton, the son of J. Sterling Morton who founded Arbor Day.
In 1896, Alfred Bevis founded the Bevis Rock Salt Company, building on the failed Lyons salt company in which he had previously invested and run.
In 1910, the business, which had by that time become both a manufacturer and a merchant of salt, was incorporated as the Morton Salt Company.
Beginning in 1911, they added a non-caking agent made of magnesium carbonate to its salt.
Since the Morton Salt Company first debuted its Salt Girl ad campaign in 1911, the saying, “When it rains, it pours”, has become a part of our lexicon.
She emerged from a routine advertising presentation in 1911, shortly after the salt sales agency headed by Joy Morton was incorporated as the Morton Salt Company.
Great brands have great logos, and perhaps none more so than the Chicago-based Morton Salt Company, which introduced its instantly iconic little girl with the big umbrella—a.k.a. the Morton Salt Girl—in 1914.
To promote the new anti-caking feature of its salt, ad agency N.W. Ayer & Company was hired in 1914 to produce Morton’s first national advertisements, which were set to run as a series in Good Housekeeping magazine.
The Morton Salt Umbrella Girl and slogan first appeared on the blue package of table salt in 1914.
Their son, Bevis Longstreth, became president and general manager on his return from service in World War I. In 1919, Morton Salt acquired Bevis.
The roadside attraction sits a mile away from one of the country’s largest salt mines, which has been operated by Morton Salt since 1920.
Before his death in 1934, Joy (named after his mother, Caroline Joy French) donated a large portion of his farmland in Lisle, Illinois, to create The Morton Arboretum, which has since grown to 1700 acres.
One thing that hasn’t changed: Her yellow dress, which was first added in 1941.
A merger with a drug company in 1969 led the company to adopt the name Morton-Norwich.
In 1982, the company sold its drug business and purchased Thiokol Inc., a maker of cleaners, chemicals, and rockets; the new entity was named Morton Thiokol Inc.
About ten years later, Bevis Longstreth founded Thiokol Corporation, which merged with Morton Salt in 1982 to form Morton-Thiokol.
The newly renamed Morton Thiokol Inc. produced the faulty part responsible for the in-flight destruction of the space shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986.
Two years after selling its airbag division in 1997, Morton was purchased by Rohm & Haas, a Philadelphia company, largely ending Morton's century-long relationship with Chicago.
On April 2, 2009, it was reported that Morton Salt was being acquired by German fertilizer and salt company K+S for a total enterprise value of US$1.7 billion.
The sale, completed by October 2009, was in conjunction with Dow Chemical Company's takeover of Rohm and Haas.
On April 30, 2021, K+S Aktiengesellschaft sold its North and South American business units, including Morton Salt, to Stone Canyon Industry Holdings, Mark Demetree and affiliates for $3.2 billion.
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Morton Salt competitors
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| Colwell | - | - | 376 | - |
| J+J Flooring Group | 1957 | $180.0M | 999 | - |
| Niagara Holdings Inc | 2004 | $830.0M | 1,300 | 257 |
| Weber Grills | 1893 | $1.3B | 3,000 | - |
| Fmi, LLC | - | $990,000 | 25 | 14 |
| Thatcher | 1967 | $150.0M | 200 | 23 |
| Bellisio Foods | 2008 | $550.0M | 1,385 | 23 |
| Welch's | 1869 | $750.0M | 1,000 | 44 |
| Clariant | 1995 | $6.9B | 17,901 | 55 |
| Borealis | 1994 | $36.2M | 100 | 1 |
Morton Salt history FAQs
Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of Morton Salt, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about Morton Salt. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at Morton Salt. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by Morton Salt. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of Morton Salt and its employees or that of Zippia.
Morton Salt may also be known as or be related to Morton International, LLC, Morton Salt, Morton Salt Company, Morton Salt Inc, Morton Salt Inc. and Morton Salt, Inc.