Respected as an agriculturalist, Julius Sterling Morton sought to instruct people in the modern techniques of farming and forestry. Among his most significant achievements was the founding of Arbor Day. He became well known in Nebraska for his political, agricultural, and literary activities and served with distinction as President Grover Cleveland's Secretary of Agriculture. He is credited with helping change that department into a coordinated service to farmers, and he supported Cleveland in setting up national forest reservations.

In 1897 Morton planned and began to edit the multivolume Illustrated History of Nebraska. He also published a weekly periodical, The Conservationist. He died on April 27, 1902, in Lake Forest, Illinois, where he was seeking health treatment. His home in Nebraska City is now a state park, the Arbor Lodge State Historical Park and Arboretum.

In 1937, the state of Nebraska donated a bronze statue of Morton to the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall Collection. Morton is a member of the Nebraska Hall of Fame.

External links

• http://www.aoc.gov/cc/art/nsh/morton_j.cfm
• http://www.arborday.org/arborday/history.cfm

1832 births | 1902 deaths | People from Michigan | People from Nebraska | People from New York | United States Secretaries of Agriculture