History of Morton Salt

Morton's roots were established in Chicago in 1848. The Company was founded in Chicago as a Midwest sales agency.

In 1879, eight years after the Great Chicago Fire, Joy Morton bought an interest in the company. In 1886, he bought out his partners and acquire a majority interest in the company. He renamed the company Joy Morton & Company.

The firm was incorporated as the Morton Salt Company in 1910. Among its products were a free-flowing salt in a round package with a patented spout for consumer households, and various bulk salt grades for farm and industry.

Salt is hydroscopic and tend to clump. In 1911, Morton solved the problem by adding an anticaking agent and later developed the slogan, “When It Rains It Pours”. The company hired N.W Ayer ad agency to promote anticaking properties of their salt.

The agency submitted 12 different ads to Morton to run in Good Housekeeping magazine. Sterling Morton, Joy Morton’s son interested by the idea of a little umbrella-wielding girl, pouring salt in the rain.

The Morton Salt Umbrella Girl and slogan first appeared on the blue package of table salt in 1914. In 1924 Morton Salt introduced Iodized Salt nationwide.
History of Morton Salt

The First National Bank of Chicago

On July 1, 1863, banker Edmund Aiken and his partners invested $100,000 to found a new federally chartered bank under the guidelines established by new federal banking legislation. Capitalizing on a February 1863 law that permitted the formation of national banks, The First National of Chicago, operating under Charter #8 from the comptroller to the currency, opened its door on July 1, 1863, the day on which the Battle Gettysburg commenced.

By 1876, First National ranked as the city's largest bank; it (and its descendants) would continue to be either Chicago's biggest or second biggest bank through the end of the twentieth century.

From the era of the Civil War when Chicago was the central hub of rail traffic in America until its merger with NBD Corporation, the First National Bank of Chicago rightfully claimed to be Chicago’s bank.

In 1919, The First National Bank of Chicago created an affiliate, First National Investment Co., which invested in second mortgages and operated a travel agency. In 1969, when First National moved into a new skyscraper in Chicago's loop, it became part of the First Chicago Corp., a holding company for the bank. Among Midwestern banks, The First National Bank of Chicago was perhaps the most active internationally, establishing offices in 25 countries by 1973.
The First National Bank of Chicago