NEBRASKA CITY – The 9-foot, 5,500-pound statue of J. Sterling Morton is leaving its place of over 80 years at the national Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C., and is headed for the Home of Arbor Day in Nebraska City.

The Arbor Day founder was a member of the territorial legislature prior to statehood and served as secretary of agriculture for President Grover Cleveland. He is widely known for starting Arbor Day in 1872, when Nebraskans planted an estimated 1 million trees.

Nebraskans agreed to replace the statues of Morton and William Jennings Bryan with those of author Willa Cather and civil rights activist Chief Standing Bear at Statuary Hall on Capitol Hill.

 

Over $18,000 was donated locally to bring the Morton statue to Nebraska City, but the exact location had been undecided until Monday, when city commissioners voted for a site in the south lobby of the Morton-James Public Library.

Otoe County commissioners earlier agreed to install the statue on the courthouse lawn, but later rescinded that offer citing Morton’s published views on voting rights.

Library Director Donna Kruse said the statue will fit well into the lobby design and allow space for informational panels that describe the varying aspects of Morton's legacy.

She said the library, whose namesake is Morton’s son, will have materials available for study. She said the indoor location will also provide protection for the statue against the weather and vandals.

She told city commissioners that after Morton's death, his body laid in state at the library for several hours. A 1902 article in the Nebraska City News says  “a might throng of people passed in procession before the open casket, which lay a brier and banked about with floral offerings.”

The statue is expected to arrive soon.