Bee
HALFTONE SECTIOll
Pages 1 (o 12
Ooo Inta th Horn
THE OMAHA DEC
Best t':. West
VOL. XXXVI -NO 2i.
OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 2, !;.
SINGLE COPY FIVE CENTS.
rni imt inwii a rPFiriHTOM phii AMTHRnpim anh ri in hfp
Some of the Incidents in a Life that Has Been Largely Spent in Doing Good for Mankind and Which is Still Devoted to Making the World a Better Place to Live In
he Omaha
Sunday
ON E pleasant morning In June, fifty years ago, a young man
in a cart drawn by two homes reached the summit of
one of the blufls on the east side of the Missouri river
near the present site of Council Bluffs. The sun had
risen and shone brightly on the river -which wound
through the valley at the young man's feet, and upon
the little village on the further side of the river, bravely rais
ing Its few roofs on the edge of the western wilderness. Did the
young man at that moment possess a prophetic vision? Did he se
a magnificent city growing up within a few years where the village
then stood? Did he see bridges thrown across the river and a doztfn
railrouds centering in the city?. At any rate the young man chose
this spot from the many he had visited throughout the country. He
drove down from the bluff, crossed the river to the village and cast
his lot with the few hardy pioneers already there.
This was John A. Cielghton, farmer's boy, telegraph and rail
road builder, early time freighter and trader, banker, manufacturer,
millionaire and philanthropist. John A. Creighton was Just 25 years
of age when he saw the little village in the valley. He had already
had experience in many parts of the country, being the able helper
of bia brother, Edward Creighton, in many of his big contracts for
building telegraph lines through the wildeYness and in grading roads
and clearing forests for railways.
It was in 1854, when the future millionaire was 23 years of
age, that he bad begun the work by which he was to acquire the
foundation of his fortune. Edward Creighton was engaged at that
time in constructing a telegraph line from Cleveland to Toledo, O.,
and in this work John A. Crelghton's ability to lead men soon be
came apparent. It was the work which he liked and for which he
had early determined to fit himself by a course in college. Pursuant
to this determination, he had left his frm home in Licking county,
Ohio, in 1852 and began a course of study at St. Joseph's college,
which had recently been established by the Dominican Fathers in
Somerset, Perry county, Ohio. His college course was cut short by
the death of his mother in 1854 and he immediately entered upon
those activities which were to engross the greater part of his life.
From the time of his mother's death until he arrived in Omaha he
was engaged' with his elder brother in various kinds of contract
work. After the construction of the Cleveland-Toledo telegraph
line they entered on a contract of street grading In Toledo and
later cleared and graded several miles of the North Missouri rail
road. After the completion of this last work John Creighton was
'sent by his brother to Keokuk, la., to sail a lot of horses which
had been used in the contract work. The young man sold all but
three of the animals, traded one of these for a vehicle, hitched up
the other two and started over the prairies for the west and his
fortune.
Omaha Looked Good to Him
John A. Creighton lost no time after his decision to settle at
Omaha. He went to work Immediately breaking up some ground
near where Is now Courtland Beach. He remained in Omaha four
VPBH aotrcr na rlprk fn tho crpnc.ral Rtnre nf T 3 , Rrnwn nnrl R X.
Brown during a part of this time. Those were the days when
Horace Greeley had given his well known advice to young men,
'Go west." Many were following that advice. The excitement of
V9 had not yet died out and reports came from the unknown
country beyond the Missouri of gold and silver in great, quantities
which was to be found in the great wilderness. Young Creighton
saw much of the traffic which went through the thriving village.
Omaha had already come to be known as the "Gate City," because
It was the main gateway from the east into the west. Every day
wagon trains stopped at the store where he was employed and laid
In supplies for the long, lonely journey along the trail to the west.
Crelghton's active mind was not long in seeing that here wan a
great business opportunity and he persuaded his employer to fit
out a wagon train for Denver. Creighton- engineered two such trains
to the west with great profit.
About this time his brother Edward had taken the contract
for'tho construction of 700 miles of the Pacific telegraph, the first
line to be completed across the continent. He engaged the services
of his younger brother for the actual superintendence of the work
and ordered him to proceed to Fort Ln ramie, Wyo. Mr. Creighton
etlll possesses a memorandum showing that he purchased as equip
ment tor this trip of 185 miles: One mule, $100; one saddle,
$18.60; one pair boots, $5; one revolver, $30, and $5 worth of
"grub." He made the trip in five days in spite of the fact that three
men whom he overtook on the way and invited to share his food
partook of his hospitality with such voracity that the last two days
of the Journey were made with nothing to .eat but a hawk which
they shot.
The experience gained by young Creighton in the far west
during this work of building the telegraph line was Invaluable to
him. After the work was done he took charge of his brother's
stock and cattle and located at Fort Bridger. Discoveries of gold
, In the Salmon river valley had drawn a great number of miners
thither, and Creighton determined to undertake an expedition into
the valley for trading purposes. Backed by his. brother Edward
be bought 1,000 sacks of flour. But Just as be was about to start
reports of an Indian outbreak came and at the same time it was
rumored that the mines had given out. The expedition was, there
fore, abandoned. Young Creighton sold his flour to Brlgham Young,
the Mormon leader, for $20,000, half in gold and half in drafts on
Ben Halllday's stage line. He placed the gold coin in two shot
sacks and made the trip by stage to Omaha without mishap.
Popular Boy in Montana
This Is Illustrative of the kind of stuff of whlcn John A.
Creighton was made. His heart was kind and he was well disposed
toward all men, but there was a look in the firm face that made
the "bad men" of those early days beware and refrain from attack
ing him. He was one of the five men who organized the famous
vigilance committee in Montana. This committee executed summary
Justice on forty-seven of the malefactors and desperadoes who were
disturbing the peace and dignity of the new country. The esteem
In which the honest, capable and masterful young man was held
In the new country is evident in newspaper articles regarding him
which are still extant, lie had broken a leg in the overturning of a
stage coach. The local paper contained the following:
"We are happy to announce to the public that John Creighton,
who was so severely Injured by the overturning of the stage, Is now
fast recovering. John is decidedly averse to 'surrendering' and
having arranged diverse slings and conveniences around him he
has cut a hole iu the wall, through which he views the imposing
scenery of the Rocky mountains and Indulges in a little light
chatT with the outside wayfarers. Surrounded by kind friends, he
lives like the son of an Irish king, laughing misfortune out of
countenance. He will soon be about again. We believe that the
only way to kill John Creighton would be to cut off his bead and
then carry away the body."
While he was at Virginia City, Mont., that town was connected
with the rest of the world by telegraph largely through Crelghton's
efforts. In token of their appreciation of hi public spirit bis
fellow citizens presented him with a watch. The village papr de
scribes It .as "One of Charles Krodshiui's superb chronometer
watches, selected at Tlfr.'.ny & Co.'s, New York, the fluest time-
. t lolkHhnutnt " Thla wut.'h la fitill in Vfr f'rul f h t nn
JIU-VC IU lua CDiaw .. ..... w ' " ' - ...... .m ..... .v.,.- " -
possesion and bears the inscription: "To John A. Creighton. from
his friends of Virginia, Montana." On each link of the chain are
engraved the initials. "J. A. C." While he was living in Virginia
City he received the title of colonel. The Indians in tho Yellowstone
district "dug up the hatchet." General Thomas V. Meagher called
tor 800 volunteers and Mr. Creighton received the appointment as
Commissary geueral with the rank of colonel.
Tu youug man bad been iu Virginia City the years when L
COUNT JOHN A. CREIGHTON.
John A. Creighton. He has glveu more money to the establishment
and support of public institutions than any other citizen of Omaha.
He was chiefly instrumental in the founding of Creighton university.
The Idea of this Institution originated with Edward Creighton, but
he died Intestate. Ills wife, who died a year Inter, left a fund for
the establishment of the institution, but upon the shoulders of
John A. Creighton, as her executor, fell the work of selecting the
site and managing the erection of the buildings. He has given
further sums at various times to the support of the institution. He
and his wife contributed $13,000 in 1888 toward tho erection of the
south wing of tho university and he gave $17,000 for the purchase
of scientific apparatus for tho institution. He helped the Jesuit
fathers In building St. John's collegiate church with a contribution
of $10,000. He esiablished the convent of the Toor Clares on
Hamilton street at a cost of $35,000. He erected the John A.
Croii;hton Medical college in 1S9S at a cost of $75,000. Ho has
lately contributed $75,000 for improvements and additions to the
Creighton university.
Honors Came to Him
When Mrs. John A. Creighton died in 1SS8 she bequeathed
$50,000 for the establishment of a hospital for the use and occupa
tion of the Sisters of St. Francis. John A. Creighton donated the
site of this Institution and added $150,000 to the sum loft by his
wife. The result was the handsome St. Joseph's hospital located
at Tenth and Castellar streets. In recognition of the benefactions
of Mr. Creighton he was honored by Tope LeTxiII In 1895 with the
title of "Count of the Papal Court." He had previously been recog
nized by the Holy See and made a Knight of St. Gregory. A third
great houor was bestowed on him in 1900, when he was selected
ns the recipient of the Laetare Medal, .which is given by the Uni
versity of Notre Dame only to those who have rendered conspicuous
services in the cause of religion.
As the count has grown in years his benefactions have In
creased. Two years ago he presented Creighton college with
$200,000 worth of property located in Omaha, and on the occasion
of his 75th birthday, October 15, 190G, he gave to Creighton uni
versity property valued at nearly half a million dollars. Two years
ago he founded the Edward Creighton institute in memory of his
brother. It cost more than $100,000. Aside from these munificent
gifts, which must of necessity be public, the count's private chari
ties are great. He is, by nature, unassuming and prefers not to let
his gifts be known. II is distasteful to him to talk about them. It
is said that he has never been inside of some of the buildings which
were built with the money given by him. He puts no "strings" on
his gifts. There are no conditions attached to his benefactions.
Arrived as he has at a ripe age full of honors ecclesiastic and
secular. Count John A. Creighton is today the same simple, broad
minded, far-sighted, humble individual that he was when he stood,
a poor young man, on the bluff of the Missouri river and looked
. upon the land of promise. His home life is admirable in its sim
plicity. The handsome residence at Twentieth and Chicago streets
in which he has lived for twenty-five yvurs Is a model of simple
elegance. The household Includes only the count, his brother-in-law,
Mr. Schenk; the housekeeper, Miss Cotter, and the servants.
Miss Cotter has managed the house for nineteen years. In spite
?f the richness of the home its air of homeliness is the most marked,
'be rooms are finished iu oak, the walls are thick, the carpets are
velvety. There is plenty of light and color. There are books and
Instruments of music, cigars and wines and pictures. Count
Creighton has. no acquired or assumed tastes. He delights in being
a common man. His tastes in the matter of food are what they
were fifty years ago. He likes bacon fried with a gravy made of
flour and water, such as he had in the early pioneer days while
he 'was "roughing it" across the plains and through the wilderness.
He is also fond of corn bread and oat meal and mush. This simple
life has brought him to the age of nearly four score years with a .
physical system, that is still strong and nerves that allow him eight
hours of sound sleep overy night
decided to return to Omaha. He was 35 years of age at the time.
Five years before ha had met, at the home of his brother Edward,
Miss Saraa Emily Ware ham, sister of Mrs. Edward Creighton. They
were married soon after he reached Omaha, the ceremony being
performed in St. Phllomena's cathedral on June 9, 1868. They began
housekeeping at once in a house which is still standing at the north
east corner of Eighteenth and Chicago streets. There they lived
for a dozen years and in that house their only child was born and
died. Soon after returning to this city the young man engaged in
the grocery business with Frank C. Morgan, under the firm name
of Creighton & Morgan.
Since that time he has resided continuously In Omaha and is
one of the city's strongest financial and commercial mainstays. In
187 8 he was one of the incorporators of the Omaha Nail Works
company, which started with a capital of $50,000 and turned out
40,000 kegs of nails the first year. It was sold and moved to
St. Joseph later. He was a heavy stockholder In the Cable Street
Railway company. He is a heavy stockholder and vice president
of the First National bank. He has had and still possesses a heavy
Interest in the Union Stock Yards of South Omaha. He was one of
the Incorporators of the Union Stock Yards company and has had an
active part in organizing the Union Stock Yards bank, the Union
Stock Yards railway and the South Omaha Land syndicate. In 1890
he was one of the incorporators of the Interstate Bridge and Street
Railway company, with $2,500,000 capital. The plans of this corpor
ation were changed later, giving way to the project which resulted
in the present East Omaha bridge.
Charity and philanthropy have been conspicuous characters of
Education in Public Ownership
MANY of those who deprecate public
ownership acknowledge that very
real evils have lead to the demand
for it. Thus, even If the present
agitation for this doctrine does not lead to
the general acquisition of public utilities, It
will not be without its good results. It is
sure at least to check and to control the
grosser abuses of individual and corporate
monopoly.
There are, however, many indications
that the movement for public ownership is
likely to be more than a salutary stimulus
to reform along the general lines of present
day economics. The offences of corporate
wealth have been grave and deliberate. Un
less there Is swift relenting or unless some
effectual help is speedily found in the law,
the mass of our people will not consent to
wait for the results of investigations into
the results of municipal ownership in other
countries. Instead, popular impatience may
demand immediate and drastic relief and, in
such a case, it may be well to consider
whether niauy of the dreaded consequences
of state or municipal ownership are not
baseless terrors or even real benefits in dis
guise. ' In the first place, Is It true, as the opio
nents of public ownership assort, that great
pecuniary rewards are an indispensable in
centive to the service of humanity? The
golden harvest sometimes reaped by inven
tion and research, but too often filched
from the discoverer and tho investigator by
the "promoter," has not been the real stim
ulus of the man of science.
The great things have been done and
are being done tody from simple love of
mankind, of science aud the truth. In thou
sands of laboratories and workshops all over
the world. The foreboding that it will be
otherwise Is as baseless as it is unworthy.
It is scarcely fitting to name here' the one
great Example or the Innumerable army of.
His followers of whom the "world was not
worthy;" but are we not assured that
Galileo, Newton. Galvaui, Franklin, Harvey,
Rumford, Nasmyth, Wedgewood, Darwin,
Watt, Arkwrlght, Ericsson, the Stephensons,
Pasteur, Graham-Bell end their fellows
made their contributions to humanity with
out hope of fee or reward and would have
made them in any case, even though the
only compensation for their risk and labor
might have been an approving conscience.
As the exceptionally gifted man may be
trusted to do his best because ot an impell
ing inner motive, so the mass of men may
be trusted to do the wise and the right thing
when Issues are placed Bquarely before them.
Our people are often betrayed by their
chosen representatives for the very reason
that those representatives are selected as
merely political leaders without reference
to business qualifications or business integ
rity. If the effects of bad government were
directly and clearly manifest in bad service
and higher taxes, the average citizen would
soon learn wisdom through experience; wis
dom of general political application, of in
finitely more value than some immediate
material benefits derived from the adminis
tration oi his affairs by a coterie of irre
sponsible industrial chieftains. The belief
of those who retain their faith in democracy
is that the truth must ultimately be grasped
by the slow-growing general apprehension
that public ownership is a private ownership,
in which every clllzcu is a stockholder who
ran influence his dividend by his own vote
las he cannot -do in many private corpora
tions). By such a conviction he will be
aroused to the fulfillment of his duty In re
gard to all the other responsibilities of the
suffrage.
Patriotism may be sluggish, but it Is, no
cynical aspersion, and only the recognition
of a wholesome truth, to assert that the
pocket nerve of the masses of the people
is highly sensitive and quickly responsive.
The selfishness of the capitalist may and
often does operate against the public good,
but the selfishness of the poor is the righte
ousness of the nation; the wage-earner's or
the salaried map's demand for the due pro
portion between wages and the expenses ot
livelihood, is the voice of its conscience. The
mass of the people may be blinded by the
effects of indirect taxation and many forms
of public theft, but it could not be deceived
or made indifferent in the exercise of its
power if that exercise affected directly the
dally needs of life; if It had an obvious part
in controlling the administration of the busi
ness, and consequently, in affecting the cost
of heat and light, transportation anl food
and housing, day. in and day out.
Let the voter be aware that his vote does
not merely help some boss or some party or
some platform, or procure for him vague
and untrustworthy promises of political re
ward, but that it helps to guide the affairs
whose economical, upright and efficient man
agement saves him money in his daily ex
penses (as Mayor Johnt-on of Cleveland has
proposed to do by giving his fellow citizens
cheap car fares), and the voter is likely to
break away from platform and boss and
party, and cast his vote for honest men and
honest measures which mean so much to
him and to his family. Moody's Magazine
for December.
Fond of His Fellow Man
A companionable, sociable and very approachable man Is Count
Creighton. Scarcely a day paBses that he does not have a friend or
acquaintance to take dinner with him, A standing order in his
household is to always prepare dinner for six. There are only three
in the regular personnel of the house, but any evening there may
be three guests and every evening there is likely to be at least one.
A unique feature of the home is the count's "den." It is located
on the south side of the house in a bow window and is a marvel
of coziness and comfort. The walls and celling are handsomely
frescoed and the woodwork is oak. On the celling, in the midst
of cherubs and wreaths and surrounding a portrait of the count, are
mottoes and typical sayings of the master of the house. "Here's
where I meet my friends and forget my enemies" is one of these
legends. Another is, "It's wonderful how business keeps up." This
is a frequent remark of the count's and was suggested to the artist
along with the others by friends who planned the decorations. A
third sentence is: "This is the only new farm house within the
city limits," a remark made by the count after the fire of a short
time ago which destroyed the old "den." At that time he remarked
that he would build a new farm house. He had always referred to
bis home as the farm house. Little pictures adorn the walls of the
"den." One of these Is of a puppy wearing a muzzle. Under the
picture is the legend, "Mum's the word." On a table under the
picture and on the wall near it stand flasks and bottles of the
choicest wines with which the count treats his guests. In the
matter of his liquors he Is a connoisseur. He keeps them In bond
for years before using them.
Count Creighton considers himself only a steward of the wealth
which he possesses. He often looks out ot the window of his hand
some home at some poor man passing and reflects, "Why has the
Lord given me so much and that man bo little? If I knew him I'd
call him In and treat him." This kindness of heart is so natural
and spontaneous that it is almost unconscious. It is his nature
to love people and to be sympathetic. An example ot this trait is his
weekly visit to the patients of St. Joseph's hospital. Every Sunday
for years be has made this visit. He always takes several pounds
of the best candy along and passes from bed to bed speaking kind
words and distributing his "chocolate pills" as he calls them. He
still takes an active part in business, being at his office nearly every
day and taking his lunch at a down town restaurant.. Wherever
there is a crowd he is sure to be the center ot it. His ready wit, his
active nilnd and his penchant for telling a good story make him a
favorite among his business associates and all who know him.
The universal esteem in which he is held 1b largely due to his
broad-mindedness. The institutions which ho has endowed are all
under tho control of Catholics, but the scope oi their work is not
limited to members of that faith. It is expressly stipulated in the
terms of his donations that the institution endowed shall be free
to all regardless ot color or creed. In St. Joseph's hospital more
charity patients of non-Catholic faith are cured for than ot the
Catholic faith. Many of the students In the colleges and universities
endowed by John A. Criighton are non-Catholics. Count Creighton
has been a democrat all his life. He has never been un aspirant for
otllce, but has been a delegate to five national conventions. Count
Creighton has made a name by living. Ha is a man like the one
eulogized by Martial when he said:
I do not like the man who squanders life for fame,
Give me the man who, living, makes a name.
Count Creighton lives his Ufa doing only the things which
duty, aided by a gift of sight into the future and appreciation ot
possibilities, pointed out to him. He has reached a ripe age sur
rounded with those things which reward u man who has lived bis
life rightly.
