CREIGHTON

Family name of brothers who were businessmen and philanthropists. Their parents, James and Bridget (Hughes) Creighton, were Irish immigrants. The brothers were associated in business enterprises in the mining districts of the West and settled in Omaha in 1857. There they became interested in plans for a transcontinental telegraph system, completed on Oct. 24, 1861.

Edward, b. near Barnesville, Belmont County, Ohio, Aug. 31, 1820; d. Omaha, Nebr., Nov. 5, 1874. He surveyed the telegraph route and supervised construction of the line from Omaha to Salt Lake City, Utah. This portion of the telegraph was built at a cost of $147,000 by the Pacific Telegraph Company, in which Edward held an interest. Pacific Telegraph was soon absorbed by Western Union at the cost of $6 million in Western Union stock. Edward's fortune, later enlarged by stock raising and banking investments, was liberally expended on Catholic charities. Chief among his bequests was $200,000 left at his request in the will of his wife, Mary Lucretia (Wareham) Creighton, to found Creighton College (now University), Omaha.

John, b. Licking County, Ohio, Oct. 15, 1831; d. Omaha, Feb. 7, 1907. He inherited Edward's business interests, augmented his investments, and continued his philanthropies. John's benefactions built in Omaha the first two monasteries of the poor clares in the U.S. and constructed St. Joseph-Creighton Hospital. His largest gifts went to Creighton University, which received more than $1 million for buildings and endowment. Leo XIII made John a Knight of St. Gregory and a papal count in 1895, and in 1904 Superior General Louis Martin made him a founder in the Society of Jesus. John's will left an additional $1¼ million to Creighton University.

Bibliography: v. rosewater, Dictionary of American Biography, ed. a. johnson and d. malone, 20 v. (New York 1928–36)(1928) 4:534–535. r. l. thompson, Wiring a Continent (Princeton 1947). m. p. dowling, Creighton University: Reminiscences of the First Twenty-Five Years (Omaha 1903).

[h. w. casper]