CREAGHAN, JOHN DANIEL (1851-1938)

CREAGHAN, JOHN DANIEL, businessman; b. Co. Galway, Ireland, 24 Jun 1851, s/o Thomas Creaghan; m. 1882, Ellen Gertrude Adams, sister of Michael Adams, Samuel Adams, and Richard B. Adams; d. Newcastle, 13 Sep 1938.

The family from which John D. Creaghan came was of humble means, and he was said to have been educated under the auspices of one of the religious orders, possibly at the Franciscan College at Tuam, which was not far from his birthplace. When he finished school he joined a dry-goods firm in Dublin but was soon transferred to Glasgow, Scotland. In 1873 he came to Fredericton, N.B., to work in the affiliated dry-goods establishment of McDonald & Kedey. Two years afterwards, he became the partner of Donald Sutherland, a Scottish immigrant of his own age, in a new dry-goods business in Newcastle.

The firm of Sutherland & Creaghan was conducted with much skill and integrity and grew rapidly, with Creaghan as the most active partner. As early as 1882 he was travelling to Europe to buy stock in the markets of Manchester, London, Glasgow, and Paris, and for many years most of the company's purchasing was done overseas. It was announced in 1887 that the partnership had been dissolved and that Creaghan would be continuing on his own, but until shortly before his death in 1893, Sutherland remained connected with a store which the partners had opened in Chatham. Net assets of around $30,000 showed on the company's books in 1890. New Creaghan's stores were opened in Chatham in 1896 and Moncton in 1905. The business was reorganized as a family corporation in 1905 with John D. Creaghan as president and general manager. The three branches had a total of fifty employees in 1932.

Creaghan was a director and vice-president of the Miramichi Steam Navigation Co., which operated freight and passenger steamers on the river. In 1899 he was one of the eight members of the first Newcastle Town Council, none of whom were returned in the election of 1900. In 1902 he was among the founding directors of the Miramichi Exhibition Association, and he was still a director in 1913. During World War I he served as county chairman of two victory bond campaigns. He was also active for many years in recreational and Catholic church organizations. His wife, Ellen G. Adams, was said to have been a member of all of the charitable societies in Newcastle and the leader of a majority of them. One of the most admired women of the Miramichi, she "always appeared to be young in manner and thought."

The family consisted of five sons and four daughters. Sons T. Cyril, Gerald, and William V. Creaghan were enlisted with the Canadian forces in World War I, while daughters Clare and Aileen Creaghan served in an auxiliary capacity. As elsewhere noted, the eldest son, Donald S. Creaghan, was his father's successor in business, and John A. Creaghan was a lawyer. William V. Creaghan, who was a graduate of the University of New Brunswick, was manager of Creaghan's Moncton store for many years and successor to Donald S. Creaghan in 1958 as president of the company. T. Cyril Creaghan, who was a graduate of McGill University, was head of the Montreal construction firm of Creaghan & Archibald.