It is thirteen years since Edward Creighton, the pioneer of frontier
telegraphy, died, and that he is so well and honorably remembered in the
Omaha of to-day--aye, his memory respected by the thousands who have
gone there since he was no more--but illustrates how great was his
service to the community, how broad and enduring a mark he made upon his
time. No man did so much to sustain Omaha in its early and trying days
as Edward Creighton. His career was a notable one in its humble
beginning and splendid triumph in the flush of manhood. He was born in
Belmont County, Ohio, August 31, 1820, of Irish parentage. His early
days were passed upon a farm, but at the age of twenty he took the
contract for building part of the national stage road from Wheeling, W.
Va., to Springfield, Ohio. He continued in the contracting business, but
it was not until 1847 that he entered upon that branch of it in which he
achieved his greatest success and laid the foundation of his after
fortunes. In that year he received the contract for and constructed a
telegraph line between Springfield and Cincinnati. To this business he
devoted his time and energies for five years, being successfully engaged
in the construction of telegraph lines in all parts of the country,
completing the line from Cleveland to Chicago in 1852. In 1856, while
engaged in telegraph construction in Missouri, Mr. Creighton visited
Omaha, and his brothers, John A., James, and Joseph, and his cousin
James, locating there, he returned to Ohio, where he wedded Mary
Lucretia Wareham of Dayton, and in 1857 he also went to Omaha and
located. He continued in the telegraph construction business,
completing, in 1860, the first line which gave Omaha connection with the
outer world via St. Louis.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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