John Daniel Creaghan

John Daniel Creaghan (1850–1938) was born (April 17)* at or near Mountbellew**, County Galway, Ireland and educated at a local school for boys run by a Religious Order.

After completing his studies, young John Daniel was employed by merchants in Dublin, Glasgow and then in Fredericton, New Brunswick. At age 24 he and Scottish immigrant Donald Sutherland opened the Sutherland & Creaghan dry-goods store in Newcastle. This business partnership dissolved in 1887 and J.D. carried on as sole owner. The business was incorporated as the J.D. Creaghan Company Ltd. in 1905, at which time there were stores at Newcastle, Chatham and Moncton. For years J.D. personally made trips to London, Manchester and Paris to purchase stock for the stores.

John Daniel was always active in public affairs. He was a member of the first Newcastle Town Council, a founding director of Miramichi Exhibition Association and vice-president of Miramichi Steam Navigation Co., which carried freight and passengers up and down the river. As a result he purchased land at Burnt Church a couple of hundred yards east of Loggie’s General Store. J.D. had an old building that survived the Great Miramichi Fire of 1825 hauled across the frozen Miramichi Bay by a team of horses to the Creaghan cottage site.

As the family increased in size, the cottage and principal residence were from time to time enlarged. In the late 1920s there was a fenced-in tennis court in front of the cottage and in the kitchen a well with a cranked windlass to raise and lower containers. J.D. Creaghan always maintained a large library and provided ample opportunity for the education of his nine children.

He and Ellen were both traditional Irish Catholics and had a family pew for more than 50 years in the church they were married in. They had 23 grandchildren and many of them spent memorable summer holidays at Burnt Church.

* Dictionary of Miramichi Biography
** Historically Creggaun, from Irish an Creagán, meaning “the rocky place”

J.D. Creaghan Obituary