This life sketch was printed with his obituary 1 and obituary 2 .

Life Sketch

Mr. Creighton's common school training was supplemented by a course in the old Hayward College institute in Fairfield.  After that he taught school a number of years and served two years as superintendent of the Fairfield city schools.  He also served many years as president of the Board of Education of the Fairfield schools.

While in charge of the schools in Fairfield, Mr. Creighton became acquainted with Miss Alma Patterson, of Fairfield, a former pupil and teacher in his school. From this acquaintance developed a friendship which led to their marriage on February 4th, 1894. To this union were born eight children, all of whom survive.

In the early nineties, Mr. Creighton began reading law in the office of Judge Jacob R. Creighton and Judge E. C. Kramer, in Fairfield. In 1894 he was admitted to the Illinois Bar and the following year began to practice in Fairfield.

Partnership formed

Some while later Mr. Creighton took into his office B. F. Thomas, of Fairfield, who read law with him until February 1898 when he, too, was admitted to the Illinois bar. Just one month later, on March 21st, 1898, these two men formed a law partnership of Creighton and Thomas and began to practice in a small room in the rear of what is now the Press office building in Fairfield.

From the very start this firm served a large and constantly growing clientele.  The partnership has existed ever since and is recognized as the oldest law partnership in Illinois which has had no change in membership. On March 21st, this year, the partnership was forty-four years old.

Mr. Creighton was recognized as one of the foremost legal minds in the state of Illinois and his practice has extended from the many different courts in Illinois up to the United States Supreme Court where he has appeared in the interest of many cases.  He was licensed to practice before this high court on April 17th, 1923. He also held license to practice before the U. S. Court of Appels of the District of Columbia. He also was a member of the Wayne County Bar Association, the Illinois State Bar Association and the American Bar Association.

Lifelong Republican.

Mr. Creighton was always an enthusiastic believer in the principles of the Republican party and in 1893-1894 he served one term in the Illinois legislature, having been elected following a hard speech-making campaign in which he caused to be elected two republicans in a district which normally had been sending two democrats to Springfield.

In 1912 Mr. Creighton made an unsuccessful campaign for the republican nomination for congressman of the twenty-fourth congressional district. Four years later, in 1916, he was a candidate for nomination for Supreme Court justice from this, the first Illinois district, but in the primary nominating convention, after 137 ballots had been cast with no nomination, Mr. Creighton withdrew in favor of Judge W. W. Duncan, of Marion, thus relieving the deadlock and giving the nomination to him.

Mr. Creighton had a wide reputation for his exceptional ability as an orator and during his long life of public service he has been called upon scores of times to address gatherings of religious, civic, patriotic and political nature.

In early life, Mr. Creighton confessed faith in Christ and united with the First Methodist church of Fairfield having remained a member of this church ever since.  Until the years when his health failed, he was an active worker in the affairs of the church.  He was also a member of the Fairfield Masonic and Odd Fellows lodge.

Mr. Creighton is survived by his widow; six daughters, Ruth, wife of E. C. Melrose, of Fairfield;  Esther, wife of Stanley Wilson, of Detroit, Mich.;  Mildred, wife of Clarence L. Coates, of Hastings, Nebr.; Helen, wife of Leslie Beck, of Ashley, Ill.; Margaret, wife of James R. Harrison, of Granville, Ohio; Alice, wife of Albert Willis, of Elmhurst, Ill.; and two sons, Thomas H. Creighton, Jr., of Washington, D. C., and Charles Richard Creighton, of Midland, Texas.

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