Edward A. Creighton, businessman and builder of telegraph lines, came to Omaha in l857. The Ohio native had been a farmer, freighter, and builder of telegraph lines before coming to Nebraska. He began his long career as an Omaha businessman with the sale of lumber he had arranged to have shipped to Omaha from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Creighton re-entered the telegraph business in l858, assisting with the building of a line from St. Joseph, Missouri to Omaha, which gave Omaha its first connection by telegraph to the east coast. Creighton visualized the building of a telegraph line to the Pacific Coast. He was commissioned in l860-6l to survey a route between the Missouri River and the Pacific Coast. The Union Pacific Railroad would later, for the most part, follow this route.
Congress subsidized the building of a telegraph line from Julesburg, Colorado through South Pass to Salt Lake City, where it was to connect with a line to be built by a California company. Creighton became the first general superintendent of the new company, known as the Pacific Telegraph Company. In October, 1861 the lines merged at Salt Lake City. He resigned as company president in l867 and later built a telegraph line from Salt Lake City to Montana.
Creighton invested both in the Pacific Telegraph Company and in a freighting company which operated out of Omaha to Denver, then to Salt Lake City, and on to the Montana gold fields. He also contracted for grading for the Union Pacific Railroad and put up its telegraph lines. In l864 Creighton became a cattleman near Laramie, Wyoming and supplied beef to the Union Pacific construction crews.
Through the years Creighton maintained his business interests in Omaha. He was president of the First National Bank in Omaha from its founding in l863 until his death on November 5, l874. He had hoped to build an institution of learning in Omaha, but died before this was accomplished. However, his widow, Mary Wareham Creighton, provided the initial funds for the formation of Creighton University in l875 through her will.
Creighton was made a member of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1958 and was inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame in March l983.