Mercer County, IL Biographies

DR. ARTHUR HENRY MCCREIGHT was born and reared in Illinois, and soon after graduating from Rush Medical College of Chicago came to Fort Dodge. He has had a very successful career in his profession, stands high among his professional brethren in the various organizations and is a citizen who has proved his usefulness and his capacity for service in many ways.

Doctor McCreight was born on a farm in Mercer County, Illinois, July 25, 1866, a son of John Willis and Rebecca (Nevius) McCreight and a grandson of Mathew McCreight and William I. Nevius. Both grandfathers were born in Ohio. Mathew McCreight spent his last years in Iowa, where he became a farmer. William I. Nevius moved to Illinois during the 1830's and was a pioneer in the north central section of th estate. The old block house used for the protection of the pioneers against the Indians was still in use at Monmouth when he reached there. he acquired land for himself and also made purchases for some friends back in Ohio, and when they failed to join him he had more land than he knew what to do with.

John Willis McCreight was born in Ohio. He moved to Illinois in 1854 and married his wife in Mercer County, where she was born. They lived on their farm until 1890, when they took up their residence at Viola, Illinois. John Willis McCreight always showed a public spirited attitude toward his home community and was postmaster in his home town, was an active Republican and a member of the United Presbyterian Church. Of the eight children six are living.

Arthur Henry McCreight was an Illinois farm boy, attended district schools and the academy at Aledo and prepared for work as an educator in the Illinois Normal University at Normal. He was a teacher for six years, and teaching gave him the means to complete his medical education. In 1897 he was graduated from Rush Medical College in Chicago, and began practice in Fort Dodge. He has been satisfied with the service he could render in the general field of medicine and surgery, though he has long enjoyed a very high reputation for his skill in obstetrics. He is a member of the Webster County, Iowa State and American Medical Associations. During the World war he enlisted and was commissioned a captain and was on duty at the Base Hospital at Camp Dodge until honorably discharged on March 1, 1919. For three terms Doctor McCreight was coroner of Webster County.

He married in November, 1899, Miss Margaret Cromwell, of Dows, Iowa, where she was reared and educated. Her father was James Cromwell. Mrs. McCreight died in 1920. In 1926 Doctor McCreight married Mrs. Mabel S. Johnston, of Webster County. Doctor McCreight has two children, Clifford, an adopted son, who is now manager of the Greyhound Bus Line at Sudberry, Pennsylvania. His daughter Rachel, is the wife of James I. Dolliver, one of Fort Dodge's prominent attorneys. Doctor McCreight is one of the trustees of the Congregational Church, is a York Rite Mason, a member of the Rotary Club and in politics, a Republican. [Src: "A Narrative History of The People of Iowa", 1931]

©2007 K. Torp
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