Sutter-Yuba County Biographies

JOHN J. CREED

Transcribed by: Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
            Yuba County is unusually fortunate in the large number of her expert 
technicians in various fields, among whom John J. Creed, the able and popular 
blacksmith of Wheatland, deserves an honorable place.  He was born in San 
Francisco on November 1, 1872, the son of a good old pioneer who had pluckily 
crossed the great plains with the slow-meandering ox-team in the early fifties.  
From his parents, who were highly esteemed for their qualities as 
empire-builders, he inherited qualities that have contributed much to make him 
what he is today, - one of the valued citizens of the township in which he 
lives.
            He learned the blacksmith trade in San Francisco, Oakland and 
Berkeley, and he worked for Eddie Graner, known as �the honest blacksmith,� a 
man of national reputation in the sporting world, and one of the famous referees 
of boxing bouts all over the United States.  Then he ran a shop of his own in 
Berkeley; and in that venture he was more than successful, his skill being all 
the more acceptable to his patrons because of his agreeable personality and his 
evident desire to serve and to please.
            In the year 1919, Mr. Creed came over to Wheatland and bought the 
old Bevan blacksmith shop, which had been started and was owned by Sam Bevan�s 
father in 1873; and he is still using, in his steadily increasing trade, the 
old, dented anvil upon which the elder Bevan had pounded so many thousands of 
times, and which had been a second-hand affair in 1873.  Mr. Creed is thoroughly 
familiar with every kind of blacksmith work; and  his progressive ingenuity has 
enabled him to devise and introduce innovations of his own.
            Mr. Creed is one of the best citizens of the county; and being 
first, last and all the time an American, he takes a live interest in public 
questions, and never fails to show his public-spiritedness in endorsing the best 
men and the best measures.
 
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p. 1296