Sangamon County ILGenWeb © 2000
In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data and images may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or for other presentation without express permission by the contributor(s).



PAST AND PRESENT OF THE CITY OF SPRINGFIELD AND SANGAMON COUNTY ILLINOIS
By Joseph Wallace, M. A.
of the Springfield Bar
The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, IL
1904



JOHN H. MCCREERY. - there are few better known or more popular in Springfield than John H. McCreery, who is conducting the St. Nicholas Hotel. He is well known in connection with political and military affairs of the capital city. Born in Springfield on the 4th of October, 1862, his parents were John and Louise (Rose) McCreery, who are represented on another page of this work. He attended the public schools until he had completed the high school course by graduation with the class of 1880. He then joined his father in the hotel business and is now the proprietor of the St. Nicholas Hotel, which ranks with the leading hostelries of the state. He has recently completed arrangements for enlarging this hotel by the purchase of a tract of ground sixty by one hundred feet on Fourth street. On this an addition will be erected, containing seventy-five rooms beside the rooms on the ground floor and in the basement. The hotel in other respects will be remodeled to a considerable extent and already it is and has for many years ranked with the best hotels of Illinois. Mr. McCreery possesses the enterprising spirit of the west, displaying keen discernment and excellent business and executive ability, and in the conduct of his hotel has many pioneer methods - that is, he is continually studying out new plans for the conduct of his business so that the comfort of his guests will be promoted and the hotel will be all the more worthy of public patronage.

Mr. McCreery is a valued member of various social and fraternal organizations. He belongs to Navarre Lodge, K.P.; Springfield Lodge, I.O.O.F.; the Improved Order of Red Men; and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He is also identified with the Sangamon, Mercantile, Arion and golf clubs. In politics a Democrat, he was elected supervisor on the party ticket in 1903 and was chairman of the city committee in Springfield at the time of President Cleveland's nomination. He has since served continuously on the central committees and has been very active in the management of the local party affairs. In 1904 he was elected alderman of the seventh ward and is now chairman of its finance committee. He belongs to the state national guard and served as quartermaster of the fifth Regiment for about fifteen years. He was then made commissary of the Second Brigade, which position he still fills. He has the knowledge of the world that comes through contact with many people, possesses a genial, courteous manner and unfaltering honesty, and in Springfield, where his entire life has been passed, the circle of his friends is almost coextensive with the circle of his acquaintances.



Return to 1904 Biographies Index
Return to Sangamon County ILGenWeb