The Legacy of

Michael Creighton

By: James Harris Creighton

Eaglepipe1945@aol.com

CRICHTON CASTLE

Located 12 miles south of Edinburgh Scotland

CREIGHTON BADGE

Drawn by James Harris Creighton

ON-LINE TEXT EDITION:

Updated October 29, 2001

DEDICATION

All men and women are born, live, suffer and die. What will distinguish us from one another are our dreams, whether they be about worldly or unworldly things and what we do to make them come about. We do not choose to be born; we do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch or the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die, but we do choose how we live. It is not about what we look like or what we have. It is about taking what we have and doing as much as we can with it. It is about learning and growing. When we are willing to learn what we don’t know and use our experiences, our perfections will begin to show. Collect memories and tie them in the colors of the rainbow, to be taken out and read, containing the story of your life. Write laughter between the lines of family tales before handing them down to new generations, who, like relay runners, eagerly wait to add to the plot. Savor the fingerprints on windows and walls of the home, for they are the love notes scribbled around the margins of the family’s heart. May you always speak the truth quietly, listening with an open mind when others speak. Continue to collect the stories and pass them on to generations yet unborn. This book is dedicated to all of our children, and to their children’s children.

Without John Leonard and Sylvia Susan (Poore) Creighton, we would not be here to pass anything on to anyone. Special thanks go to both of them for all of their sacrifices in raising us. This photo of Dad has watched over all of us as we grew. The photo of both of them was taken when Mom was expecting our eldest brother, John, Jr. in the fall of 1927.

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS

Like many other books of this nature, this work began as a “maybe I will write it all down some day.” As I worked on collecting information on the Poore family, I realized more and more that there was much known about my mother’s family, but little was known about my father and the Creightons. I could not have done it without much help and encouragement, and collaboration with siblings and cousins. First of all, I must thank my wife Kathryn for her love and patience. If it were not for her help, I would still be buried in a bottle and would have never reached this stage in my life. Second I want to thank my daughters, Buffy and Lisa, for standing behind me through all of those years of hard times and confusion in our lives. Now that I have written this book, hopefully they can begin to realize the wonders of the family that they were born into. Special thanks go to my sister Susan Curtiss from great Barrington, MA who has worked closely with me. The work has given us a chance to become reacquainted with one another, I owe her so much for the help she has given. Last is a thanks of gratitude to my father, John Leonard Creighton and my mother Sylvia Poore Creighton Horgan. Without them, the story could not be told at all. My collaborators are: