Sarah Emily Wareham Creighton

Title: Sarah Emily Wareham Creighton
Description: Sarah Emily Wareham (who also went by Emma) was born to Emily and David Wareham in Dayton, Ohio, on October 17, 1840. While in Omaha to visit her oldest sister, Mary Lucretia Creighton, she met her future husband, John A. Creighton (Mary’s brother-in-law). John and Sarah E. Creighton wed five years later. On June 9, 1868, in Omaha. Their first and only child, daughter Lucretia “LuLu” Creighton, was born in May 1869. LuLu died eleven months later.

After the creation of “Creighton College” by her sister Mary Lucretia’s will, Sarah Emily dedicated a great amount of time and effort to the school. Sarah Emily’s support of the school included decorating for commencement, encouraging John to fund modern science equipment, and advocating for the first expansion of the original building so that Jesuits would have better living quarters. Additionally, Sarah Emily’s push for a worship space on campus led to St. John’s Collegiate Chapel, dedicated May 1888. To host her funeral later that year required special permission since St. John’s was not yet a church. It became a parish in 1897.

In her will, Sarah Emily bequeathed $50,000 for construction of a new hospital building. Creighton Memorial St. Joseph’s Hospital, named in her honor, opened in 1892.