THOMAS PHILIP CREASER -- 153rd INFANTRYBORN IN ST. CHRYSOSTOME, QUEBEC - Thomas Philip Creaser's grandparentsemigrated from Yorkshire, England. His grandfather, William Creaser'swife, Alice Coulton Brown, died in 1819, en route from England toMontreal. William and Alice's daughter, Alice, died a week before hermother. Two other girls died in 1808 and were left in English graves.Luckily for our soldier, Thomas, his father William was one of thesurviving children who came from England. He settled in St. Chrysostome,Quebec, and married a local girl, Emily Lurett. They had 14 children,one of whom was Thomas who was living in Ellenburg, about 20 miles southof St. Chrysostome when he enlisted for a town bounty of \$25.The newly-formed 153rd Infantry was looking for men to fill theirranks in the late summer of 1862, and the recruiter, Thomas Armstrong,persuaded 31 men from the Ellenburg area to join the regiment. ThomasCreaser was one of them.The regiment left New York on October 18, 1862 and spent the first yearand a half of their service as provost guards on both sides of the riveraround the capital. Starting in March 1864, they spent three months inLouisiana on the Red River Campaign and then returned to the easterntheater until the end of October fighting General Jubal Early. Duty inWashington about 75 miles to the east followed and then, at the end ofMay 1865, they sailed to Savannah for more provost guard duty. By thistime Thomas had been promoted to sergeant.Thomas returned home and the 1870 Census shows that he was in farming inEllenburg with a wife and a couple of children. The family farmed inGratiot County, MI, from 1873 to 1881. When his mother died there inFulton, MI, the family moved 900 miles west to South Dakota to continuefarming.Thomas died in Langford, in the northeast corner of South Dakota, in1914 and was buried in the Mount Hope Cemetery in Watertown, SD. Hiswife, Olivia Gorham, joined him there in 1918.
