Carved in Stone: Who was George Creed?

George Creed was born 27 May, 1829 on the family farm at South Rawdon, in Hants County, Nova Scotia. He worked as a farmer, storekeeper and eventually Postmaster in South Rawdon. The Creed family had emigrated from Faversham, England and his grandfather, Richard Creed, was a clerk with the Royal Engineers and had been involved in construction work at the Halifax Citadel.

He travelled extensively in the Maritimes and was very interested in the Mi'kmaq. Reading of the discovery of strange etchings in the rocks along rivers and lakeshores in Queens County, in James More's History of Queens County, Creed travelled to see the petroglyphs in 1881. He returned to Kejimkujik and made his first tracings there and at McGowan Lake in 1887. The following year, assisted by his wife and two nephews, he was able to stay longer making tracings of several hundred petroglyphs.

"Accompanied by my wife as tent-keeper and matron, and my two nephews, Messrs. Frank S. Creed, of Fredericton, N.B., and Geo. W. Davison, of Newport, Queens, as assistants, I camped on the shore of Kejimkoojic (sic), on June 23. From that date until July 28 we worked assiduously at examining, tracing and copying whenever the favourable weather would permit. At the close of five weeks under canvas, the water having risen so as to prevent further progress, we resolved to abandon the work on Saturday, 28th July,..."

From a talk given by Creed, and quoted in the Halifax Morning Chronicle, 14 November 1888.

In 1888, Creed deposited a set of his tracings in the office of the Provincial Secretary. They were transferred to the Provincial Museum of Nova Scotia in 1910. A second set was given by Creed to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.

George Creed died in 1899 and was buried in the graveyard on his farm, "Clifford Farm", in South Rawdon. A detailed history of the Creed Family can be found here at Ruth Davison's Genealogy pages.