John L. McCreery

John L. McCreery’s fame as an author rests on a single poem, “There is No Death,” which was written in the Spring of 1863, reprinted in newspapers across the U.S., and set to music by several composers. Amidst the carnage of the Civil War, it’s not hard to imagine why this poem would become such a sentimental favorite.

Born in rural New York State, McCreery was the son of a poor Methodist minister. He had little formal schooling. At age 17, he was apprenticed to a printer in Illinois, and at age 21, he became an editor of the Dubuque Times in Iowa. He moved to DC in 1878 to take a job as a clerk in the Department of the Interior, and stayed for the remainder of his life.

McCreery is the author of a single book of poems, Songs of Toil and Triumph (1883). He died of complications from appendicitis at age 71 and is buried in Glenwood Cemetery. An obituary in the Washington Evening Star called him “a ready speaker and gifted with a fund of wit and humor.” This was his final residence.