James Work McCreery came of Scotch-Irish ancestry. His grandfather, William McCreery, emigrated to America in 1793 from County Donegal, Ireland. James was born in Indiana County, Pennsylvania. He was the son of William G. and Mary (Work) McCreery, and was reared on his father's farm.
McCreery attended public school and graduated from the State Normal School at Indiana in 1877. After teaching for a time he took up the study of law in the offices of Judge Silas M. Clark and George Shiras, Jr. , in Pittsburgh and was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1880.
Feeling that the West afforded good opportunities for a legal career, he went to Colorado in 1881 and settled in Greeley. The country was agricultural, the farming was done on irrigated lands, and the young lawyer's chief practice had to do with water rights. Many phases of irrigation law had not as yet received definite formulation and McCreery came to be an important influence in working out and establishing sound principles of law regarding the new questions that arose. He became an authority in this branch of law, writing several papers on the subject and lecturing on irrigation law at the University of Colorado (1905 - 23). He also contributed the section on "Irrigation and Water Rights" to Volume VI of Modern American Law, edited by E. A. Gilmore and W. C. Wermuth. His specialized practice, devoted to waterrights cases, brought him before the courts of several western states and before the Supreme Court of the United States. McCreery was active in political life and was twice elected to the state Senate on the Republican ticket (1888 and 1896). During the World War he worked effectively for the various welfare organizations and for the conservation of resources. Until a few months before his death he remained active in his law practice.
During his eight years in the legislature, he was a leader in matters relating to farm interests, finance, and especially to water rights. He was the author and the chief force in effecting the enactment of the bill which created the State Normal School (later the State Teachers' College of Colorado) at Greeley. From 1891 to 1897 he was on the board of trustees of this institution and served for four years (1893 - 97) as president of the board. In 1907-08 he was president of the Colorado Bar Association. In addition to his legal practice he developed and operated large farming properties east of Greeley.
By nature conservative, he was not a champion of pure democracy but emphasized the constitutional safeguards to the rights of minorities and to individual liberty.
Temperamentally, McCreery was an advocate rather than a judge; his inherited persistency made him loath to yield a point.
He had married, on August 27, 1883, Mary M. Arbuckle of Greeley. They had four children.
4 July 1821 - 4 August 1912
8 July 1824 - 27 August 1860
1856 - 12 May 1889
20 July 1851 - 15 June 1917
25 June 1854 - 16 May 1931
29 January 1852 - 18 August 1928
27 March 1892 - 8 June 1971
1889 - 7 Jan 1921
1882 - 5 February 1890
4 January 1885 - 12 February 1971
15 May 1886 - 27 January 1962
