[1] Creath played in traveling circuses and in theater bands in the decade of the 1900s, and moved back to St. Louis, Missouri around 1919.
There he led bands playing on the Streckfus company's riverboats traveling on the Mississippi River between New Orleans and St. Louis.
A young Gene Sedric, later a mainstay of Fats Waller's combo and orchestra, played with Creath on riverboats in the 1920s, and perhaps early 1930s.
[citation needed] Late in the 1920s he suffered from an extended illness, and primarily played saxophone and accordion instead of trumpet afterwards.
[citation needed] Aside from his brother-in-law, Zutty Singleton, members of Creath's bands included Ed Allen, Pops Foster, Jerome Don Pasquall, Leonard Davis, and Lonnie Johnson.