Br. Alpinian

Joachim Creamer was born in 1838 in Michelbach, Germany. He emigrated to the United States and at age twenty-three he entered the Novitiate at Second Street in New York City in 1861, where he received the habit of the Brothers and the religious name of Brother Alpinian. His necrological notice says that "he was employed at Baltimore, Ellicott's Mill, Philadelphia, Quito, South America, Troy, Berkskill, Feehanville and Westchester." He usually was employed as a mechanic, a prefect or infirmarian. He came to Glencoe, Missouri, where he designed and built the Grotto of Lourdes at La Salle Institute. After returning from his annual retreat in St. Louis he fell victim to cholera and died within three days. He was fifty-four years old and had been a De La Salle Christian Brother for thirty-one years.