Biography
Criswell was born on October 12, 1861, in Rushville, Illinois, to Edmund L. Criswell and the former Susan Catherine Wright. When he was fourteen, he worked in a print shop and became a Linotype machine operator. He joined the International Typographical Union in 1895 and managed the Johnstown News in Johnstown, Nebraska, and founded the Northwestern County Gazette in 1886 in Kansas.
Criswell was married in December 1885 in Tecumseh, Nebraska, to May Greene of Petersburg, Illinois, and after they moved to California in 1897 they lived in Santa Paula for a year, then settled at 529 West 41st Place, Los Angeles. He was employed by the Los Angeles Herald and then the Los Angeles Examiner in 1903, when it was founded. He was a City Council member from 1917 to 1927 and then was hired by the Water and Power commissioners as a "special Colorado River agent." He was a Methodist. Criswell died in his home, 4728 Whitewood Avenue, Lakewood Village, Long Beach, on November 17, 1947, and was buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery. He was survived by a son, Ralph Greene Criswell.
Read more about this topic: Ralph Luther Criswell
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