Linotype machine
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.