From "HISTORY OF THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY,"  Vol. I, pages 687-689.
Brant & Fuller, 1890. 

HANSON CRISWELL

Capt. Hanson Criswell, of Moundsville, prominent as a lawyer and as a 
politician, was born in Marshall county, December 19, 1834.  He is a 
son of George Criswell, a native of Ohio, who was a son of Enoch and 
Anna (McIlvaine) Criswell, the former a native of Scotland, and the 
latter of Ireland.  George Criswell married Mary Miller, a well-
educated lady, who taught her sturdy pioneer husband to read and 
write.  He served in the office of constable, justice, county 
coroner, and was at one time mayor of Bellaire, for ten or twelve 
years.  His wife died March 25, 1852, at the age of thirty-seven 
years, he died June 5, 1889, aged seventy-five years.  Capt. 
Criswell's first occupation was teaching, which he began at the age 
of sixteen in the schools of Belmont and Jefferson counties, Ohio, 
and Marshall county, Va., and continued for ten years.  He then read 
law in the office of W. H. Oldham, of Moundsville.  He was admitted 
to the bar in October, 1860, but the war breaking out, he enlisted in 
August, 1861, in Company E, of the Seventy-seventh Ohio volunteer 
infantry, as a private, and was in a few months after enlistment 
promoted first lieutenant.   He was taken prisoner by the 
confederates on the third day of the battle of Pittsburgh Landing, at 
a place called the Fallen Timbers, and in January, 1863, returned to 
his regiment after being exchanged.  He served until June 20, 1863, 
when he was notified of his election as prosecuting attorney of 
Marshall county, and on submitting his acceptance or declination to a 
"toss up," it was decided that he become the first prosecutor of the 
county as a part of the new state.  As such he served four 
consecutive terms.  He was, however, again in the military service, 
raising in three days, in February, 1865, Company G, of the 
Seventeenth regiment, which was quartered at Wheeling, and of this he 
served as captain until the collapse of the confederacy.  He has 
since then devoted himself to the practice of law, attaining wide 
fame as a strong and effective attorney.  From 1871 until 1885 he 
served as an attorney of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad company.  
Capt. Criswell has been prominent as a republican, has been a 
delegate to every republican state convention since the organization 
of the state, and for several years was chairman of the county 
republican executive committee.  In 1871 he was elected a member of 
the state constitutional convention at Charleston.  In January, 1876, 
he was elected as the member for West Virginia on the national 
republican executive committee for four years.  He has served as 
mayor of Moundsville six years, and as member of the school board of 
school commissioners for the Moundsville independent school district.  
He and wife are members of the Disciples church, and have been for 
about forty years.  He is affiliated with the Knights of Honor and 
Knights of Pythias.  Capt. Criswell was married in the fall of 1854, 
to Theresa, daughter of Adam and Mary A. (Wheatly) Long, and they 
have nine children as fruits of their marriage:  Everett H., a 
justice of the peace at Moundsville; Newton C., attorney at law at 
Wheeling; Benjamin F., a manufacturer of Wheeling; Hanson, Jr., a 
resident of the west, who has a national reputation as a humorist and 
cartoonist; Mary M., widow of Nathaniel Duffield; Charles M., in the 
employ of the B. & O. railroad; E. M. Stanton, Alice and Lillian B., 
the latter three of whom are minors, and stil reside with their 
parents at their elegant homestead mansion, at the camp ground 
junction, on the B. & O. R.R., near the town which all passers 
recognize as a model of beauty, on account of its natural and 
artificial attractions.

(Linda Fluharty)