************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm
************************************************


JOHN T. CRISWELL, ex-justice of the peace, who has been 
successfully engaged in the general mercantile business at 
Bellwood since 1885, and is now a notary public at that 
place, is a son of Joseph and Bridget (McIntyre) Criswell, 
and was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, June 16, 1835. 
His paternal great-grandfather, George Criswell, was a 
native of Ireland, and settled, during the latter part of 
the eighteenth century, in Delaware county, where he passed 
the last years of his life. His son, Thomas Criswell 
(grandfather), was born in Delaware, and settled in Chester 
county, where he died at the ripe old age of ninety-eight 
years. Of his sons, Joseph Criswell (father) was born in 
1809, near Fog Manor Presbyterian church, in Fallowfield 
township, Chester county, where he died in 1841. He was a 
tailor by trade, an old-line whig in politics, and a 
Presbyterian in church membership. He married Bridget 
McIntyre, a daughter of John McIntyre, of Chester county, 
and to them were born four children, two sons and two 
daughters: James A., a pattern maker of Philadelphia; Mary 
E., wife of Andrew A. Best, of near Philadelphia; John T.; 
and Lucinda Ann, who married William Kelley, of New London, 
Chester county, and died about 1883. Mrs. Criswell, who was 
born in 1793, survived her husband until July 5, 1879, when 
she was killed in a windstorm at Mifflintown, Juniata 
county. John T. Criswell spent his boyhood days in his 
native township, received his education in the common 
schools, and learned the trade of wagon maker, in Lancaster 
county, with Joseph B. Davis, and cast his first vote for 
Fremont in 1856. At the end of his four years' 
apprenticeship, in 1860, he engaged in the wagon making 
business at McCalisterville, Juniata county, for himself, 
which he followed until 1861, when he turned his attention 
to carpentering, and followed it until September 16, 1861. 
On that day he enlisted as a private in Co. D, 151st 
Pennsylvania infantry, and served until August 7, 1863, when 
he was honorably discharged from the Union service. He 
participated in the battles of Fairfax Courthouse, Second 
Bull Run, and Gettysburg, where he received two slight flesh 
wounds. Returning home from the army, he went to the oil 
regions of western Pennsylvania, where he followed his trade 
until 1864. Four years previous to quitting work in the oil 
regions he moved to Bellwood, where, on March 22, 1885, he 
embarked in his present general mercantile business, and 
then was elected justice of the peace. In 1858, Mr. Criswell 
married Elizabeth Geyer, who died in 1866, and left four 
children: Jackson H., now dead; Lucinda, deceased; Andrew 
A., who married Ann Thompson, and resides at Mifflintown, 
this State; Mary E., wife of Lewis Myers, of Bellwood, a 
conductor on the Pennsylvania & Northwestern railroad, and 
who is the father of four children. Mr. Criswell married for 
his second wife Katie Wilt, of Greenwood Township, Juniata 
county, by whom he had four children: George W.; Elizabeth, 
wife of John Patterson, of Perry county, who is a teacher in 
the common schools; Carrie A., of Thompsontown, Juniata 
county, this State; and Roxie R., now dead. Mrs. Katie 
Criswell passed away in 1879, and on September 30, 1881, he 
united in marriage with Mrs. Rachel (Estep) Ross, a native 
of Petersburg, Huntingdon county. Her grandfather was 
William Estep, who was born in Traugh Creek valley, 
Huntingdon county, and her father, Elijah, who was born in 
the same county, had a family of seven sons and four 
daughters, of whom two daughters and five sons are living. 
The sons, John, George, William, Elijah, and Thomas, are all 
good mechanics and blacksmiths. John has retired from active 
life, and they are all good citizens and stanch republicans. 
In politics Mr. Criswell is a republican, and has held 
various local offices. He was elected as a justice of the 
peace in 1886, and since the close of his term, in 1890, has 
been serving as a notary public. He is a member of Sandford 
Beyer Post, No. 426, Grand Army of the Republic, and has 
held membership for thirty-six years in Lodge No. 819, 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mr. Criswell has been 
successful in his mercantile business, and is highly 
respected as a man and a citizen. Transcribed and submitted 
to the Blair USGenWeb Archives by Linda Black Shillinger  
LindasTree@AOL.COM