TX BIOS:  W. H. Criswell
   Selected and converted.American Memory, Library of Congress.
   
   Washington, 1994.
   
   Preceding element provides place and date of transcription only.
   
   This transcription intended to be 99.95% accurate.
   
   For more information about this text and this American Memory
   collection, refer to accompanying matter.
   
   U.S. Work Projects Administration, Federal Writers' Project (Folklore
   Project, Life Histories, 1936-39); Manuscript Division, Library of
   Congress.Copyright status not determined.
   
   00011
   
   Folkstuff - Life History FOLKWAYS
   
   Lettie DeGraffenreid
   
   McLennan County
   
   District #8 Pioneer History
   
   no. of words 300
   
   file no. 240
   
   page 1 W. H. CRISWELL, early pioneer of Central Texas.
   
   REFERENCE: Sketch written by Mrs. W. H. Schneider, daughter.
   
   W. H. Criswell was born June 27, 1850 in Falls county, and lived all
   of his life in this and McLennan County. When a young man, he taught
   school in Falls Co., and the school now located on the same site bears
   his name. He was married on Nov. 25, 1875 to Miss Clarotte Wilder.
   
   Mr. Criswell was the first pioneer in the town of Mart. Coming with
   his young wife to this locality just one year after his marriage, he
   built a little log house on the prairie only a few feet from where the
   Criswell home now stands. The logs, of which his cabin was made, were
   cut and [hewn?] by his own hands. Here amid the wild flowers of the
   prairie, he and his young wife worked and saved until a few years
   later a better home [DEL: wa :DEL] was built. Day after day he would
   be away in the field from sun-up until sun-down and the only thing to
   break the silence for the girl wife would be the howl of the wolk or
   [?] or occasionally to prepare a meal for some tired cattleman who
   would come that way.
   
   In 1877, a tiny baby boy came ti fill their lives to over-flowing.
   Just a year before a baby girl had come into their home only long
   enough to give them the joy of parent-hood, dying and leaving their
   hearts desolate. Their little son was the first white child to be born
   in Mart. Later, three other baby girls were added to the family, one
   of which joined the first-born in death, at the age of one year. The
   boy and girls grew into manhood and womanhood, and lived in the same
   block with their parents, until the death of the father.
   
   In 1901, the present railroad town was built on Mr. Criswell's farm.
   The business part of town was laid out in a field of corn. One of the
   streets
   
     NOTE: C12 2/11/41 Texas
     
   00022FOLKWAYS
   
   Lottie DeGraffenreid
   
   McLennan County
   
   District #8
   
   file no. 240
   
   page 2
   
   of the town bears his name. He was offered the honor of being the
   town's first mayor, but being of a ritiring nature, he declined this
   offer. Mr. Criswell was a good citizen, a considerate neighbor and a
   true friend. Fearless in his convictions, he was true to his
   conscience regardless of consequences. A man of positive character,
   yet one of the tenderest and most affectionate of husbands and
   fathers. His aim in life was to lend a helping hand to one in need. He
   cared for two young men (perfect strangers) one having lost an arm in
   a gin, the other contracting typhoid fever within a week after he had
   been hired to work on the farm. He and his wife nursed them both back
   to health, without expecting or receiving remuneration.
   
   He lived in a "House by the Side of the Road", and was a ffriend to
   man, this poem by S. W. Foss was found among many others in his card
   case after his death, which occured on September 21, 1917.

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