William Criswell was born in July 1847 in Maryland to Nicholas and Mary Criswell. His father was a farmer and railroad engineer who owned $200 of personal property by 1860. The family lived in Howard, Maryland, until the 1850s, when they moved to Barnesville, Ohio. His mother died in the early 1850s.
He married Orissa Jane Ritchie in 1872, and they had at least three children: Emma, born around 1873; Frank, born around 1878; and Bernice, born around 1890. They lived in Columbus, Ohio, and Criswell worked as a railroad clerk. His wife died in the 1910s. By 1930, he was living in his daughter Bernice’s household in Columbus. He died there on June 2, 1930.