John Givens Craddock was born in Harrison County, Kentucky near the Bourbon County line. He was educated for a medical career but his education was cut short by his participation in the Mexican War. Upon his return to Paris, he began his journalism career by establishing a paper called the Kentucky State Flag which was discontinued at the commencement of the Civil War, and the Paris True Kentuckian, begun in 1866. He purchased the Western Citizen and merged the two papers under the name The Kentuckian-Citizen. A biographer described Col. Craddock as “known all the United States for his eccentricity and his friends were legion.”