Carlisle History

Founding
Carlisle was settled after Dudley, an earlier settlement in the Carlisle area on the Des Moines River, was destroyed by a flood in 1851. Carlisle was surveyed by James Laverty for Jeremiah Church and Daniel Moore on the Moore homestead. The original town plat was the area bounded by School Street (then called South Street) on the south, Garfield Street (then called East Street) on the east, Elm Street (then called North Street) on the north and Fourth Street on the west. The town was named after the city of the same name in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.

Early Business
Carlisle's original downtown was located on Market Street between First and Third Streets, but with the coming of the railroad in 1871 it was moved to its present location along School and First Streets. As the settlement began to grow the Bank of Carlisle was founded in 1895 and by the early 20th century, general stores, drugstores, hardware stores, livery stables, a hotel, a bakery, a barber shop, a doctor's office, a harness shop, a blacksmith shop and other businesses.

Early Industry
The first industry in the area was the Parmelee Lumber and Flour Mill which was built in 1843 at the foot of Watts Hill on the Middle River just east of Carlisle. This mill operated into the 1870s and provided lumber and shingles for the original buildings at Fort Des Moines. The Keeney Hoover mill was established near the original highway ford on the North River in the 1840s. The Carlisle Grist Mill, which later became the Nicholson Flouring Mill, was established in 1856 just east of downtown. The Nicholson Mill burned to the ground in the great fire of 1888. In the 1950s the Heartland Coop grain elevator and the General Mills flour mill and packaged foods plant were established at Avon and later annexed into Carlisle.

Another major industry took advantage of the clay deposits along the North River. McKissick Brick and Tile operated on the west side of the tracks from 1908 to 1930 and Carlisle Brick and Tile operated on the east side of the tracks from 1936 into the 1960s.

Modified from information contained at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlisle,_IA.

22 CAHS news item(s) contain the name Carlisle: