For more information about the history of Carlisle 
 visit the Carlisle Area Historical Society website.

FIRST SETTLEMENT

   Dudley, the original settlement in the Carlisle area was located at Keokuk’s Bend on the Des Moines River.  Founded by John Griffin, the Assistant Surgeon of the Fort Des Moines Dragoons and laid out by Jeremiah Church in February, 1846 even before the City of Fort Des Moines was first laid out in July, 1846, Dudley was destroyed by the great flood of 1851.  That same year the settlement was relocated to its present site and laid out by Jeremiah Church on the Daniel Moore homestead.  The original plat was the area between Garfield Street and Fourth Street from School Street on the south to Elm Street on the north.  It was renamed Carlisle, after the city of the same name in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.

THE RAILROAD

   During the 1860’s the Iowa and Minnesota Railroad acquired right of way for a planned railroad line from Des Moines to the state line in the direction of Kansas City.  The right of way was transferred to the Des Moines, Indianola and Missouri Railroad Company which constructed a line from Des Moines through Carlisle to Indianola in 1871 and added a branch to Winterset in 1872.  These lines were consolidated into the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway Company in 1880.

   In 1912-13 the Saint Paul and Kansas City Short Line Railroad Company established the short line junction at Dean Avenue and SE 18^th Street in Des Moines and constructed a line from Carlisle via Hartford and Beech to Allerton, Iowa which by 1930 had finally been extended to Kansas City.  It was leased to the Rock Island and eventually consolidated into the Rock Island system in 1948.  The Winterset branch was abandoned in 1958 and although the Indianola branch was abandoned in 1998, it was successfully rail-banked and converted into the Summerset bicycle/pedestrian trail.  The Rock Island went bankrupt in 1979 and the Chicago and North Western Railroad acquired Saint Paul to Kansas City main line.  The CNW merged with the Union Pacific Railroad in 1995.  The UP currently operates 12 to 15 trains daily through Carlisle and the line is now referred to as the “spine line” because it parallels the spine of the North American continent.

ORIGINAL DOWNTOWN

   Carlisle’s original downtown was located on Market Street between 1^st and 3^rd Street but with the coming of the railroad in 1871, it was moved to its present location on School Street between Garfield and 2^nd Street.  As the settlement began to grow the Bank of Carlisle was founded in 1895 and by the early 20^th 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 had been established.

FIRST INDUSTRY CLICK ON THUMBNAIL

   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 provided lumber and shingles for the original buildings at Fort Des Moines and operated into the 1870’s.  The Carlisle Grist Mill which later became the Nicholson Flouring Mill was established in 1856 and burned to the ground in the great fire of 1888.  

CARLISLE BRICK & TILE CLICK ON THUMBNAIL

   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 1960’s.  In the 1950’s the Heartland Coop grain elevator and the General Mills flour mill and packaged foods plant were established at Avon. 
(See Carlisle Today)

HISTORY & MEMORIES OF NORTH PARK CLICK ON THUMBNAIL

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