Towne Carlisle
Towne Carlisle, a retired lumber dealer of Yellow Springs, where he has made his home since the days of his young manhood, was born on a farm, not far from Yellow Springs, in Miami township, March 26, 1855, a son of John and Hettie (Batchelor) Carlisle, residents of that township, whose last days were spent at Yellow Springs.
Jehu Carlisle was a Virginian, born in Loudoun county, in 1816, and was twenty years of age when he came to Ohio in 1836 and located in Miami township, in this county, where he presently married and established himself on a farm. When he settled there Yellow Springs was known only as the scene of the medicinal springs which formerly attracted much attention. He helped to erect the first building put up there, the old Methodist Episcopal church, which stood until in the late '90s at the corner of Corry and Dayton streets. John Carlisle was an earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He was a Democrat. Upon his retirement he continued to live on the farm and was eighty-three years of age at the time of his death. His widow died on April 26, 1909. She was born on what is now the site of the Old Folks Home at Yellow Springs, March 26, 1816, a daughter of Robert Batchelor and wife, who came here from Pennsylvania and were among the first settlers in the neighborhood of the springs, where later the thriving little city sprang up. To John Carlisle and wife were born nine children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the eighth in order of birth. As most of these children lived to rear families of their own, the Carlisle connection hereabout is a quite numerous one in this generation.
Towne Carlisle grew up on the home farm in the neighborhood of Yellow Springs and received his schooling in the village schools. Upon attaining his majority he left the farm and became employed as a carringe-maker in the shop of T. B. Jobe. Three or four years later he became associated with J. H. Little in the lumber business at Yellow Springs, a partnership that was maintained until 1890, when Mr. Carlisle became the sole proprietor of the business, which by that time had been developed to profitable proportions. For nearly twenty-five years thereafter Mr. Carlisle continued in the lumber business at Yellow Springs. In February, 1914, he sold his old-established plant to the John DeWein Company and retired from business. In 1912 Mr. Carlisle built a fine new house on Glenn street, the street on which he had made his home for thirty years. It is believed that Mr. Carlisle holds the state record for continuous service as a member of a local school board, and unless someone else comes forward with a better established claim his friends will continue to claim for him that honor. For thirty consecutive years Mr. Carlisle has been a member of the school board at Yellow Springs, never having had any opposition to successive re-election. In 1889 he was elected township clerk and by successive re-elections has also since continued to hold that office.
Mr. Carlisle has been twice married. In 1876 he was united in marriage to Catherine Howard, who was born on a farm in Xenia township, daughter of John Howard and wife, and to that union was born one child, a son, Howard T. Carlisle, who was for years associated with his father in the lumber business and is still living in Yellow Springs. Mrs. Catherine Carlisle died in 1878 and on October 13, 1881, Mr. Carlisle married Martha Van Horn, who was born at Cedarville, July 13, 1855, daughter of Edward Van Horn and wife, the former of whom, a lumber contractor at Cedarville, died in 1900, and to this union four children have been born, namely: Edna, who died at the age of five years; Edward J., now living at Yellow Springs, who on August 18, 1913, married Helen Frank and has two children, Phyllis, born on January 24, 1916, and Edward, Jr., January 7, 1918: and Mildred and Hazel, twins, the former of whom died on June 19, 1916. Mr. Carlisle is a Republican, a Methodist, and is affiliated with the local lodges of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A. Broadstone, editor. B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918