Prior to European settlement of the Miami Valley region, the Miami people existed in the area where Carlisle exists currently. The Miami people migrated from Indiana at the beginning of the 18th century, overtaking the lands once occupied by the long-extinct Mound Building cultures of prehistoric Warren County. The Miami people were driven out of southwest Ohio at the beginning of the 19th century.
Carlisle’s land was surveyed and sold under the Congress Lands West of the Great Miami. This is unique as most of Warren County is either surveyed as the Symes Purchase or the Virginia Military Survey. An additional jurisdictional difference is that the land now known as Carlisle was once a part of Butler County, however, in 1815 a border adjustment by the State Assembly added Carlisle to Warren County and created a new county known as Clinton County.
While Franklin Township was settled by 1795 and incorporated by 1804, the first settlers in the area known today as Carlisle settled in the springs of 1804 and 1805. Arthur Vanderveer led a small group of families from the State of New Jersey. While initially not incorporated nor, having had a Post Office, the area was colloquially known as the Jersey Settlement for the first half of the 19th century. A Presbyterian Church was erected by 1813, creating a focal point for the Jersey Settlement.
By mid-century, railroads began to dominate American life and came to the Jersey Settlement in 1848. The Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton Railroad (CH&D R.R.) laid tracks downhill from the Church, establishing a Station nearby due to its location between Franklin and Germantown. With the existing area’s colloquial name being insufficient, the name “Carlisle Station” was given to the new station. The name was taken from Cincinnati- based CH&D R.R. Executive George Carlisle, who not only had a major stake in the CH&D R.R. but also owned nearby land that he later platted and sold. The Plat, being laid out in 1856 and is currently known as “George Carlisle Plat”. On this plat and in the same year, a community building was erected, which today acts as a portion of the existing Municipal Building.
In the latter part of the century the name Carlisle’s Station was shortened to Carlisle, the moniker the current City takes today. This was reflected when the area’s Post Office was renamed in 1882. By the early 1930s passenger service was discontinued to Carlisle and CH&D R.R. merged into the Baltimore and Ohio System, and later became the CSX System. While passenger service has not returned, freight traffic nonetheless has remained steady and serves as a major asset for the City’s economy. By mid-20th century the once rail-oriented settlement had become a bedroom community for automobile commuters into the Dayton and to a lesser extent, Cincinnati metropolitan areas. In 1956 the community was incorporated as a Village and by 1986 established a home rule charter. The Post Office closed in 1961, with the City’s mail processed at the Post Office in Franklin with the 45005 Zip Code. By 2001, the Village reached the threshold of City status, back to Village status in 2011 and regained City status in 2021.