Carlisle Station Depot / Schenck-Stanton Rally, October 3, 1868

Side A: Carlisle Station Depot. The Carlisle depot for the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton (CH&D) railroad was located nearby. The CH&D started operations in 1851 and was the second railroad through Warren County. Carlisle Station was a passenger and freight-shipping depot and was joined in 1872 by another, when Cincinnati & Springfield Railroad (later part of the Big Four and the New York Central Railroads) erected a depot in nearby Franklin. Carlisle was originally known as the “Jersey Settlement,” because many settlers in the early 1800s were from New Jersey. George Carlisle, vice-president of the CH&D, purchased a large tract of land here. After Carlisle and his wife Sarah donated a lot to the community in 1856, residents renamed the place “Carlisle Station.” The Carlisle Literary Association built a hall on the lot c. 1856, which, as of 2019, remains as the older section of Carlisle’s municipal building. Side B: Schenck-Stanton Rally, October 3, 1868. Side B: Franklin native General Robert C. Schenck was campaigning for reelection to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1868 to represent Ohio’s Third Congressional District. In what one account called a “beautiful grove” near Carlisle, Republicans held a large campaign rally. The featured speaker was Edwin M. Stanton, formerly Secretary of War under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. The Schenck-Stanton delegation arrived at Carlisle by train from Dayton and processed to the rally site. According to the Lebanon Western Star, “[s]ix brass bands, besides fifes and drums uncounted, artillery companies, delegations of mounted men and Boys in Blue, made it a demonstrative occasion.” Local Republican newspapers estimated that as many as 40,000 attended, while Democratic papers placed the number at 2,000-3,000. Schenck won the election, defeating Dayton’s Clement Vallandigham, a leader of the Peace Democrats or “Copperheads” during the Civil War.